Frequently asked questions

Era supports thousands of banks, credit unions, and financial institutions across the US through our aggregation partners. We work with multiple industry-leading aggregators to maximise institution coverage.

Context connects through multiple regulated financial data aggregators, covering banks, cards, and investment accounts across the US today, with the UK and EU on the way. For anything not yet supported, you can add a manual account so nothing's left out.

Yes — that's the whole point. Connect business and personal banks, cards, and investments side by side. era keeps them organised whilst showing you the complete picture.

Yes. Connect banks, brokerages, and cards across every entity side by side — era keeps them organised whilst showing you the consolidated picture.

A few minutes. Connect your accounts once through regulated data aggregators and era handles the cleanup and categorisation from there. Automations are optional — add them one rule at a time.

Yes. Most student loans can't be linked automatically, so you add the balance manually; where a lender can be connected, it arrives as an account alongside your bank and card. Either way it shows up in your net worth next to your cash.

Bank, card, and investment accounts across thousands of institutions through regulated aggregators, plus manual accounts for anything not covered. Your bank credentials are never stored.

Balances and transactions update as your accounts sync, so the picture reflects your latest activity.

Agency offers Era-managed model portfolios for hands-off investing. Thesis gives you full control — define your own strategies, run backtests, and manage exposure directly.

Era is a personal finance platform built for the age of AI agents. It has three products: Context, a personal MCP server that connects your finances to any AI assistant. Agency, a companion app that proactively monitors and manages your money. And Thesis, a research-grade investing tool for individual investors.

Context connects your bank accounts, credit cards, and financial data to any AI assistant that supports MCP — Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and others. Your agent gets real-time access to your balances, transactions, and goals without you having to upload anything.

Agency is a native app that builds on top of Context. MCP connections are pull-based — your agent only acts when you ask. Agency adds a push layer: it watches your finances in real time and proactively alerts you to things that matter, or takes action on your behalf.

Thesis is Era's investment product. It brings quantitative portfolio analysis and strategy tooling — the kind typically reserved for institutional investors — to individuals. It's built on the same financial data layer as Context.

Context is infrastructure. It makes your finances available to any AI agent. Agency is a first-party app that uses that same data to proactively manage your money — monitoring, suggesting, and acting without waiting for a prompt.

Sign up at era.app, connect your financial accounts, and add the Context MCP server to your preferred AI assistant. The whole process takes a few minutes.

Agency is available as a native mobile app. Context itself doesn't need an app — it works through whatever AI assistant you're already using on any device.

Free covers two accounts and the basics, and every paid plan has a 10-day trial. No credit card to start. Connect your accounts, see everything in one place, and check the pricing page for the full breakdown.

Era offers a free tier and paid plans with additional features. Thesis has its own pricing for advanced investment tools. We make money from subscriptions, not from your data.

Yes. Every paid plan includes a 10-day free trial. You can cancel anytime during the trial and won't be charged.

Absolutely. Cancel from your billing page at any time. If you cancel during a trial, you won't be charged. After that, your plan continues until the end of your billing period.

Yes. Upgrade or downgrade at any time. When you upgrade, you're charged the prorated difference immediately. When you downgrade, the change takes effect at the end of your billing period.

We accept all major credit and debit cards via Stripe. All payments are processed securely.

Context exposes your connected accounts to any MCP-compatible agent through a permissioned protocol. Every agent action requires your authorisation, and you can revoke access at any time.

Never. Your data isn't sold, isn't used for ads, and is never used to train models. Every agent action needs your permission first.

With bank-level encryption. Account connections run through regulated data aggregators, every agent action needs your permission first, and you can revoke access at any time.

No. Era never sells, shares, or monetizes your personal financial data. Your data exists to serve you — through the agents you choose to connect.

AES-256 encryption at rest, TLS 1.3 in transit, OAuth 2.1 for agent connections, and their bank credentials are never stored. Connections run through regulated aggregators. You see what their grant allows, unless they or an admin they've appointed turns on share-everything, and they can revoke your access at any time.

Never. Their data isn't sold or rented. You see what their grant allows, unless they or an admin they've appointed turns on share-everything, and they can revoke your access at any time.

Every tool call is limited to the scopes granted during OAuth, sensitive actions require extra consent, and you can revoke a client's access at any time.

No. Your memory is scoped to your account and is never sold or used to train models.

No. Your bank credentials are never stored. Connections run through regulated aggregators, and agents authenticate over OAuth 2.1.

Only the accounts and actions you've granted. Every agent action is logged, and anything outside your permissions is blocked.

AES-256 at rest and TLS 1.3 in transit, with OAuth 2.1 for every agent connection.

Billing changes require mcp:billing-write, which is not included in the default scopes. Destructive actions should also be confirmed by the client before they run.

Disconnect the MCP client or revoke the underlying account connection, depending on what you want to stop. You can also deny new OAuth authorisation requests.

