Cleo Review: Pros, Cons, And Alternatives

Cleo is a financial assistant that offers two main services: the first is a text based/natural language interaction with your money and accounts. This can be text based budgeting, spending tracking, recommendations, and more.

Second, Cleo offers a paid service that offers overdraft protection and spending rewards. They also offer credit building services as well.

Depending on your money habits and needs, these can be compelling offers. Find out more in our Cleo review below.

What Is Cleo?

Cleo is an AI-driven app that helps you track your spending, save money, and achieve your goals. The AI chatbot makes it easy to use Cleo's budgeting tools to help you understand how much you can spend before your next paycheck (i.e., takeout). 

The company behind Cleo is Cleo AI Ltd. Cleo was founded in 2016 by Barney Hussey-Yeo and was initially focused on EU users then later expanded to the U.S. The company has raised $137 million in funding and is presently valued at approximately $500 million dollars. To date, Cleo has assisted over 7 million clients with their finances.

“We serve 20 to 30-year-olds, and 60 percent of them have overdrafts and they use credit cards. There’s nothing out there that helps them make better decisions in the long term, nothing that guides them through this sort of stuff,” Hussey-Yeo told the Center for Data Innovation in an interview.

In a comment to Forbes, he explained, “Traditional financial products, such as overdraft fees or credit cards, don’t work for millennials. This generation expects intuitive and supportive technology that speaks its language without complexity or condescension.”

What Do They Offer?

Cleo offers two products. One is free and lets users type in natural language text to get information about their finances. There is also a fee-based subscription service that provides overdraft protection and spending rewards.

Cleo can be accessed through iOS and Android. The Cleo app has a 4.6/5 rating on the Apple App Store out of over 70,000 ratings. Cleo has nearly 4 million users worldwide.

Cleo’s Free Service

With Cleo’s free subscription you can:

• Set up a budget
• Autosave
• Track your money
• Get speedy support (replies take 6 minutes on average)

The free service lets you query financial transactions by typing commands and questions to Cleo through the Cleo app. Some commands and questions include:

• Am I overpaying for energy?
• What’s my average food spend?
• How long until payday?
• What is my salary?
• What’s my biggest expense?
• What’s my budget?
• How much have I spent on Ubers this month?
• Show me graphs!
• Show my upcoming bills.

Cleo Grow

Grow is the newest Cleo subscription tier. It's $2.99 per month and gives users access to Cleo's new high-yield savings account (see below), which is currently paying 3.33% APY. Included with the savings account are the following four AI-powered automated savings tools: 

Set & Forget: Set up automatic weekly contributions to savings 

Smart Save: Cleo analyzes your finances, and tailors your savings based on its findings. 

Roundups: Similar to Acorns, Cleo Roundups round up your purchases to the next dollar and move the excess funds to savings automatically. 

The Swear Jar: Users can set "guilty pleasure" stores on the Cleo app. Every time you shop at that store, Cleo will "fine" you by moving a predetermined amount of money, e.g. $2.00, to your savings account.

Cleo Plus

Cleo Plus ($5.99/month) is a subscription which gives you access to more financially useful features which, over time, helps build your credit history. You'll get everything from Cleo Grow, plus the following: 

With the Cleo Plus cash advance feature, you can access some cash —up to $100 if you qualify. First-time users usually get between $20 to $70.

Cleo says this feature is intended to help you get cash instead of spending what you don't have and incurring overdraft fees. This feature is interest-free and doesn't come with credit checks so it won't affect your credit score. 

Cleo Plus includes everything the free subscription offers, plus the following:

• Cash advance up to $100 (up to $250 for eligible users)
• Access to your credit scoring
• Personalized saving goals and round ups
• Cash back at Cleo-partner stores

Cleo Credit Builder

Cleo's Credit Builder service is $14.99 monthly. In addition to all of the features in Cleo Plus, users unlock the following:

• 0% APR secured Visa credit card (no credit check required)
• Access to Cleo credit building services 
• Cash advances up to $500 
• Get your paycheck up to 2 days early
• Priority customer support 

Once the card is set up, you add cash to your secured balance. Then, make purchases with your card or set up recurring bill payments. The money you spend will be covered through autopay or your security deposit balance. Cleo will then report your payments to the three credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. 

Cleo High-Yield Savings

Cleo has joined the long list of fintech companies offering high-yield savings accounts. Cleo's banking services are provided by Thread Bank. This partnership also means that deposits are FDIC-insured, as Thread is an FDIC member bank. 

As of January 2026, Cleo's high-yield savings account is paying an attractive 2.75% APY. The account incorporates a Savings Goal feature that allows you to enter an amount you want to save along with a target date.

 You can also automate your savings in three ways: Set & Forget, Smart Save, or Swear Jar. The latter penalizes you for spending at stores that you have set as "guilty pleasures." When you spend at those stores, Cleo will move a predetermined amount from your spending to your savings account. 

Are There Any Fees?

If you only want to query your financial transactions, there’s no fee. Cleo Grow is $2.99/month. Cleo Plus, which adds cash advances of up to $250 and basic credit score tracking features, is $5.99/month. If you want to use Cleo's full credit building services, you'll need to pay $14.99 per month for Cleo Builder. 

How Do I Open an Account?

You can sign up at https://www.meetcleo.com.

Is My Money Safe?

Yes — Cleo uses bank-grade encryption. The app connects to your bank using Plaid. Plaid is a trusted source and used by popular financial companies such as Venmo, Betterment, Coinbase, American Express, Acorns, and Fannie Mae.

After signing up, you’ll link your bank account to Cleo. Cleo will analyze your transactions. Don’t worry, Cleo has read-only access. It can not move money around or make any changes to your accounts.

Cleo has also set up an insurance policy to further protect its customers. In an interview with badcredit.org, Cleo’s Content and Communications Manager El Winter said, “We also have a $250,000 insurance policy so in the event that there are any security slip-ups, you are completely insured.”

Is It Worth It?

The free version of Cleo may seem like a no-brainer. Of course, as with any service, you are giving up some of your information. That is the trade-off we all face when using most free services. Cleo does say it takes steps to protect your data.

As for Cleo Plus at $5.99/month, most banks offer overdraft protection for free. Cleo Plus does have a rewards program, and its high-yield savings account offers an attractive APY. But at $5.99/month, does it beat the rewards program offered by your credit card company, which doesn’t cost anything? And if you want the cash advance/overdraft feature, there are other products that offer this.

For those reasons, Cleo Plus may have a tough time justifying its value.