Copilot Money Review – Help Managing Your Money
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If you are an Apple user, Copilot Money will assist you in handling your money better.
8/10
Cost
8/10
Features
9/10
Ease of use
9/10
Services
8/10
Managing money can be tricky. While some people take an approach where they open their mobile banking app to see if they have the money to pay for things, others are budgeting their money down to the cent in apps like YNAB (You Need a Budget). Whether you love or hate the system you use to manage your money, it may not be the easiest to handle.
Oftentimes, part of the reason people struggle with money is that it’s hard to see both the big and small picture through the same lens. This is where an app like Copilot Money comes in. Available for both MacOS and iPhone (iOS), Copilot Money allows users to track their spending, budgets, investments, and overall net worth. This means you can see big and small pictures with just a few taps of your iPhone.
Is Copilot Money a reputable app? More importantly, will it be useful for you in your day-to-day life? Check out this review to learn more about the pros and cons of using Copilot Money for your money management.
Jump To
What is Copilot Money?
Advertised as a best-in-class money-tracking app, Copilot has a lot more bells and whistles than your typical money-tracking or budgeting tools.
Created by a team of developers with histories at tech companies like Google and Apple, Copilot is designed to work natively in Apple’s operating system from the ground up. From dialing in your spending habits to achieving your financial goals, Copilot offers helpful data backed by machine learning to make personal finance more informed and fun. Some users leverage Copilot to manage their family’s finances, while others track shared expenses, save for future goals, or manage a monthly budget.
While Copilot combines various features that make it a powerful budgeting app with forecasting and categorization tools, at the company’s heart, it's all about helping users reclaim data from banks. Its website describes its mission: “We believe providing access to better financial tools improves people’s lives, so we’re taking money matters into our own hands.”
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How does Copilot Money work?
To get started using Copilot to track your cash flow, you’ll need to navigate to their website at copilot.money. From there, you’ll scroll down a bit to click the download button. Alternatively, you can navigate to the Apple App Store on your iPhone and download the app from there.
On the download page, you can download the app for Mac or hover over a QR code to scan and download the app for your iPhone. Remember that if you are a Mac user, you will need macOS 12 or greater; if you’re on an iPhone, you will need iOS 15 or above.
Once you’ve downloaded the app, you must sign up for an account. You can sign up with Apple or, if you’d rather, sign up with your email address instead. All it takes to get the ball rolling is entering your first name and email address, and then Copilot will send you a “magic link” to get started. After clicking on your magic link, you’ll complete your verification process by clicking on a button in a web browser.
Once your account is verified, it’s time to set it up. You can import data from Mint if you are coming from Mint; however, a fresh start is encouraged. Once you start your fresh start, you can link all of your bank accounts, set up notification settings, categorize transactions, and more. You’ll also be able to select the subscription that fits you and your financial needs — more on that in the pricing section!
It takes a little less than five minutes to get your Copilot account registered and verified. Linking bank accounts will take longer, depending on how many accounts you have, but even that isn’t too strenuous of a process, thanks to Copilot’s third-party integrations.
How much does Copilot Money cost?
Copilot Money starts as a monthly free trial. After your one-month trial ends, you’ll need to pay to continue using the service. If you pay annually, your monthly subscription is only $95, a little over $7. Otherwise, you’ll pay $13 monthly, $156 a year.
Part of what your subscription pays for includes some of the third-party integrations Copilot offers, like automatic account connection via Plaid.
On their website, Copilot has this to say about its cost: “We want to continue building and improving on Copilot for years to come, and subscription pricing makes that possible. We believe charging a fair price for a well-made product is among the most honest ways to run a sustainable business.”
Copilot Money features
So, is Copilot’s price worth it? Here are all the perks and features under the hood of one of the best-in-class money trackers out there.
Designed for Apple from the ground up
If you value beautiful user interfaces and a fully-featured app, you’ll be impressed, and then some with Copilot. From iPhone widgets to full light and dark mode support, this app doesn’t compromise its user experience whether you’re on your iPhone on the go or at home having a family budget meeting on your Mac. All of the features you love about the Apple ecosystem—including Face ID, the Mac quick launcher, and even the ability to import Apple Card statements—are supported by Copilot.