It can read your financial picture, and — only with your explicit permission — take actions like tagging spending or triggering transfers.

No. Context works with any MCP-compatible agent, including Claude, ChatGPT, and CLI tools — no per-client integration required.

No. era works with Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible agent — and with none at all if you'd rather just use the app.

It reads only the accounts and actions you grant it, and you can change that anytime. Moving money or changing settings always needs your explicit confirmation first. Every read and write is logged, and if you disconnect an agent its access ends immediately.

Memory lives with your Era account through Context's knowledge tools, not inside any single agent. Connect a new client and it reads the same store.

Only the MCP-compatible agents you've explicitly connected, such as Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor. Disconnect one and its access ends immediately.

Yes. You can update or forget any memory at any time, and the change applies across every connected agent at once.

Claude Desktop, Claude Code, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, Augment, JetBrains IDEs, and GitHub Copilot, plus any MCP-compatible client.

Claude Code, ChatGPT, or your own tooling. Thesis works with the agent you already use.

Both. Context is a read-write connection. Your agent can check balances, send transfers, set up automated rules, trigger savings, and manage budgets. You control what it's allowed to do.

When you tell Claude about a savings goal, that context is stored in Context — not locked in Claude's memory. Switch to ChatGPT the next day, and it already knows the goal. Your financial preferences follow you across every assistant.

Yes. Context works anywhere MCP works. If you're in Claude Code, Cursor, or any CLI-based agent, you can query your finances, trigger transfers, or set up rules without switching windows.

That's the point. Context is agent-agnostic. Your financial data, rules, memory, and automations live in Era — not in any single assistant. Switch from Claude to ChatGPT to whatever comes next. Everything carries over.

Yes, if your AI client supports routines or scheduled tasks. Context supplies the financial tools; the client controls when the routine runs.

Yes, if your AI client connects those servers too. Context supplies the financial data and actions; email, calendar, document, or spreadsheet servers handle where the result goes.

You set the rules, and every agent action needs your permission first. Everything era does is logged in your activity history, so you can see what ran and why — and adjust or turn off any rule at any time.

Agency is in private waitlist. Join now and we'll notify you as spots open.

Only within rules you explicitly set. You can pause, edit, or remove any automation at any time.

Describe it in plain language. Agency matches it to a pattern, such as recurring deposits, spending thresholds, or unusual charges, and keeps your original words on the rule.

No. Monitoring is read-only — it only ever reads and shows your accounts, and your data is never sold. Money moves only through paths you opt into: rule-based Automations that act on rules you set, or an Agency portfolio you choose to have managed. You can revoke access at any time.

Agency is free with your Era account. Model portfolio investing may carry standard advisory and brokerage fees.

You can create rules to auto-categorize transactions, round up purchases into savings, flag recurring charges that spike, split expenses with a partner, and more. Rules can be set up through any connected agent or through Agency directly.

Assets in era are held by Alpaca Securities LLC, a member of FINRA/SIPC. era never takes custody of your money.

Assets are held by Alpaca Securities LLC, a member of FINRA and SIPC, the same custody model professional advisors use.

Yes. Era Financial Advisors LLC is an SEC-registered investment adviser (CRD #334404), and assets held in era are custodied by Alpaca Securities LLC, a member of FINRA/SIPC. Registration doesn't imply a certain level of skill or training, and past performance doesn't guarantee future results.

A backtest shows how a strategy would have behaved against historical data — it isn't a prediction. Realistic fills, slippage, and walk-forward optimisation reduce overfitting, but past performance never guarantees future results.

A backtest shows how a strategy would have behaved on real market history. It's a research tool, not a prediction, and you decide what to do with the result.

A robo-advisor automates decisions for people who don't want to make them. era hands you the machinery itself — research, backtesting, and model portfolios — and leaves every decision with you.

Model portfolios are built and maintained by Era Financial Advisors LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser (CRD #334404). Agency executes and rebalances them for you.

Yes. Change your risk level, pause automation, or exit any position whenever you choose — you keep the controls at all times.

Each portfolio is constructed and maintained by Era Financial Advisors LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser (CRD #334404).

Yes. Each model portfolio is rebalanced automatically as markets move to stay near its target risk level.

Thesis is in private beta. Request an invite and we'll notify you as spots open.

Thesis is in private beta. Request an invite for early access to model portfolios.

You choose: human-in-the-loop approval for every trade, or autonomous mode within limits you define.

Pricing is announced closer to general availability. Waitlist members get early access and pricing details first.

No. Era is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided by our partner institutions. Investment products are not FDIC insured, have no bank guarantee, and may lose value. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

You stay in control of what's connected and what's shared. era organises everything so handing off clean, categorised records is quick when tax time comes.

Not yet. Client sharing is in private beta — the tools are built into era Context's MCP server, but the feature is off by default for production accounts. Open a free account and connect your own finances in the meantime.

