How to Use Monarch Money's AI Assistant (2026 Verified Walkthrough)

The AI Assistant is Monarch's response to "I have all this data, but what do I do with it?" Instead of clicking through Cash Flow filters and Reports builders, you ask natural language questions — "How much did I spend at restaurants last month?" or "What's my biggest expense category this year?" — and Monarch answers using your actual data, not generic advice.

Here's the verified walkthrough.

The fast answer

To open Monarch's AI Assistant:

1. Look for the orange sparkle icon in the left-hand sidebar (web) or in the navigation menu (mobile).
2. Click/tap it.
3. Type or speak your question in natural language.
4. The AI answers using your actual transaction, budget, and goal data.

Per Monarch's documentation: "The AI Assistant is designed to help you understand your finances, explain changes, and navigate Monarch's features through simple, natural language questions, and can be accessed anywhere in Monarch by clicking the orange sparkle icon in the left-hand sidebar."

What the AI Assistant actually does

Per Monarch's Help Center: "The Monarch AI Assistant is the first AI-powered personal finance assistant that makes managing your money as easy as having a conversation. It can help you with questions about spending or cash flow, household transactions, net worth, and more."

In practical terms, the AI Assistant answers questions across three domains:

1. Your data — grounded answers from your accounts:

• "How much did I spend on restaurants last month?"
• "What's my biggest expense category this year?"
• "Did I spend more or less on groceries vs last quarter?"
• "What's my net worth change over the last 6 months?"
• "Which subscriptions am I paying for?"

2. Navigation — show me where the feature is:

• "Where do I create a budget?"
• "How do I add a new account?"
• "Where can I see my net worth history?"

3. Explanation — why is this happening:

• "Why did my net worth drop last month?" (it'll surface the specific events — investment dip, large purchase, etc.)
• "What's causing me to overspend on Food this month?"

The AI doesn't give generic advice ("you should save more"). Per Monarch's documentation, the assistant is grounded in your actual data — answers reference your specific transactions, balances, and patterns.

Step 1: Find the orange sparkle icon

The AI Assistant is intentionally always-accessible:

• Web (app.monarchmoney.com): Look at the left sidebar. The orange sparkle icon (✨) is typically near the top of the navigation, between the dashboard link and the main feature pages.
• Mobile (iOS/Android): Tap the navigation menu (three lines, top left) and the AI Assistant entry has the same orange sparkle icon.

If you don't see the icon, it may not have rolled out to your account yet — Monarch has been gradually deploying the AI Assistant to subscribers since 2025. Check Settings → AI Features to confirm it's enabled.

Step 2: Ask your question

Click the icon and a chat-style interface opens. Type your question in the input box. Some patterns that work well:

Quantitative questions (the AI is best at these):

• "How much have I spent on Amazon this year?"
• "What was my income last month?"
• "How much have I saved in my emergency fund this year?"
• "What's my net worth right now?"

Comparison questions:

• "Did I spend more on dining out in 2025 vs 2024?"
• "Compare my Q1 2026 spending to Q1 2025"
• "How does my grocery spending compare to last year?"

Drill-down questions:

• "Show me my biggest restaurants this year"
• "What are my top 5 merchants by spending?"
• "Which categories did I overspend on last month?"

Goal-related questions:

• "How am I progressing toward my emergency fund goal?"
• "When will I hit my house down payment goal at my current rate?"
• "Am I on track for retirement?"

Step 3: Read the response — and verify

The AI responds with a natural-language answer, often with embedded numbers and references to specific transactions or categories. Two important things to know:

The AI is grounded but not infallible. Per Monarch's documentation, the AI Assistant uses "a combination of third-party LLMs and in-house modeling." This means responses are generally based on your real data — but LLM-generated text can occasionally include errors, especially for complex multi-step calculations.

Always verify high-stakes numbers. If the AI says "you spent $4,200 on restaurants this year," and that number is going into a tax filing or a major decision, click through to Cash Flow → filter to Restaurants → confirm the number directly. The AI's job is to surface insights quickly; the underlying Cash Flow data is the source of truth.

What the AI Assistant can NOT do

The features the assistant is not designed for:

• Doesn't move money or initiate transfers. It's read-only — surfacing insights, not taking actions.
• Doesn't give investment advice. It can describe your portfolio (allocations, balances) but doesn't tell you what to buy or sell.
• Doesn't replace a CPA or financial advisor. Tax planning, estate planning, complex life decisions need professional guidance.
• Doesn't categorize transactions for you. The categorization happens through Monarch's separate ML system; the AI Assistant just queries the categorized data.
• Doesn't generate forecasts based on macro events. It can project current trends forward but doesn't model recessions, market crashes, or life events you haven't entered.

