ChatGPT can set your budgets and tell you what is left without a bank login once it is connected to Manilo, an iPhone expense app that works from the spending you log or upload yourself. The ChatGPT connection is part of Manilo Cloud: $5.99/month or $39.99/year, with a 7-day free trial.
Connect ChatGPT to Manilo
Connecting takes a single sign-in with the account you use on your iPhone. Connect ChatGPT has the steps, including how to add Manilo by hand. ChatGPT reads only the data a question needs, never your whole ledger, as privacy and your data explains.
Add your spending without linking your bank
A purchase counts toward a budget once it reaches Manilo, either from a statement you download or because you logged it when you paid.
Upload statements you download yourself
Save a PDF or CSV statement from your bank’s website and ask ChatGPT to import it. ChatGPT reads only that file and sorts each row into the categories you already have, all saved in one batch. Import a statement by chat shows how to fix a row that lands in the wrong place, and the safety side has its own guide.
Log purchases as they happen
Type a line such as “groceries 64.20 on my debit card” in ChatGPT, and it is logged with a category on the account you named. In the Manilo app you can say the same line or photograph the receipt, and AI fills in the category and account. Apple’s on-device speech recognizer turns your voice into text, and only that text leaves the phone. Apple Pay payments log themselves through Apple Wallet, and Apple Watch and the Manilo bot in Telegram take entries too.
Set a budget in ChatGPT from your past spending
Import statements for the last three months, then ask: “What did I spend on average each month in each category?” ChatGPT totals the saved transactions by category, so each limit can start from what you really spend.
Pick the limits and send them in one line: “Set monthly budgets of 450 for groceries and 200 for eating out.” ChatGPT creates them in Manilo, so they also appear in the app.
Check and adjust your budget during the month
Partway through the month, ask “Which of my budgets am I closest to going over?” and ChatGPT sets each limit against the expenses saved so far. Once the month is over, “Where did I go over last month, and by how much?” measures the whole month against the same limits.
“Raise eating out to 250” updates that budget. “The pharmacy charge on the 12th is Health, not Groceries” moves one entry, and the grocery figure follows it. A single request can also move many entries to another category at once.
What is free and what needs Manilo Cloud
The free app keeps budgets and typed-in expenses on one iPhone with no ads, and it imports a CSV export from your bank. Cloud adds the ChatGPT connection and each way of logging described above, plus encrypted sync across your devices and the web dashboard; plans and pricing lists both plans.
On either plan, Manilo stores every expense on your iPhone first, so a new entry appears instantly even without a signal.
Questions
Can I budget in more than one currency?
Each Manilo account keeps its own currency, and totals are shown in one primary currency that you choose. Multi-currency comes with the free app, as plans and pricing shows.
What happens to my budgets if I disconnect ChatGPT?
Your budgets and expenses stay in Manilo after you disconnect ChatGPT, which loses access to them right away. Connect ChatGPT shows where to disconnect and how to connect it again.
Can Claude run the same budget conversation?
Claude can work with the same budgets once you add Manilo to it as a custom connector, since both assistants save to the account your iPhone app uses. The steps are in connect Claude and other MCP clients.