Let's clear the air
If you need more details, open an issue on GitHub or chat with Clara directly.
- What is Clara?
- Clara is an AI financial assistant: a conversational expense tracker that understands bank screenshots, PDFs, CSVs and voice notes from the web chat or Telegram. She helps you plan monthly expenses, and on desktop you can also view the month as a bank-grouped spreadsheet.
- How much does it cost?
- Clara is open source under the MIT license and free to self-host. The version we host includes 30 free daily queries with the assistant. If that's tight and you want to help cover infrastructure, you can upgrade to the Supporter plan for €7.99/month (200 daily queries) or send a one-time donation in the amount of your choice from the chat. Donations and subscription are optional: the product is still free for most people.
- Does Clara have a spreadsheet / Excel-style view?
- Yes, on desktop screens. On the month page (/m/YYYY-MM) the default is Expenses table: a bank-grouped spreadsheet with filters, charts, and a Simulate mode to try scenarios without saving. On phones you keep the chronological list. Clara’s answers about numbers are informational and can be wrong; they are not financial advice.
- How does Clara process PDFs and bank statements?
- Clara uses multimodal language models via Vercel AI Gateway to extract transactions from PDFs, screenshots and CSVs. Processing runs on Vercel Functions: the file is uploaded to Vercel Blob temporarily, the model extracts the data, and Clara shows you a proposal before saving anything to your database.
- Which banks are supported?
- Any bank in the world: import PDFs/CSVs or register expenses manually via chat or voice note. In Europe, if enabled on your account, you can also connect the bank via Open Banking (read-only, through Enable Banking). Clara never initiates payments or moves money.
- What does she do with my data?
- Your data lives in your Postgres database (ours if you use the hosted version, yours if you self-host). No telemetry, no data sales, no model training on your info. For LLM calls we use Vercel AI Gateway in zero data retention mode.
- What languages does it work in?
- Clara works in rioplatense Spanish (default) and English. You can switch language from the menu or just ask Clara in chat. The full UI, public pages and agent respect the choice.
- Can I use Clara with my own AI assistant (Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT)?
- Yes. Clara exposes an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server at /api/mcp/user. You generate a token from Settings → AI access, paste it into Claude Desktop, Cursor or any MCP client, and your assistant can list months, query balance, add expenses and mark them as paid — always with your permission.
- Is it self-hostable?
- Yes. The stack is Next.js 16 + Postgres + Prisma + Vercel AI SDK. Clone the repo, configure .env (DATABASE_URL, NEXTAUTH_SECRET, AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY), run the migrations, and deploy to Vercel in one click. The full guide is in the README.
- How does it compare to other finance apps?
- Mint, YNAB, Fintonic and similar are spreadsheets with better design: rows, categories and reports. Clara is chat-first: you talk to her in plain language, send her a PDF and she understands, send a voice note and she registers the expense. When you want the month as a spreadsheet, you also get that on desktop. AI is the core of the product, not a marketing feature. And it is open source.