Connect ChatGPT to PennyFinch

What it does

Connecting PennyFinch lets ChatGPT read your own PennyFinch data (accounts, balances, transactions, budgets, recurring charges, goals and debts) so you can ask about your money in plain language, including what things cost in hours of your working life.

It is read-only. ChatGPT can look things up; it can't move money, change a category, or edit anything in your account.

What you need

A PennyFinch account with at least one bank connected (sign up — 14 days free, no card).

A paid ChatGPT plan (Plus or higher) and chatgpt.com in a web browser. Custom connectors run through Developer mode, which isn't on the free plan or in the mobile apps. On Business and Enterprise plans an admin may need to allow Developer mode first.

Connect in ChatGPT

1. On chatgpt.com, open Settings → Apps (called Connectors on some accounts), then Advanced settings, and turn on Developer mode. OpenAI moves this switch from time to time; if you don't see it there, look under Settings → Security.

2. Back in Apps, click Create. Name it PennyFinch, paste the server URL https://www.pennyfinch.com/api/mcp and choose OAuth for authentication.

3. Save. ChatGPT opens PennyFinch: sign in, read what will be shared, tick the box and choose Allow read-only access.

4. In a new chat, turn PennyFinch on from the + menu (under Developer mode or More), and ask away. ChatGPT may ask you to confirm before each tool runs.

Things to ask

“What did I spend by category last month?”

“Find every Amazon order in September and total them.”

“Am I over budget anywhere this month?”

“Which subscriptions renew in the next 30 days, and what do they cost a year?”

“If I put an extra $200 a month on my cards, when would I be debt-free?”

“How many hours of my life did dining out cost me last month?”

Tools

Search transactions — individual transactions filtered by merchant, category, text, dates and amount.

Spending summary — totals by category, month or merchant, excluding transfers and card payments.

List accounts — accounts, balances, and whether each bank connection is healthy.

Cost in hours of life — converts a dollar amount into hours of your working life, using your hourly wage.

Budget status — planned vs actual for each budget this month (or any month), as on the Plan screen.

Recurring charges — subscriptions and other recurring charges, what they cost a month, and what renews next.

Savings goals — each goal's target, how much is saved and what's left.

Net worth — net worth month by month, with assets and liabilities.

Debt payoff — balances, rates and minimums, and when you'd be debt-free, with or without paying extra.

Worth-it ratings — how you rated your own purchases in “Worth it?”, by category and merchant.

All ten are read-only. Every result also says what the data can't see — history limits, accounts you haven't connected, any bank connection that is currently broken, and purchases that post days later.

Hours of your life

PennyFinch works out your hourly wage from the income in your transactions over the past year, every time you ask — or uses a rate you set with the $ / ⏱ Hours toggle, or one you state in the conversation. If the income it can see is too low to be believable (for example, your pay lands in an account you haven't connected), it says so instead of guessing.

Privacy and control

Connecting is optional. When ChatGPT uses PennyFinch, what it reads — your transactions, balances and categories — is sent to OpenAI, which runs ChatGPT, and is handled under OpenAI's privacy policy. PennyFinch can't retrieve or delete data once it has been sent.

Disconnect at any time in PennyFinch under Settings → Connect an AI assistant (or remove it in ChatGPT). Access stops on the very next request. See also our Privacy Policy.

Other assistants

The same address works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and any app that supports remote MCP servers with OAuth sign-in. All the guides.

Troubleshooting

No Developer mode switch — it needs a paid plan, on the web; on a work plan, ask your admin to enable it.

Answers come in dollars, not hours — tell ChatGPT your hourly rate, or set one with the Hours toggle in PennyFinch.

Sign-in fails or the app shows an error — delete the PennyFinch app in ChatGPT's settings and create it again.

Anything else: admin@pennyfinch.com.