How to Build a Grok Bot That Tracks Your Spending and Finds Forgotten Subscriptions

Once a month, you get a plain-English spending summary by category from your downloaded bank file, plus a list of every recurring charge with a link to its cancel page. You do the cancelling.

Checked October 17, 2026. Researched and drafted with help from Grok Bot, one of the agents covered.

Why build this

Most of us have a rough idea of where our money goes. Then we look at a statement and find a $14.99 charge for an app we used once, two years ago.

Budget apps can help, but many want you to connect your bank account. Plenty of people don't want to do that.

This guide takes a different path. You never give the Bot your bank login. You download a file from your bank's website yourself (a CSV, which is just a simple spreadsheet file) and hand it over. The Bot sorts every charge into categories, adds things up, and spots the charges that repeat every month or year. For each one, it finds the official page where you can cancel.

Then you decide what to keep and you cancel. The Bot never pays, never cancels, and never signs into anything.

Who it's for

• Anyone who wants to know where their money went last month, without a budget app.
• People who suspect they're paying for subscriptions they forgot.
• Couples who want one simple monthly money check-in.
• Freelancers who want business and personal spending split out.
• You've finished our beginner Grok Bot track.

What you'll need

• Grok Bot on The X Subscription Premium ($30/month) or higher, or a paid Cursor plan, or an older SuperGrok subscription linked to your account. (Plans checked Oct 17, 2026.)
• A CSV file of your transactions, downloaded from your bank or card website. Most banks have a "Download" or "Export" button on the transactions page. Pick CSV. For the first run, grab 12 months so yearly charges show up too.
• A spreadsheet app (Google Sheets, Excel, Numbers) to quickly tidy the file before you share it.
• Optional: Gmail, so the Bot can look for receipt and renewal emails. Read-only.
• 20–25 minutes the first time. About 10 minutes each month after that.

What you'll get

• A step-by-step build: tidy your file, create the Bot, first summary, skill, monthly reminder routine.
• A privacy checklist for what to remove from your file before you share it.
• The full monthly spending summary prompt with categories and totals that add up.
• The forgotten-subscription finder prompt: repeating charges, how often, yearly cost, and cancel links.
• A math check prompt so you can trust the totals.
• Safety rules so it never logs in, pays or cancels.
• Troubleshooting for messy bank files.
• A "Same job in other agents" box, including a fully private option.

Time

About 20–25 minutes to set up. Then about 10 minutes a month: download, attach, read.

Quick questions

Do I have to give it my bank password? No. Never. You download the file yourself and attach it.

Will it cancel things for me? No. It finds the cancel page. You click it.

Is my data private? The file goes into Grok Bot's cloud computer. We show you how to remove account numbers first and how to delete the file after. If you want it to never leave your own computer, see the Hermes option in the box at the end.

Before you start: privacy and safety setup (10 minutes)

1. Tidy your file before you share it. Open the CSV in your spreadsheet app and:

• Keep only these columns: Date, Description (or Merchant), Amount, and Category if your bank gives one.
• Delete any column with an account number, card number, balance, or your name and address.
• Save it as CSV again, with a simple name like 2026-09-transactions.csv.

2. Add Ask first rules. Settings → General → Auto-review (Auto-review is Grok Bot's safety checker. It decides which actions stop and wait for your OK.) Add:

• Ask first before signing in to any bank, card, or payment website.
• Ask first before any purchase, payment, transfer, or cancellation.
• Ask first before sending any email or message.

3. Local computer off. Settings → General → Bot → Execution on Local Computer → Never allow. You'll attach the file in the chat instead.

4. Know the shared-computer rule. All your Bots share one cloud computer, including its files and browser logins. So:

• Don't sign in to your bank on the Bot's computer. This job doesn't need it.
• Delete the CSV from the computer when the month's check is done (Step 7 shows how).

5. Never paste a card number, PIN or password into the chat. If a website ever asks the Bot for one, it should hand control to you with Take over. For this job, it never should.

Step 1: Create the Bot

1. New → Create new Bot (first launch: Create your own).
2. Edit Profile: name it Money Check. In Label, type Monthly spending and subscriptions (this is its job).
3. Paste this description:

Job: Once a month, read the transaction CSV I attach and give me a spending summary and a list of recurring charges.

My categories: Housing, Groceries, Eating out, Transport, Utilities & phone, Subscriptions, Shopping, Health, Kids, Travel, Gifts & giving, Fees & interest, Income, Transfers, Other.

Standing rules:
- Never send, buy, publish, or delete without my approval.
- Never sign in to any bank, card, or shopping account. Never ask me for a password, PIN, or card number.
- Never pay, cancel, or change any subscription. Find the official cancel or help page and give me the link. I do the cancelling.
- Use only the file I attach. Calculate with code, not mental math. Totals must match the file.
- Transfers between my own accounts and card payments are not spending. Put them in "Transfers."
- If something is unclear, mark it "Not sure" instead of guessing.
- Keep my files in /workspace/money-check/ only.

