OpenAI wants ChatGPT to see your bank account. The pitch is convenience. The risk is everything else.

This article was published on May 16, 2026 ChatGPT can now connect to your bank accounts via Plaid, giving OpenAI access to the most intimate data category left. OpenAI has launched a personal finance experience inside ChatGPT, letting subscribers connect their bank accounts, credit cards, investment portfolios, and loan accounts to the chatbot and ask questions grounded in their actual financial data. The feature, released on 15 May, is available in preview to US-based ChatGPT Pro subscribers on web and iOS, with support for more than 12,000 financial institutions through a partnership with Plaid. The integration is straightforward. Users open a new “Finances” tab in the ChatGPT sidebar or type “@Finances, connect my accounts” in any conversation. ChatGPT guides them through linking accounts via Plaid, the same connectivity layer used by Venmo, Robinhood, and most major budgeting apps. Once connected, the chatbot generates a dashboard showing portfolio performance, spending patterns, subscriptions, and upcoming payments. Users can then ask questions like “what did my last holiday actually cost me?” or “help me build a plan to buy a house in five years.” OpenAI says ChatGPT can see