If you want investment advice or financial planning, Empower's free tools — wait, Empower's not in our affiliate program yet — are an option, or work with a fee-only fiduciary advisor.

Question patterns we use weekly

After 12+ months of using Monarch's AI Assistant ourselves, these are the question patterns that have proven most useful:

Sunday morning weekly review: - "What did I spend the most on this past week?" - "Which budget categories am I close to overspending in this month?" - "What new subscriptions did Monarch detect?"

Monthly review: - "Compare my spending this month to last month, by category" - "What was my biggest unexpected expense this month?" - "How did my net worth change this month and why?"

Quarterly review: - "What's my Q[X] cash flow vs the same quarter last year?" - "Which goals am I on track for and which am I behind on?" - "What's my savings rate this quarter?"

Annual review: - "Total income for [year]" - "Top 10 merchants by spending in [year]" - "Total tax-deductible expenses in [year]"

These are all questions you could answer manually with Cash Flow filters and Reports — but the AI does it in 5 seconds without rebuilding filters every time.

How the AI handles privacy

This question comes up a lot. Per Monarch's documentation, the AI uses "a combination of third-party LLMs and in-house modeling." This means part of the inference happens at a third-party LLM provider (OpenAI or Anthropic, depending on Monarch's current vendor relationships).

What's sent to the LLM: - Your question, in natural language - A summary of relevant data (e.g., "user has $3,400 in spending in the Restaurants category this month") - General context about Monarch's features

What's NOT sent: - Your bank credentials (Monarch never has these to begin with) - Raw transaction data with PII (merchant names and amounts are sent, but not your name, account numbers, or other identifying info) - Your goals' target amounts (only progress percentages, not absolute targets, by default)

Privacy controls in Settings:

• Disable AI Assistant entirely if you'd rather opt out (Settings → AI Features)
• Limit what data the AI can access (some users restrict to specific account types)
• Delete your AI Assistant chat history at any time

If LLM-based features are a hard no for you, you can use Monarch with the AI Assistant disabled — every other feature works identically.

How Monarch's AI Assistant compares

Monarch's AI Assistant and Copilot's AI are the two most evolved in the budgeting-app category. Both are grounded in your real data; both are conversational. The differentiator is breadth — Monarch's AI can speak to budget, goals, net worth, recurring, and household-level data; Copilot's is more tightly scoped to spending and budget questions.

For most users, the AI Assistant becomes the entry point to Monarch within a few weeks of regular use. Faster than clicking through filters; conversational enough to ask follow-up questions naturally.

Common questions

Why don't I see the orange sparkle icon?

The AI Assistant rolled out gradually starting in 2025. If you don't see the icon, check Settings → AI Features to make sure it's enabled. If not enabled, contact Monarch support — it may not be live in your market yet.

Can I use voice input?

Yes — on mobile, tap the microphone icon in the chat input. Speech-to-text converts your question, then submits to the AI. Useful for asking questions while doing dishes or commuting.

Can the AI Assistant make changes for me?

No — it's read-only by design. If you want to change a budget number, set a new goal, or re-categorize a transaction, you do that in the relevant page yourself. The AI helps you find the page if you ask.

Does the AI work with Shared Views (couples)?

Yes — each partner can use the AI Assistant with their own ownership filters applied. Your queries see your data; your partner's queries see theirs. Joint queries see joint data.

What if the AI gives me a wrong number?

Verify in Cash Flow / Reports / Transactions directly. The AI is good but LLM-generated responses can occasionally include errors, especially for complex multi-step questions. Don't make tax or major financial decisions purely on AI Assistant output without checking the source data.

Is my chat history private?

Per Monarch's policies, chat history is stored to improve the assistant for your account specifically (not used to train external models without consent). You can delete chat history at any time in Settings.

Can I disable the AI Assistant?

Yes — Settings → AI Features → Disable. Monarch works fully without it.

Is the AI Assistant included in the free trial?

Yes — full feature access including the AI Assistant during the 7-day trial.

Related reading:

• Monarch Money Review 2026
• Is Monarch Money Worth It?
• How to Connect Bank Accounts to Monarch
• How to Create a Budget in Monarch
• How to Track Expenses in Monarch
• How to Set Financial Goals in Monarch
• How to Track Subscriptions in Monarch
• How to Share Finances With a Partner in Monarch
• Monarch vs Copilot Money
• Monarch vs YNAB

Not financial, legal, or tax advice. We earn a commission if you sign up for Monarch through a link on this page; the price is the same. Every step verified against Monarch's official Help Center documentation as of May 7, 2026.