The view and the grant. They create it, invite you, and set the filters that decide what you can read. You can't edit their grant — it only covers the accounts of whoever wrote it. One exception: an admin they've appointed can change view settings, including the share-everything switch. Viewers can't.

Their transactions stop appearing. They can narrow the filters, revoke the grant, or remove you from the view. What your agent already read stays in its history — revoking stops future reads, it doesn't reach back. Treat anything you've read as yours to handle.

No. era has no client seats, no billing, no householding, and no held-away reporting. It's a permission model for reading a client's data with their consent, nothing more. For research machinery for your own practice, see the for wealth managers page.

No — era works alongside your existing staff and advisers. It consolidates the data and handles the repetitive monitoring, so the people you trust spend their time on judgement instead of gathering statements.

Building this later means untangling years of habits first. A system built around one account and a part-time wage takes minutes to set up, and it keeps working as your income, accounts, and balances grow.

A spreadsheet is only current on the day you last updated it. Connected balances and transactions arrive on their own, already categorised, so the picture is still right on the days you don't feel like maintaining it.

Any Era user in good standing. Join from the referrals page in your account — there's no application and no waiting. Era decides eligibility and can decline participation.

On the invite track, $15 for every friend who subscribes to a paid plan. On the creator track, 30% of each referred subscription every month for 12 months, with no cap.

$15 off their first invoice, applied automatically at checkout when they use your link.

Rewards are earned when a referred person subscribes to a paid plan, not when they sign up. Rewardful tracks the referral and handles the payout — you can see link visits, sign-ups, and paid and pending amounts on your referrals page.

No. You're on one track at a time. Everyone starts on invite, and you can switch to creator, or back again, from your referrals page whenever you want.

Era partners with Rewardful to manage affiliate tracking and payouts rather than building payout infrastructure. When you join, Era sends Rewardful your name and email to create your affiliate account — you tick a box to agree first, and your name and email don't go to them before that. Rewardful's tracking script also runs on era.app to attribute sign-ups to referral links.

Yes, and the full terms are on the referrals page in your account. The short version: referrals have to be genuine, rewards aren't guaranteed until they're paid out, and Era can withhold or reclaim them — including when a referred subscription is cancelled, refunded, or disputed, or when the programme is abused. Era can also change or end the programme.

Creators, publishers, and anyone with an audience who wants to promote Era. Sign up through Rewardful — Era reviews affiliate applications and can decline or remove participation.

You earn commission on the paid subscriptions you refer, and it's recurring for as long as they stay active under the programme terms. There's no cap on how much you can earn. Your exact rate and terms are shown when you sign up with Rewardful.

Commission is earned when someone you referred subscribes to a paid plan, not when they sign up. Rewardful tracks the referral and handles the payout — you can see clicks, sign-ups, and paid and pending amounts in your Rewardful dashboard.

Share your link wherever your audience already is — a newsletter, a video description, a blog post, or social. Be honest about what Era does and let people decide. Referrals have to be genuine.

Era partners with Rewardful to manage affiliate tracking and payouts rather than building payout infrastructure. When you sign up, you create your affiliate account directly with Rewardful, and Rewardful's tracking script runs on era.app to attribute sign-ups to your link.

Yes. The full affiliate terms are shown when you sign up with Rewardful. The short version: referrals have to be genuine, commission isn't guaranteed until it's paid out, and Era can withhold or reclaim it — including when a referred subscription is cancelled, refunded, or disputed, or when the programme is abused. Era can also change or end the programme.

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard that lets AI assistants connect to external data sources. It's the same protocol that powers your Gmail, Calendar, and Slack connectors in Claude or ChatGPT. Context uses MCP to give those same assistants access to your financial life.

MCP is the open standard for connecting AI agents to tools and data. Context implements it at context.era.app/mcp over Streamable HTTP, so any compliant client can connect.

62 MCP tools across 8 groups: accounts, transactions, insights, knowledge, billing, connections, referral, and help.

era Context is an OAuth-protected remote MCP server. You sign in with your era account, review the requested scopes, and approve the connection — API keys are available for developer-first tools.

Through OAuth 2.1 or an API key you generate. You approve the connection, scope its access, and can revoke it anytime.

No. In a supported client, add the server URL and sign in with OAuth. Developer tools may also support API keys.

No. Context does not expose tools for transfer execution, bill pay, trading, or moving money.

Yes, with permission. Context can update selected transactions, tags, categories, rules, visibility, memory, connections, billing, and referrals within the scopes you approve.

Because Context is permissioned. Your plan, OAuth scopes, client support, and tool safety rules all affect what the assistant can see.

Usually the assistant is missing a scope, your plan does not include the tool, the request hit a rate limit, or an external service was unavailable.

The tool list comes from Era's live MCP server metadata, so it stays aligned with the tools your assistant can actually discover and call.