Privacy and data
Your transactions and conversations are saved on your machine. Connecting a bank is optional. This page explains what is shared if you do, and how to keep control of your data.
For Pulse Local 0.4.26 · Pulse Browser, Inc.
Using Pulse without a bank connection
You can import bank exports and use Pulse without an account. Your transactions, budgets, questions and answers stay on your machine. Chat runs there too. We do not receive a cloud copy of your records.
The app does not send analytics or automatic crash reports. It uses the internet to download its AI files from Hugging Face during setup: about 830 MB in all on every machine, 434 MB with Better understanding off. One of them, a 397 MB model that double-checks answers, is downloaded once, and only while Better understanding is on in Settings (the default on every machine). After setup, you can use Local mode offline.
Optional update checks contact pulse-browser.com to find out whether a newer version is available. They do not send your app version, an account identifier or financial information. You can turn them off in Settings, and that choice stays in place if you use Start fresh. Downloading an update contacts our download service and file host.
If you connect a bank
Connected mode brings in new transactions through Plaid, a service that connects apps to banks. It is optional and currently supports US banks.
Setting up the connection. You connect through Plaid in your browser. Pulse creates an account for your device using a random identifier, without asking for your name or email. This keeps track of your bank connection and Sync Pass.
What passes through our server. New and updated transactions, account names and balances pass through Pulse’s server on their way to your machine. They are processed there but are not saved there. When a charge from your bank is still pending after five days, the app sends that charge’s id and a date to Pulse’s server, which asks your bank whether the charge still exists. The server returns only ids and keeps none of them.
What we keep. We keep the key needed to maintain the bank connection, the bank’s name, connection status, when and how it last synced, whether new data is waiting, and any connection error. We also keep the status of your Sync Pass.
What stays on your machine. Your saved transaction history, conversations, budget categories and rules are not uploaded as part of bank sync.
Billing. Stripe handles your Sync Pass payment and holds your card and billing details. Pulse does not store your payment method.
Plaid has its own privacy policy, shown when you connect. Review it to understand how Plaid handles your bank credentials and information.
Signing in to a bank again
If your bank asks you to sign in again, choose Sign in again in the app’s bank settings. Plaid repairs the same connection: no new connection is made, and Pulse keeps only the same connection key as before.
Disconnecting a bank
Choose Disconnect in the app’s bank settings. Pulse asks Plaid to end the connection, then removes our connection record. Transactions you have already imported stay on your machine.
If Plaid cannot complete the disconnection, we keep the connection key and mark it for removal so it can be disconnected later. Disconnecting a bank does not cancel your Sync Pass. You can cancel it separately in Settings, under Sync Pass and billing.
Sending feedback
Send feedback prepares an email in your own email app. You review and send it yourself. Nothing is attached automatically.
You choose whether to include your app version, operating system or questions Pulse could not answer. Anything you include in that email is shared with us.
Back up, export or delete your data
Data & export saves your transactions as a CSV file that you can read in a spreadsheet or import into Pulse again. For a full backup that also keeps budgets, rules, goals and settings, follow the backup instructions.
Start fresh deletes your transactions, budgets, rules, goals and balances from this machine. Removing the Pulse Local data folder also removes the downloaded AI files. If you use bank sync, disconnect each bank and cancel your Sync Pass before removing the app’s data.
Before an update changes your data, Pulse Local saves a copy of it in a backups folder on your machine; that copy can still hold rows you deleted later, and Start fresh deletes it.
To request deletion of your device account and its connection records, email us at the address below.
Questions and changes
This policy covers the Pulse Local desktop app, made by Pulse Browser, Inc. The hosted Pulse service has a separate privacy policy. We update this page when Pulse Local changes how it handles your information.
For privacy questions or deletion requests, email niz@pulseos.finance.
Last updated 26 October 2026