Nemo 1.1.0 is live for Windows and macOS — Download free →
Free Budget Planner

The free budget app that
stays on your machine

YNAB is $14.99/mo. Monarch Premium is $14.99/mo. Nemo is free. Flexible monthly budgets, AI-suggested spending limits, and smart insights — running in a desktop app on your own machine. No ads. No data selling.

Download Free Budget App
Budget planning illustration
Budget · April 2026
Budgeted
$4,200
Remaining
$1,486
Groceries
$310 / $500
Dining Out
$170 / $200
Entertainment
$45 / $100
Shopping
$275 / $250
Transport
$45 / $150

Monthly category budgets with color-coded progress bars

Other free budget software makes you wait for syncs or manual imports. Nemo updates your budgets the moment a new transaction syncs from your bank. See every category as a color-coded progress bar — green means on track, yellow means watch it, red means over. No spreadsheet required.

  • ✓ Color-coded progress bars for every budget category at a glance
  • ✓ Drill into any category to see individual transactions and trends
  • ✓ Alerts when you approach or exceed spending limits
  • ✓ Transactions and budgets live in an encrypted vault on your machine

AI budget suggestions drawn from your real spending

Stop guessing what to budget each month. Nemo reads 3–6 months of your real spending history and suggests realistic limits for every category. It detects seasonal patterns — holiday spending, summer travel, back-to-school — so your budgets flex with your life instead of breaking two weeks in. Monarch and YNAB charge $14.99/mo for similar intelligence. Nemo includes it at no cost.

  • ✓ Suggested spending limits based on your actual transaction history
  • ✓ Seasonal adjustments for holidays, travel, and irregular expenses
  • ✓ Roll over unspent amounts from month to month automatically
  • ✓ Set yearly goals and track monthly progress toward them
AI Budget Suggestion
💡 Smart suggestion:
Based on your last 6 months, you typically spend $480-$540 on groceries. I'd recommend budgeting $520 instead of your current $500.
Your spending trends:
Oct
$492
Nov
$518
Dec
$547
Jan
$476

Custom budget rules and spending limits you control

Every person's finances are different. Nemo lets you create custom budget categories, define spending limits for each one, and set up rules that auto-categorize merchants — so your spending tracker runs on autopilot. Configure threshold alerts at 50%, 80%, or 100% so you never get blindsided by overspending. This is free budget software that works the way you do.

  • ✓ Create unlimited custom budget categories beyond the defaults
  • ✓ Auto-categorize merchants with rules (e.g., Starbucks → Coffee)
  • ✓ Set budget alerts at any threshold — 50%, 80%, 100%
  • ✓ Exclude specific transactions or merchants from budget totals
Budget Rules
Starbucks, Dunkin
Auto-assign to "Coffee"
Active
Venmo, Zelle
Exclude from budgets
Active
Alert at 80%
Notify when any category hits 80%
Active
YNAB Alternative · Monarch Alternative

Why pay $14.99/mo for budgeting?

YNAB

$14.99/mo ($99/yr) for budget tracking, goal setting, and reports. Cloud-based — your data lives on their servers.

Monarch Money

$14.99/mo ($99.99/yr) for budgets, net worth, and investment tracking. Cloud-based — your data lives on their servers.

Nemo

Free. Budget tracking, AI suggestions, smart insights, and custom rules. Desktop app — your transactions stay in an encrypted vault on your machine.

Budget planning illustration

A free budget app on your own machine

Monthly budget tracking, AI suggestions, and custom rules — running in a desktop app, not a cloud dashboard.

Download Free Budget App
FAQs

Questions about Nemo's free budget planner

You set monthly spending limits for each category — groceries, dining, entertainment, subscriptions, and more. As transactions flow in from your connected accounts, Nemo automatically assigns them to budget categories and updates your progress bars in real time. You can customize everything: categories, limits, rules, and alerts. Your transaction history stays local by default.
Smart Insights is Nemo's AI-powered spending analysis. It continuously scans your transactions to detect anomalies — unusual charges, rising category trends, duplicate subscriptions, and merchant price increases. It also surfaces savings opportunities, like categories where you consistently spend less than budgeted, so you can reallocate that money toward goals. All analysis happens on your machine.
Yes. Nemo's budgeting, tracking, and insights features are included at no cost. No trial period, no feature gates, no ads, and no data selling. Nemo is a desktop app that runs locally on your computer, so there are no expensive cloud servers to maintain per user. YNAB and Monarch charge $14.99/mo because they run everything in the cloud. Nemo does not.
Three differences. First, price: YNAB costs $14.99/mo and Monarch costs $14.99/mo. Nemo is free. Second, architecture: Nemo is desktop-first and stores financial records locally by default instead of relying on a centralized vendor transaction database. Third, AI: Nemo supports your own provider key or local models, so you control where AI processing happens.
Nemo detects recurring charges at any frequency — monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual. The subscription tracker shows you the monthly equivalent for all charges, so you can plan ahead even for infrequent bills. You can also set yearly budget goals that Nemo breaks down into monthly targets automatically.

A free budget app on your own machine.

Monthly budget tracking, AI-suggested limits, and smart insights — no subscription, no ads.

Download Free Budget App

Keep exploring

Tracking →

See every dollar across all your accounts with auto-categorized transactions. Free spending tracker included.

Planning →

Set savings goals, get an AI financial plan, and answer “Can I afford this?” with confidence.

Download →

Get Nemo free on Windows or macOS. Your free budget software, up and running in minutes.