Snap the receipt. Say what it was for.
Every line filed to the right category, tax and discounts placed where they belong, and the bank’s copy matched later so it isn’t counted twice.
Target
$64.28
School
$40.29
Groceries
$6.15
Household
$17.84
TARGET T-1234 PURCH
$64.28
One store, three budgets.
Your bank sees a Target charge for $64.28 and files the whole thing under one category. The receipt says otherwise: notebooks and a backpack for school, milk and bananas, paper towels and dish soap. Every big-box run, warehouse-club trip and pharmacy stop blurs your budget the same way, and fixing it by hand means splitting the amount and working out the tax yourself.
Life Budget files it the way the receipt does. Each line keeps its own category, the sales tax is spread across the lines, and a discount stays on the item it came off. The split always adds up to what you paid, to the cent.
TARGET
2026-08-14Snap, say, check. The bank catches up later.
- Snap the receipt. Take up to 5 photos of one receipt, or of a gas pump’s display, in Life Budget or with your own AI assistant.
- Say what it was for. One sentence, such as “back-to-school for Maya”. It becomes the purchase’s note and helps choose each line’s category.
- Check it. Look over the store, total and lines, and move anything filed under the wrong category. AI reads receipts and makes mistakes.
- Let the bank catch up. With your bank linked (Pro), the bank’s copy is matched to what you recorded when it arrives, so it’s counted once.
Counted the moment you buy it. Don’t let it be counted twice.
A card purchase can take days to post, so your budget runs behind exactly when you are trying to decide whether to spend more. A purchase you record counts at once. On Pro, with your bank linked, it waits for the bank's copy, which often arrives as something like "TARGET T-1234 PURCH", and is matched to it when it does. A clear match is made for you with Undo; anything less certain asks first. Your categories, note and receipt stay put.
Gas stations are the classic trap: pay at the pump and the bank shows a $1 or $100 hold, not what you pumped. Snap the pump's display instead. Its total is what's recorded, and the posted charge, not the hold, is what matches it.
Show your own AI the receipt. It files it here.
Any assistant can read a receipt. On its own, it can't file it into your budget, split it by line or recognize the bank's copy next week. Connect Claude, ChatGPT or another assistant to Life Budget and it can: show it the photo, say what it was for, and it records the purchase through Life Budget's own rules. It reads the photo on its side, so the image never reaches us. How connecting works.
The free plan keeps the lines of 10 receipts a month. Past that, a purchase is still recorded with its total and receipt number, under the category most of its lines named. Pro keeps every receipt's lines and reads photos in Life Budget itself: "Scan a receipt" in your budget, or attach them in Atlas.
The figures, not the photo.
A receipt carries more than prices: card digits, member numbers, the store's address, sometimes a pharmacy line. So we keep only what budgets need. A photo is read once and discarded. Card numbers, member ids, addresses and phone numbers are removed before anything is stored. A prescription line keeps its amount but loses its name, and a visit to a clinic keeps its total only. What's left (the store, date, totals, receipt number and lines) is encrypted field by field.
AI reads receipts and makes mistakes, so nothing pretends otherwise. When the lines, subtotal, tax and total don't agree, you're told. You check what was recorded, and any line can be moved to another category later; the split follows.
What's included on each tier
| Feature | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Record purchases, card or cash, with tips | ||
| Line-item categories with tax placed by item | ||
| Receipts read by your own AI assistant | ||
| Photos never stored | ||
| Lines kept for 10 receipts a month | ||
| Lines kept for every receipt | ||
| Scan receipt photos in the app and in Atlas | ||
| Bank copy matched automatically (linked bank) |
Everything you might be wondering
Yes, and that is the point. Each line on the receipt carries its own category, and the purchase is split by them, with the sales tax spread across the lines and a discount kept on the item it discounts. A $64.28 Target run becomes $40.29 of School, $6.15 of Groceries and $17.84 of Household, not one $64.28 guess.
Not when it's matched, and matching is there to make sure it is. On Pro, with your bank linked, the purchase you recorded waits for the bank's copy and is matched to it when it arrives, usually within a few days and for up to 10 days. A clear match is made for you, with Undo; anything less certain asks you first, and a purchase still waiting after 10 days is flagged as not arrived so you can look. Your categories, note and receipt stay on the matched row. Without a linked bank there is no bank copy to count.
A photo of the pump’s display counts as a receipt. Pay-at-pump often prints nothing, and the pending hold is a placeholder, not the real amount. The pump total is what’s recorded, and it is what the bank’s posted charge matches; the hold is never matched to it.
Yes, for free. Connect your own AI assistant to Life Budget, show it the receipt and say what it was for. It reads the photo on its side and sends us the store, totals and lines, so the image never reaches us. The free plan keeps the lines of 10 receipts a month; past that a purchase is still recorded with its total and receipt number. Pro keeps every receipt's lines.
On Pro, yes: "Scan a receipt" in the budget, or attach the photos in Atlas, the in-app assistant. Up to 5 photos of one receipt, and overlapping shots of a long receipt are fine. You check what was read before anything is saved.
No. A photo is read once and discarded; it is never stored, logged or kept for training on our side. What’s kept is what you record: the store, date, totals, receipt number and lines, encrypted field by field. Card numbers, member ids, addresses and phone numbers are removed, and a prescription line keeps its amount but not its name.
Reading a receipt and choosing categories is done by AI, and AI makes mistakes. When the lines, subtotal, tax and total don’t add up, you are told instead of the numbers being quietly forced to fit. You are responsible for checking what was recorded, and any line can be moved to another category afterwards.
We keep the printed receipt number so you can find it and quote it to the store. It is kept as it was read and may be wrong, and Life Budget isn’t a receipt vault: we don’t keep the photo and make no promise that a record here will serve as proof of purchase, a warranty record or a tax record.