AI-powered spending categorization
One of the most tedious aspects of using apps like Mint or YNAB is that budget categories can be difficult to create and stick to. When your recurring transactions don’t align with budget categories, it can be a real pain to sort things out — especially if you’re just getting started or transitioning to a money tracker like Copilot from a different platform. This is where Copilot Intelligence can be a real game changer.
Copilot Intelligence harnesses AI and machine learning to automatically learn from your manual categorizations and automate more of this process over time. If Copilot guesses incorrectly, it will also use contextual clues to suggest the next most likely category for any given expense. This allows you to cut back on the time it takes to categorize imported transactions so you can spend more time leveraging the insights these categories offer.
Daily, monthly, and yearly snapshots
Need to zoom in today and see if you’re on track with your current spending and budget categories? Copilot will let you check out daily snapshots to see how you’re doing compared to previous days and what future bills or expenses are coming up.
You can also zoom out for a high-level overview of your monthly cash flow. This lets you see if your spending in certain categories is up or down from the past month, quickly summarizing your income and expenses via color-coded percentages.
Year over year, Copilot also harnesses your banking information to help you chart your net worth in real time. When assessing your net worth, every account you’ve connected to track in Copilot is utilized as a part of the calculation, from credit card debt to checking accounts and even investments you may have in cryptocurrency through Coinbase.
Integration with major retailers and services
Do you buy many things on Amazon or wind up Venmoing friends for meals? If so, then you know just how hairy it can be digging through bank statements and order histories just to figure out what a certain purchase needs to be categorized as. Copilot is integrated to see transaction details from Venmo and Amazon, helping streamline this process considerably. Plus, with the ability to set and define custom rules, you can better tackle categorizing these transactions.
Helpful notifications
Want to be alerted when you’ve been paid or if your spending on a credit card could impact your credit score? How about when you’re nearing a potential overdraft or made a large purchase? Copilot lets you set preferences for these sorts of push notifications so you’re only alerted about the things that matter most to you and your personal finances.
Secure and private
Beyond protecting your financial and personal data, Copilot Intelligence also protects any machine learning models that have been personally generated for you and your expenses. Data isn’t sold to any third parties ever, and you can delete your account — and all associated data — at any time. Plus, Copilot’s infrastructure utilizes the Google Cloud Platform, a leader in the fintech space.
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Who is Copilot Money best for?
If you’re a data geek, a serious investor looking to benchmark performance against certain goals, or heavily motivated by numbers and graphs, Copilot is an incredible tool and sidekick for your personal finances. Seeing graphs on your net worth go up and spending percentages on costly categories like eating out go down can be an incredibly rewarding way to build better financial habits. You can also get a much bigger picture of how your unique personal finance behaviors impact your short-term and long-term goals.
Who shouldn’t use Copilot Money?
If money is tight, you may not be able to swing the cost of Copilot, especially when, on its face, it’s just a beautifully designed dashboard of all of your existing spending accounts. Additionally, if you’re looking for a more interactive budgeting solution that has you taking a more tactical and proactive approach rather than a reactive one, you may be better off seeking out a dedicated budgeting app.
Pros and cons
Pros
- User-friendly. From a design and UX standpoint, Copilot Money is super user-friendly and beautifully designed. Unlike other budgeting apps, the experience is seamless from iPhone to Mac, meaning you won’t find yourself reaching for one device more than the other to handle your personal finances and money management.
- Rules for transactions are super handy. From partial matches to the ability to define advanced rules by transaction and category, Copilot really excels over its predecessors when it comes to the way it handles the import of transactions.
- Powerful investment tools. With Copilot, it’s easy to track your investments in real time, benchmark them against the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, and see where you’re allocating your investments. For investors who are eschewing a financial advisor, Copilot gives you a powerful way to manage your portfolio.
- Native to iOS and MacOS. Copilot is designed with Apple products in mind. Compared to some of its competitors (such as YNAB), this is a major strength, where mobile and desktop experiences can leave a lot to be desired.
