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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- ChatGPT can connect to financial accounts through Plaid.
- It can analyze spending, debt, subscriptions, and investments.
- It can’t move money or see full account numbers.
I’ve been using ChatGPT since it launched, so by now, I’ve put it to work on just about everything, including my finances.
It’s walked me through setting up a brokerage account, helped me understand how to start investing, and pointed me toward books and resources so I could learn the basics quickly. I read them. I followed the advice. I’m now averaging a 16% return on my investments. In other words, ChatGPT has genuinely helped me make better financial decisions.
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So when I saw that OpenAI had launched a personal finance experience inside ChatGPT, my ears perked up.
Until now, like many people, I’ve handled a lot of my money management manually. I check balances, track debts, review recurring charges, monitor subscriptions, and try to make sense of everything using spreadsheets and banking apps.
ChatGPT Finances, however, promises to make that easier — by letting me securely connect my financial accounts through Plaid, including my investment accounts. Once everything syncs, ChatGPT can answer questions using my real data.
How to use ChatGPT Finances
What you’ll need: OpenAI’s Finances feature is available to ChatGPT Plus and Pro users in the US on the web, iOS, and Android. It can connect to thousands of financial institutions, including banks, credit unions, credit card companies, lenders, investment firms, and more, but you’ll need a free Plaid account to get started. Plaid acts as a secure bridge.
Some people may see a prompt inviting them to connect their finances. I did not.
Instead, I found the feature in the ChatGPT sidebar under More, then opened Finances from there. I also Googled it and found a direct link to the experience. OpenAI said users can even launch it from a regular ChatGPT conversation by typing something like, “@Finances, connect my accounts.”
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Either way, once I found and launched it, ChatGPT prompted me to start linking my accounts through Plaid. Afterward, I noticed ChatGPT tucked Finances under my Pinned area, so I could easily access it.
After opening Finances, choose Connect Finances. ChatGPT explained I was about to connect my financial accounts so it could sync my data. This is where I slowed down to read the fine print.
Remember, I’m not just approving a random app permission. I’m giving ChatGPT access to a lot of my sensitive financial information, including my balances, transactions, investments, and debts. But that’s the whole point, right? Still, read everything carefully, and check out OpenAI’s own blog post.
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ChatGPT used Plaid to link my accounts. I already had a free Plaid account, so it was straightforward.
I signed in to Plaid, then started adding my banks and financial institutions. I searched for them one by one, authenticated the account, approved the connection, and that’s it. Easy peasy. Depending on the institution, multifactor authentication may be required to approve a connection.
I connected almost all of my accounts, including SeaComm, Chase, Capital One, Fidelity Investments, and PayPal. I do have an Affirm account, but at the time of writing, it wasn’t working with Plaid yet.
After authentication, ChatGPT begins syncing everything. OpenAI said this can take a few minutes.
I checked after about five minutes by asking ChatGPT questions about my finances, and it told me it was still syncing. So, I stepped away for an hour, came back, and finally, everything looked good to go.
Once accounts are connected, ChatGPT Finances displays a dashboard with an overview. OpenAI said this can include portfolio performance, spending, subscriptions, upcoming payments, and more.
On my Finances screen, I see the option to start a chat, along with several preloaded prompts, such as “Where could I reduce spending, subscriptions, or fees this year?” There’s also a dashboard that breaks down spending by month and category, upcoming activity, subscriptions, bills, and recent transactions.
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There are options to manage my connected accounts and check their balances from this screen as well. I can also easily access all my past chats with ChatGPT Finances from this dashboard.
So far, what I like most about ChatGPT Finances is that it’s not limited to a single checking account. I can add several accounts, plus credit cards, investment and retirement accounts, lenders, some buy-now-pay-later services, all of which are essential if I want ChatGPT to really understand my budget.
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It can give me a full financial picture, including long-term planning, not just current cash flow. I figure the more complete the picture is, the more useful the answers from ChatGPT may be.
Here are some of the things I asked first:
- What recurring charges have I had in the past six months?
- Which subscriptions increased in price recently?
- What are my biggest spending categories this month?
- How much did I spend on groceries, restaurants, and takeout over the past 90 days?
- Which credit card should I prioritize paying down first?
- Am I saving enough each month based on my current income and spending?
- How much did I contribute to my Roth IRA this year?
- What is my current investment allocation across stocks, bonds, and cash?
- Are there any unusual charges I should review?
- What would happen if I paid an extra $200 a month toward student loan debt?
OpenAI also said I can feed ChatGPT additional financial context in a chat, such as a savings goal, mortgage, or debt owed to family, and ChatGPT will use its memory for future conversations.
Will I keep using ChatGPT for finances?
Yes, but with boundaries. Now that ChatGPT has access to my financial data, I made sure to set up passkeys and MFA, and enroll in Advanced account security, which requires stronger sign-in methods and disables options like email account recovery. All of these security features are available in ChatGPT under Settings > Security and login.
For me, the ability to have ChatGPT answer personal finance questions with real data instead of summaries I manually typed in is extremely useful. I can ask about recurring charges, spending changes, investments, debt, and cash flow without copying everything over myself. I already treated ChatGPT like a financial adviser, so this is a game-changer for me.
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So far, ChatGPT Finances has helped me better understand spending and make decisions about investing, saving, and debt. AI is not a foolproof replacement for professional financial advice, but it is another tool I can use, and honestly, this is one of the most comprehensive solutions I’ve found. It makes the tedious work of checking my finances so much easier.
I’ve tried other apps in the past that promise the same thing, but they wouldn’t work with half of my accounts. They also lacked the ability to feed in additional context through a chat and use AI to work through questions and get help.
I’m incredibly impressed by ChatGPT Finances right now — the setup process through Plaid, the dashboard, the ability to use AI for financial planning, all of it. Although I am wary of the potential privacy and security risks, I’ve done my best to lock everything down in settings so I can continue using ChatGPT Finances without worry.
Can I use a Temporary Chat with ChatGPT Finances?
No. Temporary Chats can’t access connected financial accounts.
Can ChatGPT move my money?
No. ChatGPT can access balances, transactions, investments, and liabilities, but it can’t see full account numbers or make changes to my accounts directly.
Can I delete my financial data from ChatGPT?
Yes. Just disconnect ChatGPT Finances entirely by going to Settings > Apps > Finances and selecting Disconnect. OpenAI said synced account data will be deleted within 30 days after disconnection.
