ChatGPT Finances: Connect Your Accounts Through Plaid

AI Tools

ChatGPT can now see your bank accounts, credit cards, investments and loans, if you let it. The feature is called Finances, and it connects your accounts through Plaid, the same connection service thousands of finance apps already use. It's free in the US, it can't move a dollar, and setup takes about ten minutes.

1. Before you connect

Two minutes in Settings first. These are the controls OpenAI documents for Finances:

• Turn on multi-factor authentication for your ChatGPT account. If someone gets into your ChatGPT, they'd see your finances too.
• Check your training setting under Settings, then Data controls. Finances follows the same setting as the rest of your account.
• Know the temporary chat rule. In a temporary chat, ChatGPT can't see your connected accounts. Use one when you want a money question kept out of it.
• Sign in to your bank directly once. Clear any security prompts there first. It's the most common reason a connection fails.

2. Map your accounts

Check what you have, and the map below shows how each one gets into ChatGPT.

3. Connect through Plaid

Here's the whole flow, the same on the web, iPhone and Android:

1. Open ChatGPT, select Finances in the sidebar, then Get started. Or type the line below into any chat.
2. Select Connect with Plaid.
3. Search for your bank. If it isn't there, try another name it goes by.
4. Sign in. Many larger banks send you to their own website or app to sign in and pick which accounts to share. Smaller ones have you sign in inside the Plaid window.
5. Choose the accounts to share, then repeat for your other banks, card issuers and brokerages.
6. Back in ChatGPT, give it a few minutes to sync and sort your transactions. Once in a while it takes a few hours.

@Finances, connect my accounts

If a login fails, sign in at your bank first, then try again without autofill or a password manager. Plaid can treat usernames as case sensitive even when your bank doesn't. "Action required" means your bank wants something from you first, like a code or new terms.

4. Tell it what Plaid can't see

Plaid only knows what your bank shares. ChatGPT can also save context you give it as financial memories, and use them in every money question after that. You can view or delete them any time from the Finances page.

@Finances, remember these things about my finances and use them in future money questions:

- I'm saving for [YOUR GOAL AND DATE].
- I want to keep at least [AMOUNT] in checking.
- Not connected: [DEBT OR ACCOUNT]
- I pay myself from my business by [HOW]. Count those deposits as my income.
- Shared: [WHAT IS SPLIT]

Repeat back what you saved so I can check it.

The pay-yourself line matters for business owners. Without it, an owner draw can look like a random transfer, and your income will look lower than it is.

5. Ask questions about your real numbers

Start any question with @Finances so ChatGPT pulls in your connected accounts. Ask it to show which transactions it used, so you can check its work. Your goal and checking cushion from step 4 are already in the second prompt.

@Finances Where did my money go over the last 3 months?

1. Group my spending by category and show what changed compared with the months before.
2. List every subscription and recurring bill with the amount and next charge date. Flag duplicates and price increases.
3. Don't count transfers between my own accounts, credit card payments or refunds as spending.
4. Show me which transactions you used for each number, and tell me if any account looks incomplete.

@Finances I'm saving for [YOUR GOAL AND DATE]. First ask me what I'm saving for and by when. I want to keep at least [AMOUNT] in checking.

Based on my income, bills and spending, how much do I need to set aside each month to get there? Which three categories give me the most room, and what's the tradeoff with each? If the goal isn't realistic by that date, say so and give me the closest date that is.

@Finances I'm self-employed. From my connected accounts, list the transactions from last year that look like business expenses I paid personally.

Group them by category with totals. Mark anything you can't tell from the merchant name as ASK, with one short question for me. Don't decide how anything is taxed. I want a clean list to hand to my accountant.

Spending totals go wrong when transfers, card payments or refunds count as spending. That's why the first prompt rules them out. If a category still looks off, ask ChatGPT to reclassify it and remember the correction.

6. Connect your business books separately

Finances is for your personal money. For the business, QuickBooks Online has its own plugin in ChatGPT, and it keeps the two sets of numbers apart.

1. In ChatGPT, select Plugins in the sidebar.
2. Search for Intuit QuickBooks and select Connect Intuit QuickBooks.
3. Sign in to QuickBooks Online. You come back to ChatGPT on your own.
4. Select Start chat and ask something simple, like "Show me my open invoices," to make sure it's connected.

Using QuickBooks, show me:

1. My profit and loss for this quarter, compared with the same period last year
2. The three expense categories that grew the most, with the amounts
3. Every open invoice more than 30 days past due, with the customer and amount

Read only. Don't create, send or change anything in QuickBooks.

The QuickBooks plugin can create invoices too, so the last line of that prompt keeps it read only. It needs an active QuickBooks Online subscription in the US.

7. Stay in control

• Remove one account from the Accounts tab on the Finances page.
• Disconnect everything under Settings, then Apps, then Finances. OpenAI deletes the synced data within 30 days, and Plaid deletes the data tied to that connection within 30 days.
• Delete old chats separately. Disconnecting doesn't remove what's already in your conversation history.
• Check your other Plaid connections at my.plaid.com. Disconnecting ChatGPT doesn't touch the other apps you've linked through Plaid.

Questions people ask

Follow for more.