diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index addfe3e..b7f3ba3 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
 
 [project]
 name = "tokenhelm"
-version = "0.1.0"
+version = "0.1.0rc1"
 description = "Lightweight, framework-agnostic token tracking and LLM cost calculation across providers."
 readme = "README.md"
 requires-python = ">=3.11"
diff --git a/src/tokenhelm/__init__.py b/src/tokenhelm/__init__.py
index 0388303..e9b713a 100644
--- a/src/tokenhelm/__init__.py
+++ b/src/tokenhelm/__init__.py
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@
 from .storage.base import StorageBackend
 from .storage.memory import InMemoryStorageBackend
 
-__version__ = "0.1.0"  # x-release-please-version
+__version__ = "0.1.0rc1"  # x-release-please-version
 
 __all__ = [
     "__version__",