Headroom

Headroom cuts Claude Code token costs by ~50%

Headroom is a menu bar app that quietly optimizes the inputs Claude Code gets by trimming prompt bloat, stripping boilerplate, and compressing documents without changing how you work.
This unlocks about 2x as much Claude Code usage on the Claude plan you already pay for.

Download for free

macOS

Privacy first

Your prompts never touch our servers — everything runs locally on your machine.

Self-contained

Keeps your runtime clean, never interfering with packages your projects depend on.

Fewer tokens, same result

Smart optimization cuts noise before Claude Code sees it, with no impact on the output.

How it works

Less noise in, more Claude out

Headroom intercepts every prompt before it reaches Claude, strips out logs, boilerplate, and repetitive content, then forwards only what the model needs — cutting your token spend by ~50% without impacting output quality.

8.1B
tokens saved by users, and counting
Headroom savings dashboard
Headroom optimization view
Headroom onboarding screen

Benchmarks

Same results, fewer tokens

Headroom compresses aggressively — but without throwing anything away. Real workloads, real results, measured before and after.

Token savings by scenario

Build log (200 lines) 93.9% saved
148 remaining 2,264 tokens saved
JSON array (100 items) 90.6% saved
297 remaining 2,866 tokens saved
Shell output (200 lines) 85.5% saved
469 remaining 2,769 tokens saved
JSON array (500 items) 83.1% saved
1,614 remaining 7,912 tokens saved
Multi-tool agent (memory leak investigation) 61% saved
6,100 remaining 9,562 tokens saved
Headroom powered savings
Tokens sent after optimization

Quality preserved

Fewer tokens doesn't mean fewer answers. Headroom strips noise — not signal. Every benchmark below ran the same task with and without compression, then compared the outputs.

0.919
HTML extraction F1
181 real web pages (Scrapinghub)
4/4
JSON retrieval
needle-in-haystack, 100 prod logs
+0.02 F1
QA accuracy vs. uncompressed baseline
Stripping HTML noise helped the model focus on relevant content — compression improved results on SQuAD v2 / HotpotQA (+2% exact match).
0%
HTML recall
181 real web pages (Scrapinghub)
Same
Multi-tool agent findings
4-tool session, memory leak task — identical conclusions at 61% fewer tokens

Based on data from the open-source Headroom CLI benchmark suite.

ROI Calculator

See what Headroom saves your team

Headroom costs a fraction of your Claude subscription and delivers roughly twice the usage.

Engineers using Claude Code 10
151025501002505001000
$1,000
Monthly Claude spend
$120
Headroom cost / mo
Equivalent extra capacity
$1,000/mo
8× return on Headroom spend — based on ~2× token efficiency from Headroom.

Pricing

Plans for every Claude tier

Create a Headroom account to unlock your 14-day trial, then choose the plan that matches your Claude tier. Need rollout controls or private deployment? Talk to us about Headroom for teams.

🎉 50% off all paid plans — launch promotion

Free

Limited usage with Claude

$0 / month
free

Includes:

  • Unlock cost savings and stats
  • Up to 25% of your weekly limit
  • Optimize Claude Code practices

Pro

Unlock unlimited savings

$5 50% off
$2.50 USD / month
billed annually
$7.50 50% off
$3.75 USD / month
billed monthly

Everything in Free, plus:

  • Unlimited use with Claude Pro
  • Track sessions across devices
  • Email-based support

Max x5

For Claude Max x5 accounts

$20 50% off
$10 USD / month
billed annually
$30 50% off
$15 USD / month
billed monthly

Includes:

  • Use with Claude Max x5
  • Track sessions across devices
  • Email-based support

Max x20

For Claude Max x20 accounts

$40 50% off
$20 USD / month
billed annually
$60 50% off
$30 USD / month
billed monthly

Includes:

  • Use with Claude Max x20
  • Track sessions across devices
  • Priority support

Team & Enterprise

Shared controls, governance, and private deployment options

custom • contact us

Built on Headroom CLI

Headroom for desktop is built on Headroom CLI.

The Headroom desktop app is based on the open-source Headroom CLI project created by Tejas Chopra.
The desktop app is created with the endorsement and support of Tejas.

Resources

Learn how to lower Claude Code costs

Guides on reducing Claude Code costs, understanding usage limits, and cutting Claude API spend — plus a product FAQ for privacy, quality, and rollout questions.

Cost Guide

How to reduce Claude Code costs

Learn where token waste comes from, which workflows benefit most from compression, and how Headroom helps preserve quality while cutting spend.

Usage Guide

Claude Code usage: what counts and how to get more from your plan

Learn what burns usage fastest, what counts toward your plan, and how to make the same Claude tier last longer.

Why So Expensive

Why is Claude Code so expensive?

The four patterns that drive Claude Code token spend: verbose tool output, repeated context, multi-step debugging, and large codebase reads.

Usage Limits

Claude Code usage limits and the 5-hour window

How the 5-hour rolling window and weekly cap work, what each plan covers, and how to keep coding without immediately upgrading.

Claude API

Reduce Claude API costs in 2026

Practical levers for cutting Claude API spend — prompt caching, model tier routing, output limits, batch API — plus the Claude Code shortcut.

FAQ

Headroom FAQ for Claude Code savings

Get quick answers about local processing, supported platforms, benchmarks, and how to evaluate whether Headroom fits your team.

Ready to try it?

Start with Headroom for free

Install the app, connect your account, and start reclaiming Claude Code usage in minutes.

Download for free

macOS