Question 1

What is Budget and how does it work?

Accepted Answer

Budget is an iOS budgeting app that helps you track expenses, understand spending emotions, and reach financial goals faster. Unlike traditional budgeting apps, Budget combines emotion tracking with AI-powered insights to help you build healthier spending habits.

Simply add your expenses, set a budget, and let our AI advisor analyze your spending patterns using the proven 50/30/20 rule. Track recurring subscriptions, log savings, and see exactly where your money goes, all with bank-level privacy.

Question 2

Is Budget free? What does it cost?

Accepted Answer

Budget is currently in beta and completely free to join. We are offering limited spots to early users who want to help shape the future of the app. There are no hidden fees, no credit card required, and no subscription charges during the beta period.

Future pricing will be announced before the official launch, and beta users will receive exclusive early-adopter benefits.

Question 3

Will Budget always be free? What is the business model?

Accepted Answer

The beta is free, but Budget will not stay free forever. The likely pricing model (not final) includes a free tier with basic budgeting, expense tracking, and limited AI insights, along with a premium tier at $4 to $7 per month that unlocks the full AI advisor, unlimited savings goals, advanced insights, and priority features.

What we will never do: sell your data, show ads, charge for core budgeting features, or force expensive annual subscriptions. Our goal is to build a sustainable app that respects users, not extract maximum revenue. Beta users will get exclusive early-adopter pricing when we launch.

Question 4

How is Budget different from other budgeting apps like Mint, YNAB, or Rocket Money?

Accepted Answer

Budget stands out in three key ways.

First, emotion tracking. We are the only budgeting app that helps you understand the emotional side of spending. Track how purchases make you feel (happy, anxious, guilty) and visualize patterns with our emotion calendar.

Second, on-device AI. Powered by Apple Intelligence, our AI advisor runs privately on your iPhone without sending data to external servers. Get personalized 50/30/20 budget advice that adapts to your life.

Third, privacy-first design. No bank account connections, no data selling, no tracking. Your financial data stays on your device with optional secure CloudKit sync.

Unlike Mint (requires bank login), YNAB (complex methodology), or Rocket Money (subscription-focused), Budget is manual, simple, and built for people who want control without complexity.

Question 5

What is emotion tracking and why should I care?

Accepted Answer

Emotion tracking lets you log how each purchase makes you feel, whether that is happy, anxious, neutral, excited, or guilty.

It helps you spot patterns, like discovering that weekend shopping trips leave you anxious by Monday. It builds awareness by helping you understand the emotional triggers behind impulse buying. It lets you visualize habits through our emotion calendar, which shows spending psychology over time. And it helps you make better choices by pausing before purchases and asking yourself whether you will regret a decision.

Studies in behavioral economics show that connecting emotions to spending decisions reduces impulsive purchases by up to 30%. Budget is the first app to make this simple and visual.

Question 6

What is the 50/30/20 rule and how does Budget use it?

Accepted Answer

The 50/30/20 rule is a proven budgeting framework. 50% of your income goes to needs like rent, bills, groceries, and transportation. 30% goes to wants like entertainment, dining out, and shopping. 20% goes to savings including your emergency fund, investments, and debt repayment.

Budget's AI advisor analyzes your spending and compares it to this framework, then provides specific, actionable advice. For example, it might tell you that your recurring bills of $1,200 (48%) are on track and suggest reducing discretionary spending by $150 by cutting back on food and shopping. Or it might point out that you are spending $247 per month on subscriptions and flag three you have not used in 60 days.

This is not generic advice. It is personalized to your actual spending patterns and updated weekly as your habits change.

Question 7

How do recurring expenses and subscriptions work?

Accepted Answer

Budget makes it easy to track recurring expenses like subscriptions, bills, and memberships. You can set an expense once as weekly or monthly recurring and track it automatically. You get notified before bills are due. You can view how much you are locked into each month. The AI advisor flags unused recurring expenses. And you can understand how recurring costs affect your monthly budget.

Common recurring expenses tracked include Netflix, Spotify, gym memberships, phone bills, rent, insurance, meal kits, streaming services, cloud storage, and more.

Question 8

Can I track savings and investments in Budget?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Budget includes dedicated tracking for both savings and investments.

For savings, you can log monthly contributions, visualize savings trends with charts, see AI-powered insights on your savings rate, and track progress toward emergency fund goals of three to six months of expenses.

For investment contributions, you can manually enter multiple account contribution rooms (RRSP, TFSA, 401k, brokerage), log monthly contributions by account type, and see year-to-date investment breakdowns.

While Budget does not connect to investment platforms (by design for privacy), it helps you maintain a holistic view of your financial picture beyond just expenses.

