reading
Margin for iPhone
Don't categorise,
Don't categorise,
just write it down.
A finance tracker that reads plain sentences and files the amount for you. Your ledger keeps your words, not a form.
one line in — read, filed and totalled
return no forms · no categories to pick
9:41
Today wed 5 aug
▾ Your sentence stays yours.
Typos, shorthand, the amount buried mid-sentence — type it however it comes out. The reading sits in the margin beside your words, never on top of them.
order grab 5$
−5.00
coffee at sbuck 5 usd 2 days ago
−5.00
dinner w/ mira, split 2 ways 136
−68.00
groceries 84 on the amex
−84.00
netflix 15 every month
−15.00
lunch w/ the team, split 4 ways
amount?
When Margin isn't sure, it says so in its own words and waits for you — rather than guessing and quietly getting your month wrong. Write “dinner in lisbon 14 eur” and it keeps both figures: €14.00 · at 1.086.
Some words don't change the amount,
they change where it goes.
A day, a person, an account, a cycle. Margin marks those words where you wrote them, in the colour of the thing they decide.
which day coffee 5 last friday Files it to the day you meant. Today's total doesn't move — August's does.
whose money dinner 136 split 2 ways Counts your share and keeps the whole figure beside it, so neither number is lost.
which account groceries 84 on the amex Adds to a total you named. An account here is a label you wrote, never a bank connection.
how often netflix 15 every month Starts expecting it. Switch it off later and everything you already logged stays put.
and it's free
Those words are matched on your phone before the line is sent anywhere.
Backdating, splitting, naming an account and moving an entry afterwards
all cost nothing — a routed line costs the same single read a plain one
does.
Photograph the receipt.
Some spending doesn't arrive as a sentence — it arrives as a paper slip in your pocket. Point the camera at it and the same line lands in the same ledger.
Mercado Central
tomatoes 3.40
bread 2.10
olive oil 9.75
coffee 1kg 12.90
eggs ×12 4.20
TOTAL32.35
Hold it in frame Crumpled, angled, in bad light. No cropping, no flattening, no
aligning the edges to a guide.
Mercado Central −32.35
groceries 14 Aug 5 items
Coffee 1kg 12.90
Olive oil 9.75
Eggs ×12 4.20
Tomatoes, bread 5.50
See what it counted Every line it read, listed before anything is saved. Wrong total,
wrong category — one tap each to correct.
A month of sentences becomes a month of numbers.
No pie charts, no colour-coded categories. Bars in plain ink, scaled against your biggest habit — and a box you can ask questions in.
august · $1,113
last twelve weeks
ask it, in the same box how much on coffee in july?
$134.20 across 18 entries · July 1–31
what I counted
“flat white + croissant” — I counted all 11.20 as coffee. Tap to split
it.
iced sweet potato latte, la casita −8.40
coffee at starbucks 9 −9.00
flat white + croissant 11.20 −11.20
15 more −105.60
noticed
You write “coffee” four times a week and it adds to $134 — more than every
subscription combined.
Reading a line costs something.
A model reads each line you write and turns it into an amount, a category and a date. That work is metered in reads — the one thing in Margin that isn't unlimited.
20 reads the day you sign up
+15 every month after, free, forever
Twenty reads to start, then fifteen a month — about writing a few times a week, forever. If that's you, free is genuinely enough, and we would rather say so than sell you a plan you don't need.
what spends a read cost
A line you type however many entries it becomes
1 A receipt you photograph free too, while you have reads
3 Backdating, splitting, accounts, repeats matched on your phone · as is editing, browsing and exporting
0 when you run out
Nothing stops. Your line still saves, still shows up, still counts —
Margin just does the easy maths itself and marks the amount amber so you
can confirm it. The notebook never locks.
Margin never asks for your bank.
No bank connection, no card linking, no read-only credentials
Every entry saves on your phone first, before anything is sent
Margin learns your habits — your merchants, your wording, your corrections
That learning stays in your account and is never sold or shared
Export everything to CSV whenever you like, on any plan
Margin gets better at reading you the longer you write, which means it does keep a picture of how you spend. That picture belongs to your account — it is never pooled with anyone else's and never leaves for a model that isn't yours.
Free to keep. Paid to stop counting.
Every plan writes, edits and exports without limit — and every plan can ask its ledger a question. Paid plans lift the read meter and open history and capture.
what you get free paid
Writing, editing and CSV export unlimited unlimited
Reads 20 + 15/mo unlimited
History this month every month
Receipt scanning with reads ✓
Ask your ledger anything 2 reads ✓
Any currency, at that day’s rate — soon
Good questions.
What happens when I run out of reads? Nothing breaks. Entries still save and still count — Margin reads them itself and marks the amount amber for you to confirm. You get 15 more on the first of each month.
Does it work offline? Yes. Lines you write on a plane save immediately and queue up; they're read the moment you're back on a signal. Nothing is ever lost waiting for a connection.
Is “unlimited” really unlimited? On a paid plan, yes, with a fair-use ceiling of 1,500 reads a month — far more than anyone writes. We'd rather say that now than surprise you later.
Can I use a currency other than dollars? You can set your default currency in Settings, and bare numbers become that currency. Writing “40 eur” in a line and having Margin keep both the original and that day's converted figure is still being built — it isn't in the app yet, on any plan.
Does asking my ledger cost anything? Asking is on both plans. Each question spends 2 reads, so on the free plan it comes out of your meter, and on a paid plan it comes out of the lifted one.
What if it reads a line wrong? Tap the line and fix it. Margin offers to remember the correction — “always read gojek as Rides” — and applies it to past entries too, so you fix each mistake once.
How is Margin different from an app that connects to my bank? Aggregator apps import a transaction list and ask you to sort it; Margin has no bank connection at all, so nothing arrives that you didn't write. That means no categorising a backlog and no handing over banking credentials — and it also means Margin only knows what you tell it. If you want spending captured automatically without typing, an aggregator is the better tool.
Do I have to categorise anything? No. You write the line and Margin files it. When it gets one wrong, you correct it once and it remembers — including for entries you already wrote.
Is there an Android or web version? Not today. Margin is an iPhone app on the App Store and needs iOS 17 or later.