FAQ

Is Afford free? What’s in Afford Pro?

Afford is free to use, for good, with one plan, up to 10 envelopes, manual accounts and transactions, and iCloud sync across your devices — and no ads. (The payment envelopes Afford makes for credit cards don’t count toward the 10.)

Afford Pro adds:

• Unlimited plans (budgets) and envelopes
• Bank syncing with SimpleFIN
• Sharing a plan with your family
• Penny, the assistant — including the starter plan drafted from your transactions

Pro comes as a monthly or yearly subscription, or a one-time lifetime purchase; the current prices are shown in the app under Settings → Afford Pro. Purchases belong to your Apple Account (there’s no Afford account) and are shared with your Apple Family. On a new device, tap Restore purchases in the same place.

If Pro ever lapses, nothing is deleted: every plan and envelope you have stays and works as before — you just can’t add more beyond the free limits, and Pro-only features pause until you come back.

Is this just envelope budgeting?

The math, yes — envelopes, every dollar with a job, zero-based. The point, no. Budgeting apps use that math to police spending; Afford uses it to pre-approve spending. You feel the difference the first time you buy something fun and the app’s reaction is “yep, that’s what the money was for.”

How is this different from YNAB?

Same family of method, three big differences. Privacy: Afford has no accounts and no servers — your data is on your devices and your own iCloud, and the assistant runs on the device. The assistant: with Afford Pro, Penny can categorize a month, draft your starter plan, and allocate for you, entirely offline. The stance: Afford’s design goal is the instant yes, not the vigilant no.

Can I try it before setting anything up?

Yes. The first time you open Afford it starts in a demo budget full of sample data, with a one-minute guided tour. Nothing in the demo is saved or touches your own plan, iCloud or bank. Reopen it — or take the tour again — any time from Settings → Tour & demo. See Getting Started.

Does it work offline?

Fully. Every feature except bank sync, iCloud sync/sharing and an online AI service works with no connection at all — including Penny on Apple Intelligence or the downloaded on-device model.

What platforms?

iPhone, iPad and Mac — the Mac app is simply called Afford. One plan syncs across all of them through your iCloud.

Do I need SimpleFIN?

No. Afford works fully by hand: add accounts manually, tap + on Plan, Spend or Activity to record a purchase (Afford remembers each payee’s envelope, account and usual amount), and let recurring bills record their own payment on the due date. See Activity & Transactions.

If you’d rather have transactions arrive on their own, SimpleFIN gives Afford read-only access to nearly any bank, with no aggregator seeing your Afford data. Bank sync is an Afford Pro feature, and SimpleFIN Bridge is a separate service with its own small fee, paid to SimpleFIN.

Do I need Apple Intelligence for Penny?

No. Penny (an Afford Pro feature) can run on:

• Apple Intelligence, on devices that support it — zero setup.
• Gemma, a model you download once that then runs entirely on your device.
• An online service with your own API key — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, OpenRouter or Hugging Face — or your own server, such as Ollama. Your plan only reaches that service while Penny is using it.

The default, Automatic, picks for you. See Penny, the Assistant.

Can my partner and I share one plan?

Yes — that’s the normal way to run a household. See Sharing & Multiple Budgets. Starting a share takes Afford Pro; the people you invite don’t need Pro to join. Each of you keeps your own view preferences, so sharing the money doesn’t mean sharing the settings.

What happens when I overspend?

The envelope goes negative and the Plan tab says so plainly. Cover it from Available to Allocate, or from a savings or goal envelope, and if a month got away from you, Back on Track builds a one-tap plan to fix it. No streaks broken, no red badges of shame.

Can I get my data out?

Always. Settings → Import, export & repair → Export all data… saves everything as a JSON file, any time, no hoops. Coming in from Actual Budget is supported too.

Where do I report a bug or ask for something?

Email bradialabs@gmail.com — reports with a screenshot or the steps that led there are worth their weight in gold.