Frequently Asked Questions

An expense tracker that actually does the work for you. Snap a photo of a receipt, and AI extracts the merchant, amount, date, and currency — then files it into the right category. You focus on spending; we focus on tracking it.

Two ways. The native iPhone app is launching on the US App Store — camera, Face ID lock, offline capture, GPS mileage, hands-free voice. Or install the web app to your home screen. No Android yet.

Nope. Every new account gets 5 free AI scans — 5 total, not 5 a month, no card, no clock. Manual entries and CSV imports stay free. Then pick a plan.

Email and password, or Google. On iPhone, also Sign in with Apple and passkey sign-in, plus a Face ID lock. On the web a passkey is a second factor, not a way in.

JPEG, PNG, HEIC, WebP, and PDF. Uploads are capped at 10 MB each. Snap a paper receipt, screenshot a digital one, or drop in a PDF invoice.

It's good — handles most printed and digital receipts. Handwriting and faded thermal paper can trip it up. Edit anything it gets wrong; we log extractions and corrections.

Google Gemini extracts, with xAI as the fallback. Every chat turn goes to Gemini to work out what you asked, then to xAI to write the answer. The iPhone voice assistant runs on xAI's realtime model, straight from the phone. So yes, your data leaves our servers — see the privacy policy.

Bulk upload is built in. Drag and drop multiple files — the progress window stays put until the batch finishes. Duplicates still save, but they get flagged for review.

One successful AI extraction — an upload, a forwarded email, a file from Drive or Gmail sync. Manual entries and CSV imports never count.

Type it in. Upload a file or a batch. Snap a photo, mobile web or iPhone. Drop a PDF. Import a bank CSV. Forward the receipt email. Or let Drive and Gmail sync do it.

Every project gets its own inbound address at inbound.expense-lens.com. Forward a receipt there and it's extracted and filed into that project — no picking, no tagging.

Both, through one Google connection, checked every 30 minutes. Fair warning: the permission grants read access to your whole Drive and mailbox, not just our slice, plus write access to files we create and to your Gmail labels. See the privacy policy.

Yes. Export from your bank, import the file, and the rows land as expenses. Plain parsing, not AI, so it costs you nothing from your scan allowance.

Expenses push to QuickBooks Online as Purchases, and we read back your accounts and vendors. Nightly auto-sync is off by default — switch it on per company.

Per category, per month. A nudge at 80% and 100%, in the app and by email if you want. Suggestions come from your history — plain math, not AI.

Where the money went, by category and by month, with budget and forecast views. Month-over-month and annual comparisons come as reports. All from your own data — no AI.

It spots repeating charges and flags them as recurring — including when the price quietly goes up. Handy for the streaming service that raised its rate and hoped you wouldn't notice.

Lens, the chat assistant, lives in the web app. Ask what you spent on travel last quarter, or to find a hotel receipt — it searches and answers. ⌘K palette too. 5 chats a day on the trial, more on paid plans.

Yes. On the web you enter start and destination and Google Maps does the distance. On iPhone it's Apple Maps instead — type the addresses, or let it record the drive live from GPS. Either way you get a mileage report.

iPhone only, and mileage only. Tap Voice Assistant under New — or ask Siri — then talk while you drive: it starts and stops GPS trips, saves them as mileage, and logs trips you already took. xAI gets the audio, the transcripts, your addresses and coordinates, and the amount it saved.

In the United States. Expenses in Google's nam5 US database, receipt images in a US-CENTRAL1 bucket; processing runs in Belgium. Encrypted in transit and at rest. Full list in the privacy policy.

Yes, and you should know it. Receipt images go to Google Gemini, then xAI if that fails. Forwarded emails take the same path. Every chat turn goes to Google with your categories, projects and merchants, then to xAI, or Google again if xAI is down, with your amounts and expense lines. On iPhone, a voice session sends xAI your audio, its transcripts, and the trip data it acts on — distances, addresses, coordinates, amounts. Nowhere else.

Other users see only a project you shared. We don't sell your data, advertise against it, or track you across other sites. But it's a hosted service — our server code has administrative database access, and extractions and corrections get logged. Anyone claiming otherwise is selling you something.

Two-factor with an authenticator app on every authenticated route except the ones that complete login itself, rechecked every 24 hours — and if the check itself errors, the request is refused rather than waved through. Starting a voice session on iPhone passes the same gate. Passkeys, plus a Face ID lock on iPhone. Receipt images go through an authenticated proxy, never a public URL.

Web pricing:

Starter — $4.99/mo · 30 scans/mo · 20 chats/day · 1 project
Value — $9.99/mo · 75 scans/mo · 50 chats/day · 3 projects ← most popular
Pro — $19.99/mo · 200 scans/mo · unlimited chats and projects

Annual saves up to 18% ($49/$99/$199). Apple pricing may differ on iPhone. See full pricing →

Scanning stops at the limit — the counter is enforced, so no extra scans slip through. Manual entry and CSV import keep working, always free. Upgrade for a bigger allowance, or wait for renewal: your scan count resets monthly on a monthly plan, yearly on an annual one. The 5 trial scans never reset.

EU consumers get 14 days to withdraw from a paid subscription — as long as you haven't scanned on it. Scanning waives the right. Subscribed on iPhone? Apple handles that refund, not us. Email support inside 14 days; details in the terms.

Not a blanket one, no. EU consumers get a 14-day right of withdrawal on a paid subscription, as long as you haven't scanned on it. Subscribed on iPhone? Apple decides that one.

Two clicks in Settings, or your Apple subscription settings if you subscribed on iPhone. You keep access until your billing period ends. No cancellation fees, no guilt trips.

Stripe on the web — card details go to Stripe, never to us. On iPhone it's an Apple in-app purchase, and Apple's pricing may differ.

Monthly and annual summaries with charts and breakdowns, month-over-month comparisons, and a business-versus-personal split for tax time. Foreign currencies keep their original amount and rate. PDF, CSV, or XLSX.

Schedule one and it arrives as PDF, CSV, or XLSX — by email, to Google Drive, or Dropbox. Reports are written to a folder we create. Pro adds a weekly digest.

On the web, a full CSV export of your expenses, behind two-factor. On iPhone: PDF, Excel, CSV, or “Everything”, plus mileage reports. QuickBooks counts too.

Sharing is a Pro feature. Invite up to 5 people per project as an editor (adds and changes expenses) or a viewer (looks, doesn't touch). For an accountant without a login, send a PDF or CSV.

AI detects the receipt's currency and converts at the rate from that expense's date — not today's. Rates from Open Exchange Rates, so your February trip to Japan uses February's yen rate.

158. You set your base currency in Settings, and everything converts automatically. Click the ↔ icon on any expense to toggle between the original currency and your base.

Fully. Rename them, pick custom colors, choose icons, set monthly budgets, flag them business or personal. Tags are AI-generated as the receipt is read — no manual tag editor.

English and German. Budget alerts show up in the app and, if you switch it on, by email. The iPhone app also does push notifications.

Settings → Delete Account. It runs immediately and sweeps every collection holding your data — expenses, categories, projects, receipts, logins, AI logs. What survives is non-personal, plus Stripe's own billing records. No undo, so export first.