Comparison

MeterTab vs Model Pulse

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side โ€” with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

MeterTab

Features
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MeterTab puts your AI coding budget on your iPhone, Apple Watch, and Home Screen. See at a glance how much of your Claude, Codex, and Cursor budget you have left - before you hit a wall mid-task. WHY METERTAB AI coding assistants burn through 5-hour and weekly limits with no warning. MeterTab turns the usage the tools already log into a live budget you can plan around - synced from the MeterTab Mac app to your iPhone and Watch over your own private iCloud. WHAT YOU GET โ€ข Live budget - 5-hour and weekly usage with time-to-reset countdowns. โ€ข Answer your agents from anywhere - approve, deny, or pick an option when Claude Code asks, from your Mac, iPhone or Watch. โ€ข See what every session is doing - which worktrees are busy, the command in flight, and the agent's own task list. โ€ข iPhone & Apple Watch apps, Home Screen & Lock Screen widgets, and a Watch complication - your budget on every wrist and screen. โ€ข Multi-provider - Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor in one place. โ€ข Claude service status - on the main screen, in Settings, and on your widgets and complication, so an outage never looks like your budget running out. โ€ข Per-model cost breakdown - see exactly which models are spending your budget. โ€ข Activity heatmap + burn rate - spot your heaviest hours and how fast you are trending. โ€ข Every number carries its source - Claude's own figure, measured, or estimated - so you always know what you are reading. โ€ข Pay-as-you-go spend too - the API costs your Mac tracks from your own provider keys land here as well. โ€ข Speaks your language: English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Portuguese (Brazil) and Chinese (Simplified) - with figures formatted for your region. FOR AGENTS: A BUDGET THEY CAN TALK TO MeterTab's Mac app runs a local MCP server, so your own AI agents can ask "how much budget is left?" and throttle themselves - downshift to a cheaper model, or pause - instead of failing halfway through a job. Your iPhone and Watch keep that same budget in your pocket. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No backend. No account required. No data collected. Any keys you give the Mac app stay in its Keychain, on that Mac. Your usage never leaves your devices - iCloud sync uses your own private iCloud database and carries only counts. FREE & PRO Free: the live gauge, threshold notifications, and up to 4 providers. Pro (one-time purchase, covers Mac + iPhone + Watch via Universal Purchase, with a 14-day free trial): the MCP server your agents can query, billing-key exact-dollar spend tracking, iCloud sync, the heatmap, burn rate, unlimited providers, and the iPhone & Watch apps. A NOTE ON ACCURACY Anthropic does not publish exact token limits, so the 5-hour and weekly percentages are estimates: your Mac works them out from its Claude Code logs, and they can differ a few percent from Claude's own usage screen. Calibrating on the Mac anchors them and carries across to here. If you connect your Claude account there, your iPhone and Watch show the exact figures too - every number is tagged so you can tell at a glance which kind you are looking at. MeterTab is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Anthropic, OpenAI, or Cursor. Product names are used only to describe compatibility.

About

Model Pulse

Features
Read full description

Model Pulse puts your AI subscriptions and API spend on your iPhone Home Screen, so you always know how much runway you have left. HOME SCREEN WIDGETS - Small, medium, and large widgets - See 5-hour and weekly plan windows, monthly spend, and token burn at a glance - Bar, dot, or dash limit styles to match your setup SUBSCRIPTIONS - Track plan usage for ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and more - 5-hour and weekly rate-limit windows with reset times - Sign in securely โ€” tokens are stored in the iOS Keychain and never leave your device except to talk to the provider API SPEND - Month-to-date spend for OpenAI and Anthropic organization accounts - 24-hour token and request tracking - Optional monthly budgets to pace prepaid credits USAGE ALERTS - Optional notifications when a rate-limit window or API budget crosses thresholds you choose - Alerts keep working in the background โ€” no need to keep the app open YOUR DATA STAYS YOURS Model Pulse has no accounts, no analytics, and no tracking. Keys live in the iOS Keychain. Requests go straight from your device to the providers you connect โ€” there is no Model Pulse server.

Screenshots

MeterTab4 screens
Model Pulse4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Model Pulse at none against MeterTab's 1. On price, update cadence, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. MeterTab sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Model Pulse asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

MeterTab ships an update every 6 days, Model Pulse every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference ยท 5 level
MeterTab versus Model Pulse: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMeterTabModel Pulse
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 6 daysEvery 4 days โ€” better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo โ€” better
DevicesiPhone, Mac, Apple Watch โ€” betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.016.4 โ€” better
Further details โ€” not scored
Size19 MB46 MB
Age rating+44+
DeveloperPETER DONGOMICHAEL EDWARD POTTER

In-app purchases

1 purchases

MeterTab

One-time1
  • MeterTab Pro$19.99
None

Model Pulse

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is MeterTab free?
MeterTab is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Model Pulse free?
Model Pulse is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do MeterTab or Model Pulse have ads?
Neither MeterTab nor Model Pulse shows ads.
Which is updated more often, MeterTab or Model Pulse?
MeterTab ships an update every 6 days, and Model Pulse every 4 days. Most recently, MeterTab was updated on October 30, 2026 and Model Pulse on October 31, 2026.

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