Key conclusions
- OpenAI has made it available for Pro plan subscribers in the US to directly connect ChatGPT to accounts at over 12,000 financial institutions.
- The tool is based on integration with the Plaid platform, and in the near future it will be supported by the Intuit system.
- Data synchronization allows the GPT-5.5 model to analyze the user’s expenses, budget and investment portfolio on an ongoing basis.
US deeptech OpenAI has launched a new set of personal finance management tools in preview for ChatGPT Pro plan subscribers in the US. The function allows you to directly connect bank accounts with the chatbot. Users gained the opportunity to ask questions about the analysis of current expenses and create long-term budget plans.
The implementation of the new option took place a month after OpenAI acquired the team behind the startup Hiro, which was developing technologies in the personal financial analysis sector.
Securely connect to thousands of banks with Plaid
OpenAI uses Plaid’s infrastructure to handle connections to OpenAI accounts. The system provides integration with over 12,000 financial institutions. The list of supported entities includes Chase, Capital One, Robinhood, Fidelity, Schwab and American Express.
After completing the authentication procedure, the user sees a dedicated dashboard. This screen aggregates information about subscriptions, upcoming payments, transaction history and current investment portfolio performance.
Activating the tool requires selecting an option in the side settings section or entering a text command to invoke the financial module in the conversation window. The bot then automatically launches the Plaid connection wizard.
The GPT-5.5 model analyzes household budgets
Official OpenAI statistics show that over 200 million people around the world enter economics and budget-related queries into the chatbot’s search engine every month.
The new GPT-5.5 model has a higher level of contextual reasoning. This feature is of decisive importance when processing multi-level numerical data. In order to verify the correctness of the answers, OpenAI engineers created a dedicated test benchmark, developed together with external experts from the banking sector.
The system handles queries with a non-linear structure, can detect anomalies in transaction history and compare expenses from different quarters. The user can ask to develop a savings strategy for purchasing real estate over the next five years, and the algorithm will take into account local market conditions.
Data privacy and history deletion in OpenAI
The processing of sensitive financial information forced the implementation of strict security procedures. In the application settings tab, users can manage permissions and disconnect selected bank accounts at any time.
Unlinking a financial institution from the profile starts the database cleaning procedure. Synchronized transaction records disappear from OpenAI servers irretrievably within 30 days from the moment of authorization withdrawal.
The management panel also allows for selective viewing and permanent deletion of so-called financial memories, i.e. facts about the user’s assets remembered by the model.
The current market trend shows a clear shift towards specialization of universal language models. Similar steps are taken by competitors, including the Anthropic corporation, which implements medical functions, and the Perplexity company, which launched a dedicated computer agent for the purposes of in-depth market research. OpenAI’s financial tool currently runs on browsers and in the iOS app. After collecting opinions from Pro version testers, the option will be available to a wider group of subscribers using the Plus package.
