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Pulse Local
Mac budgeting app whose ledger and AI chat both stay on your machine; pay what you want.
What is Pulse Local?
Pulse Local is for people who want a full budgeting app (plans and targets, rules, rollover, splits, cash flow, forecast) but refuse to put their ledger, or their questions about it, on someone else's server. Its one job: keep the ledger on disk and answer money questions with small open models downloaded once (434 MB, plus a 2.5 GB checking model on machines with more than 16 GB of memory), so nothing is sent to a hosted AI service. Any currency, 75 countries, CSV import from any bank, no account needed. Where it falls short: Mac with Apple Silicon only for now (Windows is next, Intel Macs are unsupported), live bank sync is US-only through Plaid and is the one paid subscription, PDF statements are not read yet, chat works best in English, and an answer with the double-check on takes 12 to 14 seconds.
- Privacy-first budgeters who want AI answers without a cloud model
- Apple Silicon Mac users who import CSV statements from any bank
- Households tracking money in a non-US currency
- Mac (Apple Silicon) beta only; Windows is on the roadmap and Intel Macs are not supported
- Bank sync is US-only via Plaid: $29 a year for three banks, $8 a year per extra bank, up to 25
- Small on-device models: Pulse says it is not sure when its two readings disagree, and open questions are weaker than a frontier model
What it does
- 01Complete budgetingPlans and targets, rules, rollover, splits, cash flow and forecast, checked against six months of a real ledger.
- 02On-device chatMoney questions are answered by local models; your questions are never sent to an online AI service.
- 03Shows its workingLabels above each answer show which month and category were counted; AI answers are marked as such.
- 04Any currency, CSV import75 countries in the picker, numbers formatted the local way, bank files import from any bank.
- 05Optional Sync PassUS bank pulls through Plaid pass through the server's memory and are not stored; the server keeps only the connection token.
- 06Pay what you wantThe same app at every price: free, $20, $40 or any amount, one-time via Stripe; nothing in the app checks what you paid.
Pulse Local pricing
Change log
What our crawler noticed on pulseos.finance since listing.
- 17 Oct 2026✓Pricing matches pricing page (editor check)
- 17 Oct 2026+Listed after editor review
Questions about Pulse Local
Is Pulse Local free?
Yes. Every feature at $0 with no account. Optional one-time thank-you payments of $20, $40 or any amount fund the next release; only the US bank Sync Pass is a subscription ($29 a year).
What leaves my machine?
The one-time model download and update checks. Transactions pulled through Sync Pass pass through the server without being stored; your ledger, questions, analytics and crash logs are never sent.
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