Claude Code Usage and Cost Attribution

Summary

Claude Code ships a /usage command that reports session token counts and a locally-computed dollar estimate, and — on paid plans — breaks recent usage down by component (skills, subagents, plugins, individual MCP servers). The attribution is approximate, machine-local, and deliberately separated from authoritative billing. This page documents that feature set and why its shape (per-component attribution rather than one global total) is the relevant reference for yoyo issue #944, where spend in phases that never export YOYO_AUDIT is unattributable.

Key Points

• /usage shows a Session block: token counts by category plus a locally-computed dollar estimate, explicitly labelled as potentially different from the real bill. The authoritative source is the Console Usage page.
• On Pro/Max/Team/Enterprise, /usage also attributes recent usage to SKILLS, SUBAGENTS, PLUGINS and INDIVIDUAL MCP SERVERS, each as a percentage of total, toggleable between last 24 hours and last 7 days.
• The same breakdown appears in the VS Code extension Account & usage dialog (v2.1.174+).
• Attribution is approximate and computed from local session history on one machine. Other devices and claude.ai usage are excluded, and the tool says so.
• v2.1.211+: totals reset on /clear; before that they accumulated for the whole process lifetime.
• v2.1.239+: the 1.1× data-residency multiplier is applied to the session cost figure; earlier versions under-reported.
• Aug 2026: /cost became an alias for /usage — the two verbs were unified rather than keeping session-cost separate from quota.
• Relevance to #944: the gap is not a missing global total but missing per-phase attribution. Only scripts/evolve.sh exports YOYO_AUDIT=1 and YOYO_AUDIT_DIR; social.sh (~42 runs/wk), daily_diary.sh (4/day) and (3/day) leave no record, so their spend cannot be attributed by phase.