Monarch vs Copilot

The method: two trackers built on bank feeds

Both start from your bank connections, not from a budget you write first. Monarch's default is flex budgeting, which sorts spending into fixed, non-monthly and flex, and budgets around the income you expect; you can switch to classic category budgets with rollovers. Copilot is a spending tracker first, with category budgets you can turn off entirely. Both categorize transactions automatically; in Monarch, that categorization cannot be turned off.

Around the budget, Monarch Core adds savings and debt pay-down goals with guidance on how much to put in, and Plus adds retirement forecasting. Copilot keeps the emphasis on where money went, with budgets as an option rather than the centre of the app.

Neither asks you to assign every dollar. If you want the bank feed to do the work and the app to show where the money went, both fit, and the choice between them is mostly about devices, countries and the people you share with.

Pricing, properly compared

On 24 October 2026 Monarch Core cost $99.99 a year or $14.99 a month, and Monarch Plus, with forecasting and deeper investment detail, $199.99 a year, with no monthly Plus price shown. Copilot cost $95 a year on its site; the site shows no monthly price, and the App Store lists $13 a month. Neither has a free plan. Paid yearly, Copilot works out to $7.92 a month and Monarch Core to $8.33.

Copilot's trial is a month, and its site offers a test drive before you connect any account. Monarch's is 7 days, with a payment method required. Monarch offers new users 30 percent off the first year of annual Core with the code WELCOME, about $70 for that year.

Over two years, paid yearly, Monarch Core costs $199.98 and Copilot $190, a difference of $9.98; with Monarch's first-year code, Monarch Core comes to about $170. Paid monthly, Monarch Core costs $359.76 and Copilot $312 over two years, a difference of $47.76. Monarch Plus paid yearly costs $399.98. Against twelve monthly payments, paying yearly saves $79.89 a year on Monarch Core and $61 on Copilot. These sums leave out tax and the trial.

Platforms

This is the largest difference. Monarch runs on iPhone, iPad, Android and the web, with no Mac or Windows app. Copilot runs on iPhone, iPad, a native Mac app, Apple Vision and the web at app.copilot.money; it has no Android app, and none is mentioned on its pages. In a household with an Android phone, everyone can use Monarch's apps; with Copilot, the Android user would be on the web app.

Bank connections and countries

Monarch is available only in the US and Canada and connects to more than 13,000 institutions, with direct integrations for Zillow home values, Coinbase and Apple Card. Copilot works with US-based accounts only and is available only in the US App Store; it connects to more than 10,000 US institutions through Plaid and Mastercard's Finicity, with direct integrations for Venmo, Apple Card and Coinbase. For a household in Canada, only Monarch is an option.

Sharing

Monarch adds household members at no extra cost, each with their own login and the same access, with no limit stated, and both plans can give a financial professional read-only access. Copilot has no household feature: its help describes forwarding a sign-in link so a partner signs in to your account, and every signed-in device has full control of it. If each person wants their own login, or you work with an adviser, Monarch is built for it.

Currencies and offline

Neither converts currencies. Monarch shows every amount with a dollar sign, so 1,000 yen appears as $1,000, and recommends connecting only USD or CAD accounts. Copilot supports only US dollars; foreign transactions appear in dollars at the amount its data provider reports. Neither app's pages state whether it works offline.

AI, investments and Amazon

Both have an assistant that answers questions about your own data. Monarch's AI assistant is on both plans, with a weekly recap, receipt scanning and categorization, using models from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google alongside its own. Copilot Intelligence categorizes transactions, and its Money Assistant, in beta, answers questions about your accounts.

Both track investments. Copilot tracks stocks, crypto and real estate with intra-day updates and market index benchmarks. Monarch Core tracks performance and diversification, and Plus adds unrealised gains, asset allocation, retirement forecasting, business profit and loss, tax-prep exports and will creation.

Copilot's Amazon integration imports itemised Amazon orders and matches them to card transactions, in the iPhone, iPad and Mac apps, though not for Amazon Fresh or Whole Foods. If much of your spending is on Amazon, that turns one-line card charges into the things you bought.

Import, export and privacy

Both export transactions as CSV. Monarch exports transactions and balance history from the web, for one account or all of them; Copilot exports all transactions from Settings on iOS, or filtered ones on Mac, iPad and the web. Monarch imports CSV files on the web only; Copilot's pages do not describe a general CSV import.

Both say they show no ads. Copilot is built on Google Cloud, with 256-bit encryption at rest, and says its revenue comes entirely from subscriptions. Monarch's pages do not state where data is stored.