How to connect ChatGPT to your finances with Era

Era gives ChatGPT direct access to your bank accounts, credit cards, and investments through the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Once connected, you can ask ChatGPT about your money the same way you ask it anything else — and it responds with real data, not generic advice.

Setup takes about five minutes. Here's how.

Why connect ChatGPT to your finances

You already use ChatGPT to think through problems, draft plans, and make decisions. But when it comes to money, you've been on your own — copying numbers from bank apps, pasting spreadsheets, describing your situation from memory.

Era Context changes that. It's a personal MCP server that sits between your financial accounts and your AI agents. Connect it once, and ChatGPT can see your balances, search your transactions, analyze your spending, and remember your financial goals. Your AI already knows how to reason about money. It just needs access.

What you need

• A ChatGPT account (Plus, Team, or Enterprise with MCP support)
• A bank account at a supported institution (Era supports thousands through its banking data provider)
• Five minutes

Step 1: Create your Era account

Go to era.app and sign up. The Basic tier is free — it includes two connected accounts with read-only MCP access, which is everything you need to get started.

Step 2: Connect your bank

From Era Context, start the bank connection flow. Era uses MX, a regulated financial data provider, to link your accounts securely. Your bank credentials are never stored by Era — MX handles them during the authentication process.

Pick your bank, sign in, complete any multi-factor authentication, and you're connected. Most banks are live in under 30 seconds.

Step 3: Add Era Context to ChatGPT

In ChatGPT, open Settings and find the MCP server configuration. Add a new MCP server with this URL:

https://context.era.app

That's the full URL. No path, no trailing slash.

Step 4: Authorize the connection

ChatGPT will redirect you to an OAuth consent screen where you grant it permission to access your financial data through Era. Review the permissions, approve, and you're live.

This authorization is explicit and revocable. You can disconnect ChatGPT from Era Context at any time.

Step 5: Start talking to your money

Open a new ChatGPT conversation and try one of these:

"What's my chequing account balance right now?"

ChatGPT pulls the number from Era Context in real time. No plugins, no workarounds.

"How much did I spend on groceries this month?"

ChatGPT searches your transactions, totals the grocery category, and gives you the answer.

"Compare my spending this month to last month"

A side-by-side breakdown, pulled from your actual data.

Conversations to try after connecting

Here's where it gets interesting. These aren't hypothetical — they work right now with Era Context connected:

Budgeting check-in: "I'm trying to keep my dining out under $300 this month. Where am I at?"

Subscription audit: "List all my recurring charges. Are there any I'm paying for but probably not using?"

Cash flow planning: "I get paid on the 15th and 30th. Based on my upcoming recurring charges, how much discretionary spending do I have until my next paycheque?"

Spending patterns: "What are my top 5 spending categories over the last 3 months? How do they compare to the 3 months before that?"

Financial context: "I'm thinking about whether I can afford a $1,200 vacation next month. Look at my income, recurring expenses, and current balances and tell me what you think."

Each of these uses Era Context's MCP tools — 33 tools across 7 groups — to pull real data and give you real answers. ChatGPT selects the right tools automatically based on your question.

Cross-agent memory

Era Context includes cross-agent memory. When you tell ChatGPT something about your finances — "I'm saving for a down payment" or "I consider anything over $100 a big purchase" — Era remembers it. And that memory syncs across every AI agent you connect.

Switch to Claude tomorrow, and it already knows your savings goal. No re-explaining. Your financial context follows you.

You control this memory completely. Ask any agent to forget something, and it's gone everywhere. Your data is never shared with other users or used to train models.

Troubleshooting

ChatGPT can't connect to the MCP server Verify the URL is exactly https://context.era.app. No /sse, no extra path.

OAuth redirect doesn't work Sign into your Era account at era.app in the same browser first, then retry.

Data seems stale or missing New bank connections may take a moment to sync fully. Check Era Context directly — if your accounts and transactions appear there, they'll show up in ChatGPT shortly.

Limited functionality The Basic (free) tier includes read-only access to two accounts. For automation rules, unlimited categories, and more accounts, check out the Organize tier ($14.99/month).

Security

Your financial data is protected with:

• AES-256 encryption at rest
• TLS 1.3 in transit
• Bank credentials never stored by Era
• Data never sold or shared without your explicit permission
• Revocable access — disconnect any AI agent anytime

Era Financial Advisors LLC is SEC-registered (CRD #334404), built by a team from Stripe, Robinhood, CashApp, Apple, and Google.

What's next

You've connected ChatGPT to your bank accounts. Here's how to get more out of it:

• Connect additional accounts — credit cards, investments, accounts at other banks
• Set financial goals — tell ChatGPT what you're saving for and let cross-agent memory track it
• Try other agents — Era works with any MCP-compatible client, including Claude, Cursor, OpenClaw, Manus, Gemini, and more. One setup, every agent.
• Explore automation — on the Organize tier, you can create rules in plain English that auto-categorize transactions, flag unusual charges, and keep your finances tidy

ChatGPT already knows how to think about money. Now it can see yours.