How to see all your bank accounts in one place with AI

Short answer: Don't give an AI your bank logins. Instead, connect your banks to a read-only data service such as SimpleFIN Bridge ($15 a year or $1.50 a month, up to 25 institutions), sync it into a free, self-hosted Actual Budget, and let Claude or another agent read that budget through the open-source actual-mcp server, which can't change anything unless you turn writing on. You then get every balance, transaction and your net worth in one place, and you can ask questions like "what did I spend on food across all cards last month?". If you'd rather not connect anything, export a CSV from each bank and let Claude Code build a private dashboard on your own computer.

Real setups where people put all their accounts in one view and let an AI answer money questions: a 10-account Grok Bot dashboard, a Sunday finance summary, local AI analysts that work offline and a forecast Claude can read. 24 matching use cases below, each with a public source.

Looking for something else? Search all 1965 use cases or Get the daily 5.

• What you need
• Actual + SimpleFIN
• SimpleFIN + Claude Code
• CSV only
• Copy-paste prompts
• Safety
• Costs
• Real examples

What you need

Prices are from each official page, checked Oct 26, 2026; they exclude tax and can change. Swipe the table sideways on a phone.

Actual Budget + SimpleFIN + Claude (automatic, read-only)

The most complete setup: every account syncs into one budget each day, and Claude reads it through a read-only MCP server. Takes about 30 minutes.

1. Start the Actual server. Install Docker Desktop, then run Actual's official image. Your data lives in the folder you pass to -v.
   shellCopy

   docker run --pull=always --restart=unless-stopped -d \
     -p 5006:5006 \
     -v ~/actual-data:/data \
     --name my_actual_budget \
     actualbudget/actual-server:latest

   
   Open http://localhost:5006, set a server password and create a new budget file.
2. Link your banks in SimpleFIN. Create an account at SimpleFIN Bridge, subscribe, and add each bank and card. Then open Apps, choose New Connection and create a Setup Token. The token can only be claimed once, so paste it straight into the next step.
3. Connect SimpleFIN to Actual. In Actual, click + Add account, then Set up bank sync, then Set up next to SimpleFIN, and paste the Setup Token. Click Link bank account and match each SimpleFIN account to a new or existing Actual account. The first sync pulls up to 90 days of transactions (Actual's SimpleFIN docs).
4. Copy your Sync ID. In Actual, open Settings, click Show advanced settings and copy the Sync ID. actual-mcp uses it to find your budget.
5. Add actual-mcp to Claude Desktop. In Claude Desktop, open Settings > Developer > Edit config and add this to claude_desktop_config.json (on macOS it's in ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/, on Windows in %APPDATA%\Claude\). There is no --enable-write, so the AI can only read. Restart Claude Desktop afterwards.
   jsonCopy

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "actualBudget": {
         "command": "npx",
         "args": ["-y", "actual-mcp"],
         "env": {
           "ACTUAL_SERVER_URL": "http://localhost:5006",
           "ACTUAL_PASSWORD": "your_actual_server_password",
           "ACTUAL_BUDGET_SYNC_ID": "your_sync_id"
         }
       }
     }
   }

   
   This file holds your Actual password, so keep it private. If your budget is end-to-end encrypted, also add ACTUAL_BUDGET_ENCRYPTION_PASSWORD.
6. Or add it to Claude Code. The same server works in Claude Code with one command.
   shellCopy

   claude mcp add actual-budget \
     --env ACTUAL_SERVER_URL=http://localhost:5006 \
     --env ACTUAL_PASSWORD=your_actual_server_password \
     --env ACTUAL_BUDGET_SYNC_ID=your_sync_id \
     -- npx -y actual-mcp

7. Test it. Ask: "List all my accounts with their current balances and my total net worth. Don't change anything." Compare the totals with your banking apps once, then use the prompts below.

SimpleFIN straight into a private dashboard (no budget app)

For people who just want one page with every balance and the latest transactions. Claude Code writes the dashboard; your data stays in a folder on your computer.

