Ask Spense about your money.
“Why was eating out so high last month?” “What do my subscriptions cost?” “How much is left for groceries?” You can dig for these in the Spending and Budget tabs, or ask Spense and get the answer from your own numbers, with every figure taken from your data. This guide covers where to ask, what gets shared, and how many questions you get.
Open Ask from Home or a category
There are two ways in:
- From Home: the fish's card at the top has a bar that says Ask Spense about your money. Tap anywhere on it.
- From a category: on the Budget tab, in Auto, tap the ⋮ on a category and pick Ask Spense about and its name, the first line of the menu. In Classic, tap the ⋯ next to the category and then the fish button at the end of the row. Ask opens with that category already picked, and suggests questions about it.
Turn it on the first time
The first time, a sheet titled Before your first question says exactly what happens to your data:
- Your question and the figures needed to answer it go to Claude, an AI model made by Anthropic.
- Anthropic doesn't train its models on them. Spense never sends your name, email, notes or account numbers.
- Your chats are saved in your account so you can come back to them. Delete them whenever you like.
Tap Turn on Ask Spense to carry on, or Not now to close it. Nothing is sent until you turn it on. How Ask Spense uses your data opens the Ask Spense section of our privacy policy.
Ask, then read the answer
Under What do you want to know?, Spense offers up to four questions under Try asking, built from your month: a category that rose since last month, one close to its limit, your recurring charges, a goal that's behind. Tap one, or type your own (up to 500 characters) and tap send.
While it works, Spense shows a Working on it card with one line for each thing it checks, such as reading your report or comparing two months. The send button turns into Stop if you change your mind. Then the answer arrives:
- A few sentences, with the amounts in bold.
- Cards with the figures behind them, such as two months side by side or the transactions it found. Each has a link, like Open in Spending or Open in Budget, that takes you to that screen.
- A line saying which dates the numbers cover.
- Up to three follow-up questions you can tap to keep going.
Know the limits and find old chats
Ask Spense is part of your trial or subscription, and every account gets the same limits:
- 5 questions a day, counted in your own time zone and back at midnight, and 50 a month, back on the 1st. The line under the text box shows how many you have left today.
- Every question you send counts, including a tapped suggestion or follow-up, and so does an answer you stop. One that fails doesn't: Spense says “I lost my train of thought”, gives the question back and offers Try again.
- A chat holds 20 questions. After that, start a new one.
Your chats stay in your account. In the Ask header, the clock opens Your chats, grouped by week and month and named after their first question. Swipe left on a chat to delete it, or tap Delete all chats. The speech bubble with a plus starts a New chat.
Ask is a quick way into a monthly money review: ask what changed, then look at the categories it names. For the habits behind the numbers, read how to track your spending and The Spense Method.