Flutter Cost: See Package Size Impact Directly in VS Code

#flutter #dart #vscode #extensions

Have you ever wondered how much a package actually costs in terms of size when building your Flutter app?

You're not alone.

We all love packages — they save time, offer rich functionality, and reduce boilerplate. But over time, your app’s size can grow unexpectedly. That’s where Flutter Cost comes in.

📦 What is Flutter Cost?
Flutter Cost is a Visual Studio Code extension that shows the estimated size impact of each imported package in your Dart or Flutter project — directly in your editor.

No more guessing.
No more hunting through documentation.
Just simple, inline size insights — right where your imports live.

Above: Flutter Cost showing inline size estimates next to imports

✨ Why Use It?
✅ Instantly see how much size each package adds
✅ Inline info — no need to leave the code editor
✅ Helps you make informed decisions before bloating your app
✅ Lightweight and fast

🔧 How It Works
Flutter Cost analyzes your Dart/Flutter project, looks at your imported packages, and matches them against precomputed size data to show their estimated impact on your app's bundle size.

It then displays this information inline, right next to your import statements, like this:

import 'package:http/http.dart'; // ~380KB import 'package:firebase_core/firebase_core.dart'; // ~1.2MB
This helps you understand at a glance which dependencies may be hurting your app’s size or startup time.

⚙️ How to Install

Open VS Code
Go to the Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X)
Search for Flutter Cost
Click Install

Or click here 👉 Install Flutter Cost on VS Code Marketplace

Once installed, just open any .dart file in your project — and boom 💥 — size estimates appear next to your imports!

🧠 Why App Size Matters
If you're building for mobile, especially on Android, size directly impacts:

Download speeds
Startup performance
App Store limits
User retention on slower networks

Tools like flutter build give you a post-build snapshot — but Flutter Cost gives you this before you even run a build.

It’s proactive instead of reactive.

🙌 Try It Out
👉 Get Flutter Cost on the VS Code Marketplace
📣 Star it on GitHub and share with your fellow Flutter devs!

Your feedback helps make this better. Let me know what features you'd like to see — or better yet, contribute!

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