Claude Code usage history is not something /usage keeps: the command shows the current session and, on paid plans, a look back over the last 24 hours or 7 days. For a record of past days, last month or longer, run UsageAtlas, a free, open-source desktop app that saves a daily record of your Claude Code tokens, requests, models and estimated cost while you work.
What Claude Code keeps on its own
Anthropic's cost docs describe /usage (also reachable as /cost and /stats) as the place for session cost, plan limits and activity stats. On Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans you can press d or w to switch the breakdown between the last 24 hours and the last 7 days. Those figures are approximate and come from session files on the machine you are using, so work on a laptop or in claude.ai does not show up on your desktop.
Two more details limit how far back you can look:
- Claude Code stores each conversation as a transcript under
~/.claude/projects/. - At startup it deletes transcripts older than the
cleanupPeriodDayssetting, which is 30 days by default.
So anything built on those files, including Claude Code's own /insights report, only reaches back as far as the transcripts that are still on disk.
How to see past usage in UsageAtlas
- Download UsageAtlas from usageatlas.com. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux and does not ask for an account to track locally.
- Let it pick up the Claude credentials already on your computer.
- Open History instead of Today.
- Pick a single day, a custom range or last month.
- Filter to Claude, or leave Codex, Cursor and the other tools you use in the total.
For the chosen span you get tokens, requests, the model mix and an estimated cost, along with which days carried the load. Because the app writes its own daily totals as you work, the record does not depend on old transcripts staying on disk. When you first install it, UsageAtlas can also read earlier local sessions if they are still on disk, though there may be gaps.
Where each history source fits
| Source | How far back | Best for |
|---|---|---|
/usage in Claude Code |
Current session, last 24 hours or 7 days | A quick check mid-session |
/insights |
Recent sessions still on this machine | How you work, not how much |
| UsageAtlas History | Every day it recorded, plus readable older sessions | Last month, trends, several tools at once |
| Anthropic billing pages | Your account | The actual bill |
Most developers end up using two of these: /usage while a session runs, and a longer history for the questions that come up at the end of a week or month. If you work on more than one computer, keep in mind that the built-in view only counts the machine you are sitting at, while a synced UsageAtlas account can restore the same history on a new one.
Spikes and habits
One expensive afternoon is noise. A month of late-evening peaks is a pattern. UsageAtlas shows time-of-day and weekday insights next to the daily view, so you can compare a bad day with your normal one before you change plans or move work to another model.
What history will not do
The cost column is an estimate built from tokens and models. Your invoice, usage-credit spend and plan changes live in your Anthropic account, so check there before you settle a billing question. UsageAtlas also has no export: the dashboard is the view. If you need a CSV or JSON file today, the open-source ccusage CLI prints daily and monthly reports from local Claude Code files and can output JSON, which makes it the better choice for scripts. To keep your history when you change computers, sign in with a free Google or GitHub account and UsageAtlas saves daily totals to the cloud. Prompts and responses are never read.
The full walkthrough is in the Claude Code usage history guide.