1. Claim your access URL. Create a Setup Token in SimpleFIN (Apps > New Connection). The token is base64; decoding it gives a claim URL, and a POST to that URL returns your access URL once. Store it in a private file.
   shellCopy

   mkdir -p ~/money && cd ~/money
   SETUP_TOKEN='paste_your_setup_token'
   CLAIM_URL=$(echo "$SETUP_TOKEN" | base64 --decode)
   curl -s -H "Content-Length: 0" -X POST "$CLAIM_URL" > access_url.txt
   chmod 600 access_url.txt

   
   The access URL contains your credentials. Treat it like a password and never paste it into a chat.
2. Fetch accounts and recent transactions. start-date is a Unix timestamp. The command below asks for the last 30 days (on macOS, use date -v-30d +%s instead of date -d '30 days ago' +%s).
   shellCopy

   ACCESS_URL=$(cat access_url.txt)
   curl -sL "${ACCESS_URL}/accounts?version=2&start-date=$(date -d '30 days ago' +%s)" > accounts.json

   
   Stay well under SimpleFIN's limit of 24 requests a day (going over can disable your token), and keep each request to 90 days or less. Once a day is plenty, because the data only refreshes about daily.
3. Have Claude Code build the dashboard. Start Claude Code in the folder with claude and paste the "Build my dashboard" prompt below. Ask it to read accounts.json only, never access_url.txt.
4. Refresh it daily. Ask Claude Code to write a refresh.sh that runs the fetch and rebuilds the page, then schedule it once a day with cron (Mac/Linux) or Task Scheduler (Windows).

No connections: CSV exports + AI

Free, and nothing is linked to your banks. Good for a monthly review or a first try.

1. Export each account. In each bank's website, open the account's transactions or statements page and download the last 3 months as CSV (some banks call it Export or Download activity). Put all the files in one folder, such as ~/money/csv.
2. Strip what the AI doesn't need. Delete columns with full account numbers, and rename each file after the account, such as chase-checking.csv or amex.csv.
3. Merge and chart them. Open Claude Code in the folder and paste the "Merge my bank CSVs" prompt below, or import the files into the same Actual budget from path 1 with Import in each account. One founder below did exactly this to get a private cashflow chart that projects how much he'll need to borrow.

Using my Actual budget, list every account with its current balance, grouped into cash, credit cards, loans and investments.
Then give me my total net worth and how it changed over the last 3 months.
Read only. Don't create, edit or categorise anything. If an account looks stale (no transactions for 30+ days), flag it.

Look at my transactions from all accounts for [month].
1. Show spending by category, compared with my average for the 3 months before.
2. List the 10 biggest single transactions.
3. Call out any category that's more than 20% above its average and show the transactions behind it.
Ignore transfers between my own accounts and credit card payments so nothing is counted twice.

Find every recurring charge across all my accounts in the last 90 days: same payee, similar amount, regular interval.
Make a table: payee, amount, how often, account, last charge date, yearly cost.
Mark any that started recently, went up in price, or that appear on two different cards.
Don't cancel anything. Just give me the list, with the biggest yearly cost first.

I want to spend [amount] on [thing] around [date].
Using my balances and the last 3 months of income and spending, estimate my cash balance each week until [date + 2 months], including regular bills and paychecks you can see in the history.
Tell me the lowest point, whether it goes below [safety buffer], and which 2 or 3 categories I could cut to make it work.
Show your working, and list any assumptions.

Read accounts.json in this folder (SimpleFIN format, version 2). Never open access_url.txt.
Build a single dashboard.html with no external services except Chart.js from a CDN:
- a header with total net worth and the date of the data
- one card per account with name, institution and balance
- a bar chart of spending by week for the last 30 days
- a table of the latest 50 transactions with search
Treat negative amounts as money out. Exclude transfers between my own accounts.
Then write refresh.sh that re-fetches accounts.json for the last 30 days and rebuilds the page.

The csv folder has exports from my banks and cards, one file per account (the file name is the account).
Each bank uses different columns and sign conventions. Write a script that merges them into one transactions.csv with: date, account, payee, amount (negative = money out), category.
Guess categories from the payee, and list the payees you weren't sure about so I can fix them.
Then build cashflow.html with a running balance chart for the last 3 months.
Run it, show me the totals per account, and ask me to check them against my statements.

Every Sunday at 6 PM, read my budget data (read-only) and send me a short summary:
- money in and money out this week, versus my weekly average
- any new recurring charge or price increase
- any transaction over [amount] or from a payee I've never used
- accounts that didn't update this week
Keep it under 10 lines. Don't change anything in the budget.

