With AI having its big moment in the spotlight these days, you may be wondering how you can use it to optimize your financial life. We took a look at personal finance apps that use AI to serve different purposes — and found the best to help you invest, budget, manage subscriptions and even save on travel.
Some of the products we chose use AI to learn your spending habits and organize your transactions for you. Others use AI algorithms to study your data and suggest actions that can help you reach certain goals. (Read more on our methodology below).
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Best AI-powered apps to manage and grow your money
Best for investing
Betterment
Minimum deposit and balance
Minimum deposit and balance requirements may vary depending on the investment vehicle selected. For example, Betterment doesn't require clients to maintain a minimum investment account balance, but there is a ACH deposit minimum of $10. Premium Investing requires a $100,000 minimum balance.
Fees
Fees may vary depending on the investment vehicle selected, account balances, etc. Base price is $5/month for investing accounts; automatically switches to 0.25% annually once you reach $24,000 in total balance or set up $200/month in recurring deposits. Premium plan is 0.65% annually.
Investment vehicles
Robo-advisor: Betterment Digital Investing IRA: Betterment Traditional, Roth and SEP IRAs 401(k): Betterment 401(k) for employers
Investment options
Stocks, bonds, ETFs and cash
Educational resources
Betterment's resources hub offers expert-written guides on investing basics, retirement planning and personal finance that are designed to help investors at every level make more informed decisions.
Terms apply. Does not apply to crypto asset portfolios.
Pros
- No trade or transfer fees
- Automated investing with portfolios built around your financial goals, timeline and risk tolerance
- Assign specific goals to each portfolio and invest using different strategies
- Quick and easy account setup with the ability to sync external retirement accounts
- Advanced features include automatic rebalancing, tax-loss harvesting and socially responsible investing
- Premium plan users ($100,000 minimum) get unlimited access to certified financial planners (CFPs)
Cons
- $5/month fee for investing accounts (switches to 0.25% annually once you hit $200/month in recurring deposits or $24,000 in total balance)
- Premium plan requires a $100,000 minimum balance
Who's this for? CNBC Select actually ranked Betterment as one of the best robo-advisors for beginners thanks to the platform's algorithms that automatically adjust to rebalance your portfolios as your needs and goals change. The platform also offers features like tax loss harvesting to help you save on taxes. This is where the platform automatically sells any positions experiencing a loss to help offset your tax burden.
Standout benefits: Betterment doesn't have a minimum balance requirement, and the annual account fee is a low 0.25% of your fund balance for balances between $20,000 and $1 million, or $4 per month if your balance is $0 to $20,000.
Best for budgeting
You Need a Budget (YNAB)
Cost
$14.99 per month or $109 per year ($9.08 per month). Users get 34-day free trial (College students get 12 months free)
Standout features
Employs a zero-based budgeting system, with users assigning every dollar a "job" (bills, savings, investments)
Categorizes your expenses
No
Links to accounts
Yes, bank and credit cards
Availability
Offered in both the App Store (for iOS) and on Google Play (for Android)
Security features
Encrypted data, accredited data centers, third-party audits and more
Terms apply.
Pros
- Offers a 34-day free trial (college students get 12 months free)
- Designed to help users pay off debts and break paycheck-to-paycheck cycle
- Syncs to bank accounts and credit cards
Cons
- One of the more expensive options, with no free version
- Set-up can be laborious
- No bill tracking or bill pay feature,
Who's this for? YNAB is famous for being a platform that promotes the zero-based budgeting method, which is where you assign every dollar a job so that you end up thoughtfully using all of your income instead of just guessing where your money goes. The platform uses machine learning to read your spending patterns and automatically categorize transactions, but it also helps you identify areas where you may need to make changes to reach your goals.
Standout benefits: YNAB offers resources for users who want to learn more about improving their financial lives, like live workshops, podcasts, guides and blog posts.
Best for managing subscriptions
Rocket Money
Cost
The basic plan is free. Rocket Money Premium is $7 to $14 a month with a 7-day free trial. Bill negotiation services cost 35% to 60% of the first-year savings, if the negotiation is successful.
Standout features
Easily cancel unwanted subscriptions, track your spending and credit score, automate savings and get help lowering bills. Rocket Money Premium includes additional services like net-worth tracking, credit reports and a subscription cancellation concierge service
Security
Rocket Money accesses transaction data via an encrypted token, uses Plaid API so user credentials are never stored, provides bank-level 256-bit encryption and hosts servers on Amazon Web Services
Availability
Offered online and on both the App Store (for iOS) and on Google Play (for Android)
Terms apply.
Pros
- Allows you to easily view and cancel unwanted subscriptions
- Offers a free version
- A+ from Better Business Bureau
Cons
- Nonrefundable bill negotiation fee can be up to 60% of savings
- Premium pricing varies
Who's this for? Rocket Money uses machine learning to identify recurring transactions and subscriptions to help you consider whether or not you'd like to cancel them. The platform can cancel some subscriptions on your behalf automatically, but for some subscriptions and memberships, you may need to do it manually in the platform. Still, the simple act of helping you locate all your subscriptions can go a long way in helping you get your finances on the right track.
Standout benefits: The platform offers features that go beyond just subscription tracking and cancellation. Users can take advantage of credit score tracking, a concierge service to negotiate lower rates on their bills and even a budgeting tool that tracks spending and net worth over time.
Best for travel savings
Hopper
Cost
Free
Standout features
Automatically track the pricing of desired flights, receive notifications about potential price increases and decreases, book flights and hotels through the platform, receive offers and discounts on your travel.
Availability
Offered online and on both the App Store (for iOS) and on Google Play (for Android)
Pros
- Free to use
- Helps users find flight and hotel deals
- Users can track flight prices and predict the ideal time to purchase flights
- Price freeze feature lets users "hold" a flight at the current price while they decide if they really want to make the purchase
Cons
- Booking through a third-party platform, which means some flight and hotel protections may not be available like they would be if you had booked directly with the airline or hotel
Who's this for? Hopper uses machine learning to help you save on flight and hotel bookings by predicting when flights will be more or less expensive. Users can get notified of price increases and decreases and they can "freeze" flights at their current price while they decide whether they still want to make that purchase. The platform also offers flash deals on vacations. Because Hopper is a third-party app that you're booking through, your airline may charge additional fees for things like seat selection, in-flight meals, cancellations, itinerary changes and additional baggage. These fees are not included in the total price you pay on Hopper.
Standout benefits: The platform is free, however, there is an option for you to add a tip, which helps support Hopper's features.
Clarification: This article has been changed to clarify the technology behind Betterment's automation features. It uses algorithms and large math models, along with human oversight to manage portfolios.
FAQs
Can I use AI to invest money?
Yes, you can use AI to invest money. In fact, many investment platforms already use AI and machine learning to help users make smart investments that are aligned with their goals.
How can you use AI to manage your money?
AI can be used in many ways to manage your money, including categorizing daily expenses, suggesting recommendations based on your goals and even making future projections about your money.
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Why trust CNBC Select?
At CNBC Select, our mission is to provide our readers with high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice so they can make informed decisions with their money. Every personal finance article is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors with extensive knowledge of personal finance products. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content without input from our commercial team or any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on our journalistic standards and ethics. See our methodology for more information on how we choose the best AI-powered apps.
Our methodology
To determine the best AI-powered apps, CNBC Select analyzed over a dozen services. We narrowed down our rankings and categorized them by best for investing, best for budgeting, best for managing subscriptions and best for travel savings.
We considered factors like:
- Pricing
- Features
- Use of AI
- Resources/guidance/educational materials offered
- Ease of use
- Customer reviews where applicable
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