Lunch Money vs Mint: Which Tracker Should You Use?
This is a comparison of a living product and a retired one. Lunch Money is an indie, multi-currency personal-finance app with live bank sync, crypto tracking and a developer API. Mint was the free, ad-supported US tracker Intuit shut down in March 2024. Since Mint no longer exists as a live product, the real question is whether Lunch Money is a good landing spot for its old users.
Lunch Money vs Mint: feature comparison
Feature comparison of Lunch Money, Mint and Auritrack
| Feature | Lunch Money | Mint | Auritrack |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI chat expense tracking | No | No | Yes |
| AI bookkeeping & categorization | Auto-categorization rules | No | Yes |
| Automatic bank sync | YesVia Plaid, GoCardless and SimpleFIN | YesHad automatic sync (now discontinued) | Premium; US, Canada, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa. Statement import everywhere |
| Bank-statement import (PDF/CSV/Excel) | YesCSV import | No | YesPDF, CSV or Excel, read by AI |
| Budgeting | YesCategory budgets | Yes | Yes |
| Savings goals | Tracked via budgets, not dedicated goals | Yes | Yes |
| Invoicing | No | No | Small-business records and reports |
| Receipt scanning | No | No | Yes |
| All currencies, kept separate | Yes160+ currencies with historical rates | NoUS-focused | YesEach currency kept separate |
| Data export (PDF/CSV) | YesCSV and full API access | Limited | YesPDF and CSV anytime |
| Telegram tracking | No | No | Yes@auritrack_bot |
| Investment tracking | Crypto and manual assets | Partial | No |
| Shared / household accounts | YesShared budgets | No | Yes |
| Sells your data to advertisers | No | YesAd & recommendation model | No |
| Price | $10/mo or ~$100/yr | Was free (discontinued) | Free app + web from $3/mo |
Which of the two should you pick?
Where Lunch Money wins
- Actively developed and still running, unlike shut-down Mint
- Native multi-currency across 160+ currencies with historical rates
- Built-in crypto tracking and a full developer API
- Live bank sync via Plaid, GoCardless and SimpleFIN, plus CSV import
Where Mint wins
- It was free, funded by ads and product recommendations
- Automatic bank sync pulled US transactions in with no effort
- Simple budgets and clean categories anyone could pick up
- Note: shut down by Intuit in 2024 — no longer a live product
A third option: Auritrack
If you liked that Mint did the tracking for you but do not want to pay Lunch Money’s $10/month or maintain a multi-currency setup, Auritrack sits in between. An AI logs and categorizes your spending from a chat message or an uploaded statement, then holds you to a budget, free on the mobile apps and Telegram (AI pay-as-you-go), or on the web from $3/month. Bank sync comes with the $20 Premium plan in the US, Canada, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa, and a PDF, CSV or Excel statement works from any other bank.
Or get it free on the App Store, Google Play or Telegram.
The verdict
Mint is gone, so this is really about where to land. Choose Lunch Money if you want a live, developer-friendly tracker that handles many currencies and crypto, and you do not mind paying about $10/month with no free tier. If what you actually miss is that Mint was free and automatic, an AI tracker like Auritrack gets you closer to that feeling, free on its mobile apps and Telegram.
Want to dig into one of them on its own? Read the Lunch Money guide or the Mint guide, each an honest look at where that tool wins and where Auritrack fits.
Comparisons reflect our understanding of each product at the time of writing and may change; check each provider’s site for current pricing and features. Product names and trademarks belong to their respective owners. This page is general information, not financial advice.