Question 9

How does AI-powered advice work in Budget?

Accepted Answer

Budget's AI advisor uses on-device AI to analyze your spending patterns and provide personalized financial guidance.

It works in four steps. First, it analyzes your data by reviewing income, expenses, recurring bills, and spending by category. Second, it applies the 50/30/20 rule by comparing your spending to proven budgeting frameworks. Third, it generates insights with specific, actionable recommendations in plain English. Fourth, it updates dynamically by refreshing advice as your habits change week to week.

What makes it different: AI runs on your iPhone, not cloud servers, so it is private and fast. Advice is written in simple, conversational language. Recommendations are specific, like "reduce food spending by $150" rather than vague suggestions to spend less. And it learns from you, getting better as it understands your financial situation.

Question 10

Does Budget connect to my bank account or credit cards?

Accepted Answer

No. Budget does not connect to your bank accounts, credit cards, or any financial institutions. All transactions are entered manually, which gives you complete privacy since we never see your bank credentials, better awareness since manual entry makes you mindful of spending, security with no risk of data breaches from bank integrations, and full control over what you choose to track.

This manual approach is intentional. Research shows that actively logging expenses increases financial awareness and helps build better money habits.

Question 11

Is my financial data private and secure?

Accepted Answer

Absolutely. Privacy is at the core of Budget's design.

Your transactions, budgets, and emotions live on your iPhone, not our servers. If you enable CloudKit sync, data is encrypted and stored in your personal iCloud account using Apple's secure infrastructure. We never track your behavior, sell your data, or show targeted ads. Sensitive spending emotions never leave your device. And there are zero third-party analytics or data collection for marketing purposes.

Budget uses the same security standards as Apple's own apps. We are not a fintech company trying to monetize your data. We are a tool to help you take control.

Question 12

What happens to my data if I uninstall Budget?

Accepted Answer

If you uninstall Budget, all on-device transactions, budgets, and emotions are removed from your phone. If you had enabled CloudKit sync, your data remains in your iCloud account for 30 days as a backup.

We recommend exporting your data before uninstalling if you want to keep a record of your financial history.

Question 13

What platforms does Budget support?

Accepted Answer

Budget is currently available for iOS (iPhone and iPad) and requires iOS 26.0 or later, with iPhone 13 or newer recommended.

Coming soon: a macOS app is currently in development, an Apple Watch companion is planned for budget glances and quick logging, and an Android and web app are also on the roadmap for desktop budget review.

Question 14

Does Budget work with multiple currencies?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Budget supports multiple currencies including USD, CAD, EUR, GBP, AUD, JPY, and many more. You can choose your primary currency when setting up your budget, and all transactions are tracked in that currency. You can change currencies anytime in settings, and the app automatically detects your region and suggests local currency.

Budget currently operates in one currency at a time based on your phone settings or manual selection. We do not support multi-currency expense splitting or real-time conversion. This keeps the app simple and focused on tracking.

Question 15

Is Budget available in my country?

Accepted Answer

Budget is available worldwide on the iOS App Store, currently in beta via TestFlight. The app currently supports English (US, UK, Canada, and Australia), with more languages coming based on demand. Over 50 currencies are supported including USD, CAD, GBP, EUR, AUD, JPY, and INR.

The app works anywhere you have an iPhone, but features like AI insights are currently optimized for English speakers. We plan to expand language support based on beta feedback.

Question 16

Can I share budgets with my partner or family?

Accepted Answer

Currently, Budget is designed for individual use. While you can use CloudKit sync to access your budget across your own devices (iPhone, iPad, Mac), shared budgets or family accounts are not yet supported.

Shared budget features are on our roadmap based on beta user feedback. If this is important to you, join the beta and let us know. As a workaround for now, you can manually track joint expenses in a single account and discuss budget insights together using the AI advisor's recommendations.

Question 17

Can I export my data or move to another app?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Budget believes your data belongs to you. While export features are still in beta, we are building CSV export for downloading transactions, budgets, and savings logs, email reports for sending monthly summaries to yourself, and import from other apps to upload CSV files from Mint, YNAB, or spreadsheets.

During the beta, you can request a data export by contacting support. Full self-service export will be available at launch.

Question 18

What kind of support do you offer?

Accepted Answer

During beta, we provide direct support from our team. You can reach us via email with replies within 24 hours on weekdays. You can also send suggestions or bug reports directly through in-app feedback. A help center with guides, tutorials, and FAQs is coming soon, along with video walkthroughs to learn features with quick demos.

Beta users get priority access to our team. We are actively listening to feedback and implementing requested features quickly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Getting Started

Features and Functionality

Privacy and Security

Platform and Compatibility

Data and Support

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