Available May 2026

Know your money in
30 seconds a day.

Small daily habits reveal your real spending. After 30 days, you'll know exactly what a budget should look like — built from how you actually live.

See how it works → Take the 30-day challenge →

No bank sync · End-to-end encrypted · No ads, ever

5:51
‹ Apr 14, 2026 ›
$7,629 of $7,640 monthly take-home allocated
Spending Bills Annual
THIS MONTH$398 under
$415 spent$1,327 left
Eating Out$70 under
$105 spent$270 left
Fun$54 under
$39 spent$161 left
Giving$5 under
$32 spent$48 left
‹ Apr 14, 2026 ›
Eating Out$70 under
Fun$54 under
Giving$5 under
Groceries$71 under
Household$23 under
"I spent four dollars on coffee at Starbucks and paid with the Starbucks app."
Amount$4.00
PayeeStarbucks
CategorySnacks › Coffee
AccountStarbucks App
Edit manually
‹ Apr 2026 ›
↓ You've been under budget for 5 months in a row. Keep it up.
MJJASONDJFMA
May 2025 – Apr 2026
All Eating Out Fun Giving Groce…
Eating Out25%
Transportation24%
Groceries19%
Personal Care12%
Fun9%
Other9%
0
days of honest tracking before your first budget
0
bank connections required. ever.
0s
tap or voice to log a transaction
0%
donated to charitable causes
How it works

The budgeting app that starts with honesty.

📋
Track first, budget second
Spend 30 days logging honestly. After 30 days, you'll know exactly what a budget should look like — built from how you actually live.
🎙️
Log with your voice
Say "coffee, $4.50" and Carlo fills in the rest. Fast, frictionless, no typing required.
📊
Know before you spend
Before you go out to eat, open Carlo. You'll see exactly how much is left in that category — instantly. No math, no digging. Just the number you need, right when you need it.
🔒
Privacy that means something
No ads. No data selling. No Plaid. No bank connection. Ever.
⚡
Friction is the feature
Manual logging creates a pause between spending and recording. That pause is where awareness lives. No auto-sync. No passive watching. Just you and your numbers.
🙏
Giving as a first-class feature
Named after St. Carlo of Assisi. Charitable giving has its own category, its own tracking, its own reflection. And 10% of Carlo profits go to charitable causes.

"The best budget isn't the one you planned — it's the one built from how you actually live."

The Carlo philosophy

The research

Why manual tracking actually works

Most finance apps treat logging as a necessary evil — something to automate away. Carlo treats it as the point. There's a well-documented mechanism in behavioral psychology called self-monitoring: actively recording your own behavior changes the behavior itself.

When you have to log a purchase, something small happens: you think about it. That brief pause between impulse and record is where different decisions become possible. Automated sync eliminates that pause entirely. Carlo puts it back.

29
financial self-control studies in a 2021 meta-analysis found statistically significant effects on real spending behavior
2
steps: log the expense → see the impact — associated with reduced discretionary spending (2023 Journal of Consumer Interests)
1
brief moment of conscious attention is the key mediating variable — not the data itself
Read the full research breakdown →
The competition

Why Carlo is different

vs. YNAB
YNAB asks you to budget before you know how you spend. Carlo tracks reality first, then builds your budget from it.
See the full comparison →
vs. Rocket Money
Rocket Money shows you your money. Carlo makes you feel it. No bank connection. No auto-sync. Just you and your numbers.
See the full comparison →
vs. Monarch Money
Monarch is powerful, but complex. Carlo is one thing done well: honest tracking that leads to a budget you'll actually stick to.
See the full comparison →
Pricing

Simple, honest pricing.

$50
per year
or $5/month · 30-day free trial

No credit card required during trial. Cancel anytime.

You'll surprise yourself.

30 days. No budget targets. Just your real numbers.

Available on Android · iOS coming soon