AI Budgeting Apps Compared — Real Prices From Each Site

Quick answer: the four apps below differ most on price, platform and how much they ask you to do by hand, and I read each one’s own pricing page for the numbers. Before choosing, it helps to know which budgeting step you need help with, because the CFPB breaks budgeting into four steps and each app supports them differently.

If you also want to ask your own questions about your own data, a spreadsheet is the option I keep coming back to. That last point is my opinion, and the rest is what the pages say. This is general information, not financial advice.

Why People Went Looking for a New Budgeting App

Mint shut down on March 23, 2024, and Intuit pointed users to Credit Karma (Monarch Money blog). That sent former Mint users looking for a replacement, and the four apps below are common places to look.

Start With the Four Steps, Then Pick the Tool

The CFPB describes budgeting as four steps, with free worksheets for each:

1. Income. Identify every source, including self-employment, multiple jobs, child support and government benefits.
2. Spending. Log what you spend in an average month in categories such as utilities, housing, eating out and entertainment. If that feels like too much, review one week at a time using receipts or your checking account.
3. Bills. Note each bill’s due date and compare it with when your income arrives, which flags the weeks when spending needs care.
4. Working budget. Combine the first three, and update it after a change in employment or spending habits.

The same CFPB page lists strategies for sticking with it: use a tracking method you can keep up with, such as a daily journal or a folder of receipts reviewed weekly, starting with one month at a time; analyze your spending to find areas to cut back; set a goal; and build a support system of friends or family. California’s Department of Financial Protection and Innovation adds that a simple budget does not require strong math skills (DFPI).

Mapping that to the apps is my suggestion: step 2 (spending) is where automatic transaction import saves the most effort, and step 3 (bills) is where reminders help. If you struggle with the first step or the last, the apps below may help less than the CFPB worksheets do.

What Each App Lists on Its Own Pricing Page

YNAB. The pricing page lists $109 a year, shown as $9.08 a month, or $14.99 a month, with a 34-day free trial and no credit card required when you sign up directly. It describes the YNAB Method as asking “What’s it for?” whenever you spend or make money (YNAB pricing).

Monarch. The pricing page lists $99.99 a year or $14.99 a month. It says its Plus tier adds forecasting tools for planning further ahead, tracking multiple income sources and deeper investment analysis, and that you can cancel anytime and there is a money-back guarantee (Monarch pricing). The page does not say which tier the two prices belong to.

Copilot Money. The pricing page lists $13 a month or $95 a year, and says it is available on iPhone, iPad, Mac and the web. It does not mention Android (Copilot Money pricing).

Quicken Simplifi. Its page shows $3.99 a month billed annually, with $6.99 a month struck through, and says the final price may differ from the monthly price times 12. It lists budgeting and spending tracking with a Spending Plan, investment and retirement portfolio management, and cash flow projections (Quicken Simplifi). The page offers a discounted first year for new memberships ordered directly from Quicken by November 22, 2026, so treat $3.99 as a promotion.

Free Trials and Discount Codes to Use First

Three of the four pages lead with a way to try the app before paying, and each has details that are easy to miss.

• YNAB: its pricing page lists a 34-day free trial with no credit card needed when you sign up directly, and says it sends a reminder email one week before the trial ends and does not charge you unless you subscribe. It adds that third-party app stores may require card details for the trial. College students can get a free 365-day trial by submitting proof of enrollment.
• Monarch: its pricing page lists a code, WELCOME, for 30% off the annual Core plan for one year. It applies to new users only, cannot be combined with other offers, and may expire at any time. The page does not state a trial length, although its headline mentions a first week.
• Copilot Money: its pricing page advertises a one-month free trial and says you can explore the app before connecting any accounts.

Some arithmetic on these offers. If you apply Monarch’s 30% to the listed $99.99 annual price, you pay 99.99 × 0.70 = about $69.99 for the first year, a saving of about $30. That assumes the $99.99 is the Core annual price, which the page does not state outright, so treat $69.99 as a calculation from the listed prices, not a quoted price.

For YNAB, an invented schedule makes the trial easy to plan: start on October 1, and 34 days later is November 4, with the reminder email arriving about a week earlier, around October 28. That gives you a clear date to decide.

In my view, a trial is a low-risk way to answer the most important question, whether you will actually open the app each week, and a trial where you log in a few times is worth more than any feature list.

What Each App Includes Beyond the Price

Beyond price, each page lists features that fit different households and habits. This is a summary of what the pages say, not a ranking.

