Your money.
On your machine.
Pulse Local is a budgeting app for your desktop. It needs no account, and your questions never go to an online AI service.
Here is what it does with your transactions, and how it answers you.
For Pulse Local 0.4.34 · Updated 7 November 2026 · Mac with Apple Silicon today, Windows next
Start with your transactions.
Import the file your bank gives you: CSV, Excel, OFX, QIF, MT940 and other bank formats, or a PDF statement in beta. Monarch Money, YNAB and Copilot exports import too. Pulse reads the file on your machine. When it is not sure of a sign, a date or the currency, it tells you before it saves anything. Each account keeps its own currency, and no total adds two currencies.
Check the categories and set a monthly target for anything you want to watch. Spending shows what you have used and what is left.
Split a shared purchase across categories. Set a rule once for a shop you use often. The rule remembers the shop, not the whole bank line, so next month's charge gets the same category. Before you save a rule, Pulse shows the past transactions it matches. Carry unspent money into next month. Analysis compares months and shows where the money went.
Ask a question. Check what was counted.
Ask “How much did I spend on groceries in August?” For spending questions it supports, Pulse finds the transactions and adds them up itself, so the AI does not guess the total. A second small model also reads your question, and you see a figure only when both agree. When the two readings differ, Pulse asks which one you meant, and it shows a figure only after you tap one. The app calls this Better understanding. It is on by default on every machine.
Labels above the answer show the month and category Pulse used. Change one to adjust the question, ask “by merchant” for a breakdown, or open Transactions to see the purchases.
Pulse can still misread you. A glance at the labels catches an answer about the wrong month or the wrong kind of spending. Chat works best in English; screens are in English or Japanese.
Help with everyday terms
Ask “What is a sinking fund?” and Pulse gives a ready-written explanation. It explains the idea and leaves the decision to you.
Everything else
Other questions may go to a small AI model on your machine. Its answers are labelled. Check any figure in them.
Your conversations stay with you.
Your transactions, your chats and the AI all stay on your machine. The first start downloads the AI models once: about 830 MB in all, the money check included. You can switch the check off in Settings. After that, Local mode works offline. Update checks are optional.
Connected mode is optional. It brings in transactions from US banks automatically, through Plaid, a bank-connection service, and needs the Sync Pass: $29 a year for three banks, $8 a year for each extra, up to 25. Transactions and balances pass through our server to your machine. They are processed, not stored. The server keeps the key that maintains your bank connection, the connection's status and your Sync Pass status.
For the full list, see Privacy and data.
Where Pulse can go wrong.
Pulse knows only what you give it. It cannot see a transaction you never imported, look up a live price, or know what never reaches your bank. A forecast is an estimate, and any answer can be wrong.
When Pulse cannot back an answer with your records, or its two readings of your question disagree, it holds the figure back: it asks which reading you meant, or it tells you that it is not sure. We test it on made-up households and questions it has never seen.
Ready to try your first budget?