Connect Gemini to PennyFinch
Ask Gemini about your spending, budgets and subscriptions — in dollars or in hours of your life.
What it does
Connecting PennyFinch lets Gemini 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. Gemini 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).
Gemini on the web (gemini.google.com), signed in with a personal Google account. Google currently limits custom apps to people 18 or older in the US, in English, with Keep Activity turned on; work and school accounts can't add them yet.
Connect in Gemini
1. On gemini.google.com, click Settings (the gear at the bottom left), then Personal Intelligence, then Connected Apps.
2. Under Custom apps, click Add a custom app and paste the server URL https://www.pennyfinch.com/api/mcp. Leave Advanced features empty — PennyFinch registers Gemini automatically.
3. Click Next. Gemini opens PennyFinch: sign in, read what will be shared, tick the box and choose Allow read-only access.
4. In a chat, type @ and pick PennyFinch, then ask your question.
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 Gemini uses PennyFinch, what it reads — your transactions, balances and categories — is sent to Google, which runs Gemini, and is handled under Google'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 Gemini). 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 Connected Apps or Custom apps option — custom apps need a personal Google account in the US, 18+, with Keep Activity on, on the web.
Answers come in dollars, not hours — tell Gemini your hourly rate, or set one with the Hours toggle in PennyFinch.
“Account linking is required” after you approve — Gemini sometimes misses the hand-back. Remove PennyFinch under Connected Apps and add it again; it usually works on the next try.
Anything else: admin@pennyfinch.com.