ChatGPT Finances comes to the Mac app, including for free U.S. users

OpenAI said on November 11 that it had added ChatGPT Finances to its desktop app. The feature is available in the Mac app, according to reports from 9to5Mac and The Mac Observer. Eligible U.S. users can now review spending and balances and ask questions based on connected accounts from the Mac app they already use for ChatGPT.

The official ChatGPT account said the feature requires an app update and is available to Free, Go, Plus and Pro users. OpenAI's Finances documentation identifies the United States as the supported market. Whether a specific account can be linked still depends on the financial institution. The company's announcement referred to the desktop app without specifying an operating system. It gave no minimum version number or separate confirmation for Windows.

OpenAI first offered the feature on the web and iOS to U.S. Pro users in May. It later added Plus and Android, and began opening it to Free and Go users on October 2. The November announcement adds another place to open the feature. OpenAI lists macOS 14 or later and an Apple silicon M1 or newer chip or an Intel processor as the Mac app’s general system requirements. Finances has separate eligibility rules.

The connection reads transactions

A user selects the financial institutions and accounts to connect. Plaid supplies the authorized account information, which OpenAI says can include balances, transactions, investments and liabilities. OpenAI's personal finance lead described the integration in a Plaid interview as read-only. ChatGPT can use the information in a spending summary or an answer. Paying a bill, transferring funds and placing a trade are outside the feature's scope.

What appears on the dashboard depends on the available data. A recurring charge can only show up if the relevant transaction reaches ChatGPT. A missing account or an incomplete sync can change the spending totals. OpenAI's support page says its breakdown can also miscount an internal transfer, a credit card payment or a duplicate pending transaction. The dashboard shows when the account last synced. The institution also determines how far back the transaction history goes. That can affect what an app shows for an earlier month even after the latest transactions have synced.

Credit information comes through a separate connection to Experian. In September, OpenAI said eligible users could link a credit report and score independently of their bank accounts. The report and score update monthly. A recent payment can appear in bank activity before it changes the credit report because the two views draw on different records and update schedules.

Disconnecting an account and deleting a chat

OpenAI says it deletes synced account data from its systems within 30 days of a user disconnecting Finances or removing a linked account. Plaid also deletes data associated with that ChatGPT connection within 30 days under its own policies. A connection the user authorized through Plaid for another app remains a separate record with its own controls.

Financial information that already appears in a conversation stays in that conversation until the user deletes it. Financial memories have separate controls, too. For instance, if a previous answer includes the amount of a recurring charge, disconnecting the account and removing the conversation that contains the amount are separate actions.

OpenAI applies the user's existing ChatGPT training settings to conversations with Finances. Its Finances documentation says a Temporary Chat leaves connected financial accounts out of the conversation. OpenAI's general guide says a chat stays out of history and is excluded from model improvement while it remains temporary. Saving it converts it to a regular chat, subject to the account's personalization and model-improvement settings from that point onward.