How to chat with your finances using AI
Chatting with your finances means asking an AI assistant about your money in plain words, such as “where did my money go last month?”, and getting an answer worked out from your real transactions. Here is what you need, the questions that work, and how to tell a good answer from a guess.
What you need
Three things: your transactions in one place, an assistant you like, and a safe way for the assistant to read the first. Most of the difference between setups is in that last part, and there are three common ways to do it.
- Paste or upload a statement. Quick, but it covers one account at one moment, the categories are up to you, and the whole file, account details included, stays in the chat.
- Export files and analyze them yourself. Download CSV files and have the assistant, or a script you write, work through them. Flexible, but the files are out of date the next day, every bank formats them differently, and keeping it all running is your job.
- Connect a budgeting app that has a read-only connector. The app keeps your accounts synced and categorized, and the assistant reads it through a sign-in you approve and can switch off. This is how Brixa works with ChatGPT and Claude.
Set it up with Brixa
- Get Brixa on iPhone and connect your banks. In the US and Canada that goes through Plaid, in Europe through Enable Banking, and either way Brixa can only read.
- Look over your categories once and fix any that look wrong. Brixa remembers a correction, and every later answer uses it.
- Add Brixa to your assistant with the address
https://usebrixa.com/api/mcp. There are step-by-step guides for ChatGPT and for Claude. - Sign in to Brixa on the page that opens, read what the assistant will be able to see, and allow it.
- Ask your first question in a chat.
Questions that work well
Specific questions get specific answers. Most of what people ask falls into four kinds.
- Looking back. “Where did my money go in October?” “What were my five biggest purchases last month?” “How much did eating out cost me this year, month by month?”
- One shop or person. “How much did I spend on Uber this year?” “How much have I paid my gym since January?” With Brixa, the answer is one total across every account and card, with refunds taken off.
- Staying on track. “Which budgets am I over this month?” “Am I on track for my savings goal?” “Which subscriptions went up in price?”
- Looking ahead. “If I keep spending like the last three months, could a trip in March fit?” The answer is a what-if built from your own history. It can help you decide, and it is not a forecast.
How to get better answers
- Name the period. “October” is clearer than “last month” around the first of a month. A month that is still running is compared with the same days of the previous month, not with the whole of it, which keeps the comparison fair.
- Ask for totals, not lists. A list shown in a chat can be cut short, while a total from Brixa covers every match. “How much in total, and how many times?” works better than “show me every Uber ride”.
- Ask what it used. “Which accounts and dates is that from?” is a fair follow-up, and a good answer can tell you.
- Fix the source, not the chat. If a category is wrong, change it in Brixa. A correction made in a chat stays in that chat; one made in Brixa is used by every answer after it.
- Follow up. “Why was it higher than September?” or “Which of those were one-off purchases?” usually gets you further than starting over.
What an AI assistant is not for
An assistant reading your Brixa is good at finding and explaining your own numbers. It is not a financial adviser, it can misread a question, and it does not know what next month will bring. Check any figure that matters in the app, and take decisions about investments, taxes or debt to a qualified professional.
Keep it safe
Never paste bank passwords, one-time codes or full statements into a chat. Use a read-only connection you can switch off, and read what it can see before you allow it. The guide on how to give AI access to your finances safely goes through each of these.
Ask about your own numbers
Brixa connects your banks on iPhone, sorts every transaction, and brings the numbers to ChatGPT or Claude. Read-only, and free to try.