Good questions,
honest answers

BankBird is a personal finance app. You load in your bank statements (PDF or CSV), and the app shows you clearly where your money goes — broken down by month, sorted into categories you choose or let AI fill in for you.

It runs on your own computer. No subscription, no account with us, no ads.

Nothing. BankBird is free. Completely. No trial period, no features locked behind a paywall.

The only optional cost is AI categorisation, if you want it. For that you need your own account with Claude or OpenAI — both charge per use, typically a few cents a month for personal use. We earn nothing from this.

Anyone who wants to stay on top of their money without handing their data to a third party. That includes privacy-conscious people, freelancers tracking their spending, families budgeting together, or anyone who simply does not want a monthly subscription.

No technical knowledge needed — AI helps you with the installation.

BankBird is built by Aivion Studios as an open-source project. The code is publicly available on GitHub and everyone is welcome to contribute.

Currently fully supported: ING (PDF and CSV), SNS (PDF) and Knab (PDF).

In development: Rabobank and ABN AMRO. Other Dutch and European banks can be added — we are gauging demand.

Missing your bank? Open an issue on GitHub.

On your own computer. We have no server that receives or stores your information. We literally cannot see your transactions — everything stays with you.

With a local install (the default), all your data lives in a single file on your own laptop. Delete that file and your data is gone.

Account numbers are stored encrypted. Passwords are secured in a way that makes them unreadable — even to us.

You can enable two-step verification from your profile, so that even someone who knows your password cannot log in.

Using BankBird with multiple people? Each person only sees their own accounts and transactions.

Not by default. BankBird does not send data anywhere.

The only exception is if you choose to enable AI categorisation. In that case, only the text description of each transaction (such as "Albert Heijn" or "Spotify") is sent to suggest a category. Amounts, account numbers, and personal details are never included. This is fully opt-in and can always be turned off.

Yes. Since BankBird runs on your own computer, you always have direct access to your data. You can open and export everything using a free tool like DB Browser for SQLite.

A built-in export feature is on the roadmap.

The easiest way: install Laravel Herd (free download), then ask Claude Code or Codex: "Install BankBird (https://github.com/AivionStudiosPlayground/bankbird) for me." The AI takes care of the rest.

A full walkthrough with screenshots is on the installation page.

Windows and macOS — installation is smoothest here using Herd.

Linux works too, but requires a few more manual steps. See the installation page for details.

No. AI installs BankBird for you — you do not need to know how it works under the hood. Give one instruction to Claude Code or Codex and it handles everything.

Want to do it yourself? All the steps are on the installation page.

No, not if you use Herd. Herd starts automatically when your computer boots. BankBird runs in the background at http://bankbird.test. Just open your browser and it is running.

Without Herd you do need to start the app manually each session — which is why we recommend Herd.

Yes. BankBird supports multiple users with each person's data kept separate. For online use you will need your own server or hosting. The "Online usage" section on the installation page explains how to set that up.

BankBird automatically shows a notice at the top of every page as soon as a new version is available. The Updates page in the admin panel shows what is new and lets you start the update.

The current version is always shown at the bottom of the page — for example v2.1.1.

Just like the installation — give Claude Code or Codex the instruction: "Update BankBird (https://github.com/AivionStudiosPlayground/bankbird) for me." The AI backs up your data, fetches the new version, and makes sure everything works again.

Want to do it yourself? The Updates page in the admin panel lists the exact steps under "Or manually (for developers)".

Yes, as long as you put your changes in the right place. BankBird has two special folders we never touch during updates:

• app/Custom/ — for your own PHP code (custom Filament resources, services, jobs)
• resources/views/custom/ — for your own Blade templates

Everything in these folders survives every update intact. Each folder contains a README.md with examples.

Changes to our core files are at your own risk — updates may introduce conflicts you will need to resolve manually.

Settings such as logo, colours, and AI keys are managed through the Settings page in the admin panel. These are always preserved across updates.

BankBird can automatically categorise transactions using AI. It reads the description ("Albert Heijn 1234 Amsterdam", "Spotify Premium") and suggests a category ("Groceries", "Subscriptions"). You end up doing far less sorting by hand.

Entirely optional. Without AI, BankBird works great — set up your own rules or categorise manually.

You use your own account with Claude (Anthropic) or OpenAI — both charge per use. For personal use that is typically a few cents a month.

We earn nothing from this. You pay the AI provider directly.

Only the transaction description — the text as it appears on your bank statement. Not included: the amount, your account number, your name, or the date.

So the AI sees "Albert Heijn 1234" and returns "Groceries". Nothing more.

Yes. Simply leave the key field empty and BankBird will never send anything anywhere. Categorisation then works via your own rules or manually.

Open source means that anyone can read, copy, modify, and use the full code of BankBird. No hidden features, no secret algorithms.

The code is on GitHub. You can read through it yourself.

BankBird is published under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0).

In short: you may use it, modify it, and share it. But if you offer BankBird (or a modified version) as an online service to others, you must also share the code you changed. This prevents anyone from quietly taking the app and selling it as a paid product.

Yes, freely. For yourself, your family, your friends, or internally within your company — change whatever you like. Add features, change the look, integrate your own bank: go for it.

You do not need to share those changes as long as you are only using BankBird privately or internally.

Anyone can download the original for free from GitHub, so simply reselling it makes little sense. Charging for help — installation, customisation, hosting — is fine. But the AGPL licence does require you to share any code changes you make openly.

Yes, provided you share any code changes you make with your users, under the same licence. If you offer a hosted BankBird service, you must include a link to your modified source code.

The code is open, but the logo and the name "BankBird" are our trademarks. Building your own fork? Please pick your own name and logo — it avoids confusion for users.

Very welcome. Report bugs, share ideas, contribute code — all via GitHub. Open an issue for ideas, or send a pull request for concrete changes.