How Aviary works
Aviary is a budget app you log yourself, built to be quick enough that you keep doing it. Here’s the method, the fast ways to log, and answers to what people ask most.
How categories work
All income gets assigned to a category: rent, food, subscriptions, whatever you spend on. Money that hasn’t been assigned yet sits in Ready to Assign. Overspend a category and you move money into it from another one; the total never lies, it just moves. At the start of a new month, each category keeps the amount you assigned last month, so you don’t set it all up again. Unspent money doesn’t carry over inside a category: each month starts fresh.
Logging without the homework
- Habit nudges. Log the same thing around the same time on the same weekday a few times, and Aviary nudges you 15 minutes after, details filled in. One tap logs it.
- Catch up in one line. Missed a day? Open Ask Aviary and type “auto 240, lunch 150”. You check the spends before they’re logged.
- Scan a bill. Snap a receipt and Aviary reads every line, and splits it if you shared.
- Recurring expenses. Rent and subscriptions log themselves on their due date.
- The widget. On Android, see what’s left from your home screen and tap + to log.
Common questions
Do I connect my bank? How do expenses get added?
There’s no bank connection. You log purchases yourself, which makes spending a deliberate check-in. Habit nudges, the home-screen widget, recurring expenses, receipt scanning and typing a few spends at once keep that quick. Transactions aren’t imported from your bank.
How is Aviary different from an expense tracker?
An expense tracker tells you where your money went. Aviary helps you decide where it goes before you spend it. You give your money jobs in categories, like rent, groceries and fun, and every log shows what’s left for that job. It’s the method YNAB made popular, built for logging on your phone in one tap.
How does Aviary learn my habits?
It looks at what you’ve logged. Log the same thing on the same weekday, around the same time, three times in eight weeks, and Aviary treats it as a habit. It then nudges you 15 minutes after your usual time with the details filled in. You can turn nudges off in notification settings.
What if I miss a few days?
Nothing breaks. Open Ask Aviary and type whatever you remember, like “auto 240, lunch 150, Friday dinner 900”. Aviary turns it into separate spends, picks the categories, and you check them before they’re logged. Two missed days take about a minute.
How much does Aviary cost?
Every account starts with a free 30-day trial of the whole app, and you don’t need a card to start. After that it’s a monthly or yearly subscription. Cancel any time. There are no ads, and your data is never sold. See plans and pricing.
Is there an iPhone app?
Not yet. Aviary is on Android and the web today, and the web app works in Safari on iPhone. Join the iPhone waitlist at the bottom of the home page and you’ll hear when it’s ready.
Can I use it on my phone and computer?
Yes. Android and web share your account’s budgets and transactions. Android also offers a home-screen widget and notifications. New expenses can be logged offline on mobile and sync when you reconnect; other actions need a connection.
What happens to my financial data?
Amounts, notes and other sensitive fields are encrypted with AES-256-GCM, and the key is kept apart from the database. The server decrypts them to run the app; this isn’t end-to-end encryption. Ask Aviary and AI briefs send relevant transaction and budget context to Google Gemini, and bill scanning sends receipt photos. There are no ads, and your data is never sold. You can export or delete your data in account settings. Read the privacy policy.
What’s a category?
A category is a slice of your money set aside for one purpose, like rent, groceries or fun. Your bank balance mixes all of those together. Categories show what’s available for each one before you spend. Savings is a purpose too: you don’t have to spend everything you set aside.
I’ve put every rupee in a category. Am I out of money?
No. It means all your money has a purpose. It’s still yours until you spend it. Check each category to see what’s left for that purpose.
Why not just use a spreadsheet?
A spreadsheet can do the math. The hard part is keeping it up on your phone, at the counter, every day. Aviary has the method built in, and most logs take one tap.
Does it work if my income changes every month?
Yes. You only budget money you already have. When a payment lands, give it jobs: rent first, then essentials. A slow month just fills fewer categories.
What if Aviary shuts down?
You won’t get stuck. Export your data to CSV any time, even without a subscription. And the code stays open source on GitHub.
Can I use another currency?
Yes. Choose your display currency during setup or change it in More. One currency applies to your whole budget; changing it doesn’t convert amounts.
Still stuck?
Write to the person who builds Aviary on the contact page, or see what changed recently. Signed in? The guided tour walks you through your own budget.