4. Turn on Notifications in Bot settings.

Step 2: Run the spending summary by hand

Drag your CSV into the chat (or use the attachment button). Then paste:

The attached CSV is my bank/card transactions for [month or date range].

1. Check the file: tell me the date range, the number of rows, and the total money in and out. Use code.
2. Put every transaction in one of my categories. Show me any you marked "Not sure."
3. Spending summary for [last month]:
   | Category | Total | % of spending | vs. previous month (if the file has it) |

4. Top 10 biggest single purchases.
5. 3 plain-English observations, like "Eating out was 18% of spending, up from 12%." No lectures.
6. Save a categorized copy of the file and the summary in /workspace/money-check/[month]/.

Don't sign in anywhere. Don't change the original file.

Check it: the "total out" number should match your statement, give or take pending charges. If it's way off, see Step 4.

Step 3: Find the forgotten subscriptions

Now look across the whole file for recurring charges: the same merchant charging about the same amount on a regular schedule (weekly, monthly, yearly).

For each one, give me:
| Merchant (cleaned-up name) | Amount | How often | Last charged | Yearly cost | Official cancel or help page |

Rules for the cancel page:
- Search the public web for the company's own help or account page about cancelling. Link to that page, not a blog.
- If you can't find an official page, write "Not found. Check your account settings or call them."
- Don't sign in, don't click cancel, don't fill in any form.

Then:
- Sort by yearly cost, highest first.
- Flag "Possibly forgotten" for any charge I haven't mentioned and that looks like an app, streaming, software, membership, or free-trial-turned-paid.
- Flag any price that went up in the last 12 months.
- Give me the total yearly cost of all recurring charges.

This is the money moment. Read the list. For each one, decide: keep, cancel, or downgrade. Then open the cancel link and do it yourself, signed in on your own device.

Tell the Bot what you decided so next month's list is shorter:

Keep: [Netflix, gym, iCloud]. I cancelled: [app X, app Y]. Remember this. Next month, only flag new recurring charges, price increases, or anything I said I cancelled that still shows up.

Step 4: Check the math

Prove the totals. Show the code you used, the sum of every category, and confirm the categories add up to total spending. List any rows you skipped and why.

Common fixes:

Card payments ("PAYMENT THANK YOU") are transfers, not spending. Move them and recalculate.

Refunds should reduce that category, not count as income.

"AMZN" and "Amazon Mktp" are the same merchant. Combine them.

Then: Use these rules for all future monthly checks.

Step 5 (optional): Add receipt emails

If you connected Gmail (one mailbox at a time), you can catch subscriptions billed to a different card or through an app store:

Search my Gmail for the last 12 months for emails with words like "receipt," "subscription," "renewal," "your plan," or "free trial ends."
List any recurring charges you find that aren't already on my list, with the sender, amount, and date.
Read only. Don't reply, label, or delete anything.

Your Ask first rule for sending stays on.

Step 6: Save it as a skill

Save the process we just used as a skill called "Monthly money check."
Include:
- the file check (date range, rows, totals)
- my categories and categorizing rules (transfers, refunds, merged merchant names)
- the summary table and the 3 observations format
- the recurring-charge finder, with official cancel pages only
- my keep/cancel list, and to flag only new charges, price rises, or charges I cancelled that still appear
- calculate with code; totals must match the file
- the rules: never sign in, pay, or cancel; never ask for passwords or card numbers
- save outputs to /workspace/money-check/[month]/

Step 7: Set a monthly reminder (the routine)

The Bot can't download your bank file. That's on purpose. So the routine is a reminder and a ready-to-go checklist:

On the 2nd of every month at 9:00 AM my time, post this here:
"Time for your monthly money check. Download last month's transactions as CSV, remove account-number columns, attach the file here, then type / and pick Monthly money check."
Don't do anything else.

When the reminder arrives, attach the file, type / and pick Monthly money check.

Clean up after each month:

Delete the transaction CSV files I attached this month from /workspace/money-check/. Keep only the summary file. List what you deleted.

This is a delete. Your Bot's description says never to delete without your approval, so it should ask you first. Approve it: it's only the Bot's copy of your file. Your original stays on your device.

Make it yours: 3 variations

Couples: attach both of your CSVs. "Combine these two files. Show a joint summary, then a short 'who paid what' split."

Freelancer: "Add a column Business/Personal. Business = these merchants: [list]. Give me a business-only total for my bookkeeper." (Ask your accountant before relying on it for taxes.)

Saver: "Set a monthly target per category: [Eating out $300, Shopping $200]. Show me over/under for each, in one line."

Safety settings recap

If an approval card ever shows this bot trying to sign in or pay, choose Deny. This job never needs it.

Troubleshooting

Same job in other agents

Next step

Once your monthly check feels routine, the Advanced version logs receipts and expenses into a Google Sheet and reconciles them, with follow-ups drafted for approval. (On our Advanced list; not yet written.)

For now, pair this with I1: Organize Your Email (organize email) and add a "Bills" label so due dates don't slip.