• YNAB: direct bank import supports select US, Canadian, UK and EU banks, with file-based import elsewhere; real-time syncing across devices; debt tools including an integrated loan calculator; and the option to share one subscription with up to six people at no extra cost.
• Monarch: web plus apps on the Apple App Store and Google Play; the Plus tier adds forecasting, tracking of multiple income sources and deeper investment tools; no ads, and the page says it never sells financial data.
• Copilot Money: automatic transaction tagging that learns your habits, budget rollovers, subscription tracking, net worth tracking across bank accounts, stocks, crypto and real estate, and web, iPhone, iPad and Mac availability.

Sharing changes the math. YNAB’s sharing feature means one $109 annual subscription can cover up to six people. Split six ways, that is 109 ÷ 6 = about $18.17 per person per year, or about $1.51 a month (18.17 ÷ 12). The split is my arithmetic from the listed price and the six-person limit, and it applies only if everyone sharing is a partner or family member, which is how the page describes it.

Putting it together, a household that wants one shared budget can get value from YNAB’s sharing, someone who wants to watch investments alongside spending may like Monarch or Copilot, and a person who is not sure should start with a trial. These pairings are my suggestions from the listed features.

The Yearly Cost Behind Each Monthly Price

Multiplying the listed monthly prices by 12 shows what the annual plans save. YNAB at $14.99 a month is $179.88 a year, so its $109 annual plan saves $70.88. Monarch at $14.99 a month is $179.88 a year against $99.99, a $79.89 difference. Copilot at $13 a month is $156 a year against $95, a $61 difference, which matches the 39% its page advertises. Simplifi at $3.99 a month is $47.88 a year, before any change in the final price. These are arithmetic on the listed prices, and prices change.

Let a chatbot do the multiplication. Copy the price text from an app’s own page, and use this prompt:

Below is pricing text I copied from an app's own pricing page.

[paste the pricing text]

Please:
1. Write the monthly price and the annual price exactly as listed, and quote the line each came from.
2. Multiply the monthly price by 12 and show the multiplication.
3. Subtract the annual price from that total and show the subtraction.
4. If the page lists a promotion, a first-year price, or a trial, quote it separately.

Rules:
- Use only the pasted text.
- If a price is not stated, write "NOT STATED."
- Do not recommend an app or say which plan is best.

With YNAB’s listed $14.99 a month and $109 a year, the output should show 14.99 times 12 equals 179.88, and 179.88 minus 109 equals 70.88, matching the figure above. If your chatbot returns something different, the pasted text or the arithmetic is off, and the arithmetic is quick to redo on a calculator.

Questions Only Your Own Data Can Answer

This section is my opinion. A budgeting app shows the views its designers built, such as spending by category or bills coming up. If you want to know something specific, for example how much you spent on takeout on weekends over six months, a spreadsheet of your own exported transactions can answer it, at the cost of categorizing the transactions yourself. I have not tested whether each app above can answer a question like that, so I am not saying that any of them cannot.

The CFPB tools mentioned above are a free way to start: the Income Tracker, Spending Tracker, Bill Calendar and Budget Worksheet cover all four steps without a subscription (CFPB).

Before You Link Your Bank: The CFPB’s Questions

Every app in this comparison asks to connect to your accounts, so the CFPB: What to consider when sharing your financial data guidance applies to all of them. It says to confirm that only the data you want shared is shared, check whether the company shares data with third parties, find out how often it accesses your accounts and what it stores and for how long, and check whether the service can make payments or move money. To end access, cancel the authorization, ask the service to delete the data it collected where possible, and remember that deleting the app from your phone does not stop your data from being shared; some banks offer tools to see and switch off connected services. It also recommends reviewing bank and card statements regularly, using a separate strong password for each financial account, changing passwords if a company you share data with reports a breach, and submitting a complaint to the CFPB if a problem can’t be resolved with the company.

A Practical Way to Choose

• You want the YNAB Method and a long trial: YNAB’s page lists a 34-day free trial.
• You want forecasting and investment tools: Monarch’s page says its Plus tier adds them.
• You use Apple devices or the web: Copilot Money’s page lists iPhone, iPad, Mac and web.
• You want the lowest listed price: Simplifi’s promotional $3.99 a month billed annually is the lowest on this list.
• You want to ask your own questions, or start free: use the CFPB worksheets or a spreadsheet, as described above.

AI Budgeting Apps Compared: Sources

• CFPB: Budgeting strategies and free tools to help you reach your goals
• California DFPI: Consumer financial education, budgeting
• Monarch Money: When is Mint shutting down?
• YNAB: Pricing
• Monarch: Pricing
• Copilot Money: Pricing
• Quicken Simplifi
• CFPB: What to consider when sharing your financial data

Planning a trip budget too? Our guide to an AI travel budget check applies the same idea of fixed spending limits.

This article offers general information and my own opinions, not financial advice. Prices and features were read from each company’s page in October 2026 (re-read on October 24, 2026) and change often, so the current page is the final word.