Safety checklist

• Never give an AI agent your online banking username and password. Several big US banks are blocking agents that log in as customers, and JPMorgan says what an agent does with your login is your responsibility.
• Leave actual-mcp read-only (no --enable-write) until you've checked its answers for a few weeks.
• Your SimpleFIN access URL and Actual password are credentials. Keep them in private files, never paste them into a chat, and revoke the connection in SimpleFIN if one leaks.
• Don't expose the Actual server (port 5006) to the internet. If you need remote access, use a VPN such as Tailscale, or run actual-mcp in SSE mode with --enable-bearer and a long random token.
• Don't go over SimpleFIN's 24 requests a day, or your token can be disabled.
• AI answers about money can be wrong. Check totals against your statements and don't make tax or debt decisions from the chat alone.

Related guides: How to build a dashboard with AI agents · How to use AI agents for taxes, bills and budgets · How to let an AI agent do your bookkeeping (Xero and QuickBooks) · How to give an AI agent a budget or a card safely

What it costs

• SimpleFIN Bridge: $15/yr or $1.50/mo + tax. Read-only bank data, up to 25 institutions and 25 apps
• Actual Budget (self-hosted): Free. Open source; runs in Docker on your computer
• actual-mcp server: Free. MIT licence, runs with npx or Docker
• Claude Desktop: Free; Pro $20/mo. Local MCP servers work on the free plan
• Claude Code (CSV path): Claude Pro $20/mo ($17/mo yearly). Builds the dashboard on your computer
• CSV-only path: $0 extra. Manual export from each bank, no connections

Real examples (24)

Common questions

How do you see all your bank accounts in one place with AI?

Don't give an AI your bank logins. Instead, connect your banks to a read-only data service such as SimpleFIN Bridge ($15 a year or $1.50 a month, up to 25 institutions), sync it into a free, self-hosted Actual Budget, and let Claude or another agent read that budget through the open-source actual-mcp server, which can't change anything unless you turn writing on. You then get every balance, transaction and your net worth in one place, and you can ask questions like "what did I spend on food across all cards last month?". If you'd rather not connect anything, export a CSV from each bank and let Claude Code build a private dashboard on your own computer.

Is it safe to connect an AI to my bank accounts?

Connecting through a read-only data service is much safer than handing over a login. Several large US banks are blocking third-party agents that log in as customers, and JPMorgan warns that if you give an agent your login, what it does with your money is on you. SimpleFIN only shares balances and transactions with apps you approve, and you can revoke each app's access from its dashboard.

Can the AI move money with this setup?

No. SimpleFIN only shares balance and transaction data, and actual-mcp only reads your Actual budget unless you start it with --enable-write. Even then it can only edit the budget, not your bank.

How up to date is the data?

SimpleFIN refreshes about once a day, so it's good for daily or weekly reviews, not for watching transactions live. The first sync in Actual pulls up to 90 days of history.

Can I do this for free?

Yes. Actual Budget and actual-mcp are free, Claude Desktop runs local MCP servers on the free plan, and you can import CSV files from your banks instead of paying for SimpleFIN. You just lose automatic daily syncing.

Does it work with my bank?

SimpleFIN supports many US banks and card issuers, but not every one. Add each institution in the SimpleFIN dashboard and check that balances appear before you build anything on top. For banks it can't reach, import a CSV into the same Actual budget.

Is this financial advice?

No. The agent summarises your own numbers. Treat its answers as a starting point and check anything important, like tax or debt decisions, with a qualified person.

Which AI tools do people use to see all your bank accounts in one place?

Across the 24 sourced use cases in this guide, the most used tools are Grok Bot, Claude, Claude Code, Google Sheets, Amazon.

How much does it cost to get started?

1 of the 24 use cases can start on a free plan. The most common paid starting price is $30/mo (7 use cases). Prices come from each tool's official pricing page.

How long does setup take?

9 of the 24 use cases list a setup time of an hour or less. Each card shows the setup time the builder reported.

Are these real examples?

Yes. Every use case links to its public source (an X post, a Hacker News thread or a GitHub repo) with the author and date, so you can check it yourself.

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