Question 1

What is Pearl?

Accepted Answer

Pearl is finance for Claude. It connects your bank, credit, and investment accounts to Claude — read-only — so you can ask real questions about your money and get answers grounded in your actual numbers: net worth, runway, safe-to-spend, debt payoff, scenario stress-tests. It works inside claude.ai, Claude Desktop, and Claude Code, and comes with a companion mobile app for iOS and Android.

Question 2

How is Pearl different from ChatGPT's finance feature?

Accepted Answer

ChatGPT Finances reads your accounts and summarizes them inside ChatGPT. Pearl gives Claude a governed financial toolset: deterministic calculators for runway, debt payoff, cash-flow projections and stress-tests — plus the ability to set goals and budgets or fix a transaction category when you ask. It also works everywhere Claude does (claude.ai, Claude Desktop, Claude Code), with its own mobile app. See the full comparison on our Compare page.

Question 3

Who is Pearl for?

Accepted Answer

Anyone who wants to feel calm and in control of their money without hiring a financial advisor. Early users range from people learning to invest for the first time, to people managing daily spending against a goal, to founders running business and personal finances side by side.

Question 4

Do I need a Claude subscription?

Accepted Answer

Pearl works with Claude plans that support custom connectors — Claude Pro and above on claude.ai and Claude Desktop, and any Claude Code setup. You add Pearl as a connector once, and every conversation after that can use your real numbers.

Question 5

Is there a mobile app?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Pearl has iOS and Android apps where you can connect accounts, see your dashboard, chat, and get your one move a day. The Claude connector and the app share the same data.

Question 6

How does Pearl connect to my accounts?

Accepted Answer

Pearl uses Plaid, the same secure connection layer used by Venmo, Robinhood, and Coinbase. You link accounts through Plaid's interface — your login credentials go directly to your bank, not to us. We literally can't see your password.

Question 7

What can Claude actually do with Pearl?

Accepted Answer

Read and compute. Claude can see your balances, transactions, debts, bills, income, and goals, and run deterministic math on them — runway, debt-to-income, payoff plans, cash-flow forecasts, scenario stress-tests. The only things it can change are your plan: goals, budgets, transaction categories and notes — and only when you ask.

Question 8

Can Pearl move my money, trade, or pay bills?

Accepted Answer

No. Never. Pearl's connection is read-only. It cannot move money, execute trades, pay bills, or touch your accounts in any way. It's a coach with perfect information — you make every actual move.

Question 9

What kinds of questions can I ask?

Accepted Answer

Anything you'd ask a sharp friend who manages money for a living: "What's my net worth?" "If my income stopped today, how long do I last?" "Can I afford a $1,800 trip in March?" "When am I debt-free?" "What should I do today?" Every answer comes from your real accounts, not a guess.

Question 10

What if the data looks wrong or stale?

Accepted Answer

Pearl tells you. Every answer carries provenance — what data it used and how fresh it is. If an account hasn't synced, Claude says "I don't have that data" rather than inventing a number. You can fix categories in chat or in the Pearl app.

Question 11

Is my financial data safe with Pearl?

Accepted Answer

Yes. We use two layers of encryption — one for your data, another for your identity. Bank connections run through Plaid with 256-bit encryption, and access tokens are encrypted with AWS KMS. Even our own engineers can't see whose data is whose.

Question 12

Can Pearl employees see my accounts?

Accepted Answer

No. Your identity is scrambled at the database level. When our team looks at our systems, they see data tied to a random ID — they cannot tell whose information is whose or connect anything to a real person.

Question 13

What happens in a worst-case breach?

Accepted Answer

Pearl's connection to your accounts is read-only, so no one could move your money through Pearl — there is no such capability to steal. Your identity is encrypted separately from your data, and you can revoke Pearl's access to any account at any time.

Question 14

Is my data sold or shared?

Accepted Answer

Never. No advertisers, no data brokers, no third parties. You're the customer, not the product.

Question 15

Can I delete my data?

Accepted Answer

Yes. You can delete your account any time — from the app or the website. That disconnects your banks and removes your personal information, transaction history, and account connections from our systems.

Question 16

How much does Pearl cost?

Accepted Answer

Pearl is $14.99/month or $99.99/year (about $8/month — save 44%). The yearly plan includes a 7-day free trial. Both plans get full access to everything: all your accounts, all tools, the Claude connector, and the mobile app. Cancel anytime.

Question 17

Are there any hidden fees?

Accepted Answer

No. The subscription is the only charge. No per-account fees, no percentage of your assets, no setup fees, no minimums.

Question 18

Is there a free trial?

Accepted Answer

Yes — 7 days on the yearly plan, with full access. Your card isn't charged during the trial and you can cancel anytime. Monthly has no trial; at $14.99 with no commitment, the first month is the test drive.

Question 19

Why pay for Pearl when ChatGPT includes a finance feature?

Accepted Answer

Because reading your money and working on it are different products. Pearl gives Claude deterministic financial math, scenario stress-tests, goals and budgets it maintains with you, provenance on every number, and a mobile app — for less than the cost of ChatGPT Plus. One good money decision together covers the year.

Question 20

What types of accounts can Pearl connect to?

Accepted Answer

Virtually any US financial account: checking, savings, credit cards, investment accounts, 401(k)s, IRAs, loans, mortgages, and more — over 10,000 institutions through Plaid. Canadian banks are supported too.

Question 21

Can I use Pearl for my business?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Connect business and personal accounts side by side and ask about either — cash flow, burn, runway, upcoming bills. Early users tell us it's the closest thing to a CFO on call.

Question 22

Does Pearl help with taxes?

Accepted Answer

Pearl keeps a tax profile (state, employment type, withholding) so Claude can estimate what you owe and plan around it — especially useful for self-employed income. Estimates are educational; for filing decisions, work with a tax professional.

Question 23

Can Pearl help with debt payoff?

Accepted Answer

Yes. It analyzes all your debts and maps the smartest payoff order — avalanche or snowball — showing exactly when you're debt-free and how much interest you save. You make the payments; Pearl keeps the plan honest.

Question 24

Does Pearl give investment advice?

Accepted Answer

Pearl provides financial coaching and education grounded in your real portfolio — allocation, concentration, tax buckets, what to learn next. It does not recommend buying or selling specific securities, and it never trades.

Question 25

Does Pearl work with joint accounts or family finances?

Accepted Answer

Pearl is designed for individual use today. You can connect accounts you own or have authorized access to. Couples and family features are on the roadmap.

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