Cons
- AI categorization still needs manual input. The AI-powered tools Copilot offers are super exciting, but they still need human intervention to get pointed in the right direction. For example, in my demo of the platform, many transactions were getting lumped into a Restaurants category, even things like purchases at big box pet stores. Machine learning improves as you recategorize things, but that is a lot of manual work for something advertised to be powered by AI.
- Pricey. While it’s much more robust than competitors, Copilot still has a price tag that could deter would-be users.
- Budgeting could be more intuitive. Copilot is an incredibly powerful money-tracking tool; however, its budgeting mode could be more intuitive. Budgeting in Copilot is focused on setting goals for yourself, which are calculated on top of recurring bills and other expenses. This approach is helpful but a bit more reactive than other platforms.
Copilot Money vs. competitors
With Mint out of the picture, many personal finance apps are vying to fill the void. Copilot, YNAB (You Need a Budget), and Monarch are the top contenders of the best budgeting apps. Here’s how they stack up against each other.
App | Operating System | Price | Top Features |
Copilot | Mac, iOS | $13 per month or $95 annually | Powerful money-tracking tools powered by AI and machine learning |
Monarch | Web, iOS, Android | $14.99 per month or $99.99 annually | Forecasting to help users save and anticipate future expenses |
YNAB | Web, Android, iOS | $14.99 per month or $99.99 annually (student discount available) | Intentional, “zero-based” budgeting and goal-setting |
YNAB
As a budgeting platform and philosophy, YNAB is almost a way of life for some people. It comes with a price tag of about $100 a year, but YNAB advertises that most users save up to $6,000 on average in their first year with the app. While YNAB has some tracking tools, it is much more a budgeting app than anything else, so Monarch or Copilot will likely be better suited if you really want to dig into your net worth and spending habits from a data standpoint.
Monarch
Monarch is the most comparable personal finance app to Copilot as it offers features similar to those of Copilot from a tracking and connectivity standpoint. It is also at the same price as YNAB, slightly more expensive than Copilot. Monarch is available via a web app and on Android and iOS, so if you like the sound of Copilot but are on a PC, Google Pixel, or Samsung Galaxy, it may be better to go with Monarch until it offers wider support. You will get similar functionality, but the cost will be higher.
FAQs
Is the Copilot app secure?
Yes, Copilot takes a few different measures in order to protect your personal and financial data. Copilot encrypts your data with 256-bit encryption and works with third-party vendors like Plaid and Finicity in order to adhere to industry standards in the fintech space.
Is Copilot reputable?
Yes. Copilot has received many favorable reviews in the Apple App Store as well as a variety of awards and accolades. On the App Store, Copilot has more than 8,500 reviews and an average rating of 4.8 out of 5. Just some of the laurels Copilot has received include distinctions on the Apple App Store as “Must Have Finance App,” 2023 Finalist for the App Store Awards, and an Editor’s Choice Award.
Is Copilot available on Windows or Android?
Unfortunately, no. At this time, you can only use Copilot on iOS or MacOS-compatible devices such as an iPhone, MacBook, or iPad.
Is Copilot available outside the United States?
At this time, Copilot is only available in the United States; however, you can vote for the next country you want to see access given to on their website.
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The bottom line
Copilot is an exciting alternative to Mint and other personal finance tracking apps, with new monthly features and some powerful AI features. While it does come with a cost, it’s generally priced lower than other options in the market. It comes with a beautiful user interface and consistent user experience no matter your Apple device.
Is Copilot the right option for you at this stage of your personal finance journey? While Copilot offers plenty of awareness, it doesn’t always offer strategies to leverage that awareness. YNAB and other budgeting tools like Everydollar are a much more hands-on approach to budgeting, which could be helpful if a more proactive solution is what you and your money need. Otherwise, as a money management tool and tracker, Copilot is up there with other popular options like Monarch.
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Writer
Brent Ervin-Eickhoff is a Chicago-based writer, stage director, and filmmaker with a background in digital marketing and content creation. In addition to Joy Wallet, Brent has written for Complex, Volkswagen, HowlRound, Picture this Post, and Third Coast Review, among others. He currently serves as the Associate Director of Marketing for Content Creation at Court Theatre at the University of Chicago. Brent graduated from Ball State University with Academic Honors in Writing.
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