Verdict
Cleo links to a bank account and turns spending into a chat, so asking how much went on takeaways this month gets a straight answer and, on request, a roast. It returned to the UK in February 2026 after four years away, and the useful paid extras cost £12.99 a month. In the US it paid a $17 million FTC settlement over cash advances and hard-to-cancel subscriptions, and individual reviewers still complain about surprise charges.
Privacy note. Chats may be recorded for training with no opt-out described, data shared with OpenAI and ad SDKs (privacy policy); FTC settlement resolved with refunds in Oct 2026 (ftc.gov)
Best for
Younger people who find budgeting apps dull and want spending explained in chat
Skip if
Anyone after detailed budgeting, joint accounts, or no risk of a subscription they forget about
Key facts
- Category
- Money, bills & shopping
- Made by
- Cleo AI Ltd
- Based in
- United Kingdom
- Launched
- 2016
- Works on
- iPhone, Android
- In the UK
- Yes
- Price from
- £12.99 a month
- Free plan
- Free chat, budgeting, spending breakdowns and bill reminders
Pricing
| Plan | Price | Billed |
|---|---|---|
| Cleo Pro | £12.99 | month |
What it does
- explains spending and budgets through chat
- connects to bank accounts read-only and shows them in one place
- sends bill reminders
- tracks money left to spend
- Roast Mode jokes about spending habits
- Pro gives early access to up to £300 of the next pay packet
Ratings
What people say
Users like the roast-style chat and the low effort of seeing spending explained. The loudest complaints, mostly from US users, are about subscriptions they say they did not knowingly start and cash-advance repayments. The UK App Store score (4.53 from 3,257) is well above the Google Play score (3.58), which mixes in many US reviews.
“#Cleo just roasted my 2025 spending harder than my ex roasted my life choices”
Post on X, 5 January 2026 · source
“The app seemed cool at first with the AI assistant and tracking features. But then I noticed I was getting charged $5.99 every month for their subscription and I don't even remember signing up for it”
Individual user review, 12 May 2026 · source
“Honestly the AI budgeting space is full of apps that hook you with a free trial and then make it deliberately painful to leave. Cleo is just one of the more aggressive ones.”
Individual user review, 27 May 2026 · source
“I have been charged $90 since June for a $25 borrow when the agreement said it would be a $30 repayment.”
Post on X, 9 October 2026 · source
Press reviews
- The Penny Hoarder 2026-06-03
Conversational interface 'lowers the barrier to entry for new budgeters' and the free tier works on its own, but the tone 'may feel too informal for serious financial planning' (US review).
- The Next Web 2025-07-29
News report on Cleo 3.0 adding voice, long-term memory and OpenAI o3 reasoning; relays company claims of 1 million paid subscribers without independent checks.
- IT Brief UK 2026-02-06
Reports the staged UK relaunch with a waitlist; notes Cleo gave no methodology for its claim that 85% of new users feel better about money within a month.
Privacy
- Trains on your data
- Chats 'may be monitored and recorded for training or other purposes'; OpenAI provides chat functionality under its API data policy
- Opt-out
- no opt-out for chat training described in the privacy policy; account deletion removes data within 24 hours except fraud and legitimate-business records
- Retention
- Deleted within 24 hours of account deletion except data needed for fraud detection or 'any other legitimate business purpose'; anonymous data kept
- Incidents
- US FTC $17M settlement (Mar 2025) over misleading cash-advance claims and obstructed cancellations; FTC began returning $15.8M to 2.1M US customers in Oct 2026. App Store privacy label lists contact info and usage data used to track across other companies' apps; policy discloses a BitBurst offerwall SDK. FCA status: Cleo says Cleo AI Ltd is registered with the FCA (FRN 806670) under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 (per meetcleo.com FAQ as indexed); the App Store listing says Early Income 'is not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority' and Cleo 'does not offer financial advice'. Not independently confirmed on the FCA register (JavaScript-only).
- Age limit
- 18+ for Cleo Pro and Early Income per UK terms; App Store rating 9+
Official videos
- Introducing Autopilot: The Tech 2026-02-13
- From Tracker to Thinker - How Cleo’s AI Knows What You Need 2025-07-29
FAQ
Is Cleo available in the UK?
Yes. Cleo relaunched in the UK in February 2026 after pausing in 2022, starting with a staged rollout and an App Store waitlist.
How much does Cleo cost in the UK?
The chat and budgeting basics are free. Cleo Pro costs £12.99 a month and adds wage advances of £50 to £300 (with a £0.99 fee each), voice chat and memory.
Is Cleo regulated by the FCA?
Cleo says it is registered with the FCA under the Payment Services Regulations, which covers reading bank data. Its UK App Store listing says the Early Income wage advance is not FCA-regulated and that Cleo does not give financial advice.
Is Cleo safe?
It connects through Plaid with read-only access. In the US it paid a $17 million FTC settlement in 2025 over misleading cash-advance claims and cancellation problems, and its privacy policy says chats may be used for training.
Can Cleo roast my spending?
Yes. Roast Mode comments bluntly on spending choices and Hype Mode does the opposite; both are part of the free chat.
Scores are based on published evidence, not lab tests. How we score.
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