I built a Chrome extension that turns any price into what it actually means where you live — coffees, lunches, hours of work

I got tired of mental currency conversion every time I browsed AliExpress, Booking or SaaS pricing pages.

The problem isn't the exchange rate — it's context. $49 doesn't mean anything until you know it's 3 coffees in Berlin or 1 hour of your work. So I built How Much Does It Cost? — a Manifest V3 extension that auto-detects prices on any page and converts them into real-world comparisons based on your location.

How it works:

- Hover any price → glassmorphism tooltip shows conversions in your currencies + a carousel of local benchmarks (coffee, lunch, hotel night, monthly rent)

- It also calculates hours of work — optionally tied to your hourly rate

- Popup converter for manual input, with quick-compare chips

- Works on Amazon, AliExpress, Booking — any site with a price

Free vs Premium ($9.99 one-time):

- Free: auto-detection, multi-currency, tooltip, popup, all context comparisons, 8 languages, per-site disable

- Premium: savings goals (see "this is 4% of your MacBook fund"), custom comparison categories with emoji, budget alerts that warn you when a price exceeds your threshold

Why IndieHackers?

Launched this as a side project with a clear free/premium split, crypto-native payments (TON/USDT), and a privacy-first approach (no tracking, all data in chrome.storage). Would love feedback on the landing, pricing, or the premium upsell flow.