Empower Personal Dashboard vs Sprout AI

Free dashboard or paid AI answers?

Empower and Sprout overlap less than their category suggests. Empower's free Personal Dashboard links your accounts and shows the big picture: net worth, investments, retirement readiness, and a budget view. Sprout is built for the daily question "where did my money go?", answered in plain English from the accounts you connect, with the accounts and dates behind every number.

Price is the obvious difference. Empower charges nothing for the dashboard. Sprout Plus costs US$99.99 per year as of October 2026, or US$9.99 per week, with a 3-day free trial for eligible Apple accounts on iPhone. What you pay for is the conversation: asking follow-up questions and getting exact answers instead of reading charts.

What Empower does best

Empower is strongest when your question is about wealth over decades. Its Retirement Planner lets you test-drive retirement scenarios, its portfolio analysis shows your risk level and where your money is invested, and its net worth view puts assets and debts in one place. Sprout doesn't analyze portfolios or plan retirement, so if that is your priority, Empower is the better tool.

Empower's dashboard grew out of Personal Capital, and Empower has said the dashboard and its features will remain free. It runs on the web and in the Empower app on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Android. It's a strong default for anyone who wants a long-term view at no cost, and you can add Sprout later for everyday questions.

What Sprout does best: everyday money questions

Sprout is for the questions you have on a Tuesday: how much did takeout cost this month, which subscriptions renew next week, did that $84.12 charge hit twice. Type it the way you'd say it and Sprout answers with totals calculated on its server, charts or tables when they help, and the accounts and date range it used.

It also builds a light daily habit on iPhone. The Money Minute compares yesterday's spending with your usual day, and Weekly and Monthly Money Wrapped recap where it went. Home Screen widgets and a Live Activity keep today's spending in view, and you can check in with Siri, Shortcuts, or the Action button.

• Period comparisons: the exact change and percentage between two months, quarters, or custom ranges.
• Cash flow: inflows, outflows, and net cash flow by day, week, or month, with transfers between your own accounts left out.
• Subscriptions: detected recurring charges with estimated next dates, annual cost, and price changes to review.
• Unusual charges: unusually large expenses and possible duplicates, flagged as items to check.

Canada, Mac, and AI assistants

Empower's help center says account linking supports US-based financial institutions with balances in US dollars, and sign-up needs a valid US phone number. You can track other accounts by adding them manually. Sprout links eligible banks in the US and Canada through Plaid and keeps USD and CAD separate, never combined or converted.

On Apple devices, Sprout has native apps for iPhone, iPad, and the Mac App Store, plus Home Screen widgets and a Live Activity for today's spending. Empower's app is listed for iPhone and iPad and can run on Apple-silicon Macs as an iPad app. Sprout also works inside Claude, and its ChatGPT app is in review with OpenAI.

How each company makes money

Empower offers the dashboard free and also sells financial services. Empower Personal Cash is a cash management account whose deposits are swept to program banks, and Personal Strategy is a professionally managed portfolio priced at 0.89% a year for clients with $100,000 to $249,999 invested, as of October 2026. The free dashboard is useful on its own, and it also introduces you to those paid services.

Sprout makes money from Sprout Plus subscriptions. It doesn't sell personal data, and it can't move money, open accounts, or sell investments. An AI provider receives only your question and the records needed to answer it. If you want a money app with a single, visible business model, that is the trade.

Using both, or moving to Sprout

You don't have to pick one. Empower and Sprout read your accounts separately, so you can keep Empower for net worth, retirement, and portfolio analysis while Sprout handles everyday questions about spending, subscriptions, and cash flow. Running both for a month is the easiest way to see which one you open more.

If you'd rather start with Sprout, setup takes a few steps and you can stop during the trial. Sprout Plus renews automatically through Apple, so cancel at least 24 hours before the trial ends if you decide it isn't for you.

1. Try the sample data

   Explore Sprout's fictional sample data to see real-looking answers before you connect a bank.

2. Start the trial on iPhone

   Subscribe to Sprout Plus in the iPhone app. Eligible Apple accounts get 3 days free, and Apple confirms your local price.

3. Connect your everyday accounts

   Link the checking, savings, and credit card accounts you spend from through Plaid. Sprout gets read-only access and never sees your bank password.

4. Ask about last month

   Ask "Where did my money go last month?" and "Which subscriptions renew this month?", then compare with your Empower budget view.

5. Keep or close Empower

   Closing your Empower dashboard is up to you. If you hold Empower Personal Cash or a managed portfolio, contact Empower about those accounts before you close anything.