Does Monarch Money sell your data? No: Monarch states in its privacy policy that "we will never sell your financial data," and that it does not sell personal data for monetary consideration. The catch is narrower and worth knowing: the same policy says Monarch shares some non-financial data (name, email, device and web-analytics details) with advertising partners, mostly through website cookies, and that under some state privacy laws that sharing can count as "selling" or "sharing." You can opt out.
That is the whole answer in two sentences. The rest of this post shows exactly which data goes where, quoting Monarch's own pages as they stood on October 17, 2026 (the privacy policy is dated effective August 10, 2026), so you can decide whether the catch matters to you.
Want to see where your own money actually goes? Try Spendalyst free for 14 days →
Does Monarch Money sell your data? The short answer and the catch
Monarch's privacy policy opens by addressing this directly. It says the policy contains references to "selling" and "sharing," that those terms are used only for certain online advertising activities involving cookies on Monarch's website (because some privacy laws define the words very broadly), and then it states plainly: "We will never sell your financial data."
Further down, the policy adds that Monarch does "not sell Personal Data for monetary consideration," and, for Nevada residents specifically, that it does not currently sell personal data as Nevada law defines a sale.
So the headline claim holds up against the policy text. Nothing in the policy describes Monarch handing your transactions or balances to a data broker. What the policy does describe is the ordinary advertising plumbing most websites use, which is where the legal words "selling" and "sharing" get stretched.
Does Monarch Money share your data with advertisers?
Partly, and it is limited to the marketing side. Monarch's policy contains a table of data categories and the types of outside parties each one may be disclosed to. "Advertising Partners" appear on four rows:
| Data category (Monarch's wording) | Examples given in the policy | May go to advertising partners? |
|---|---|---|
| Profile Data | Name, email, identifiers including user ID and mobile ad ID | Yes |
| Device/IP Data | IP address, device ID, device, operating system and browser type | Yes |
| Web Analytics | Page interactions, referring page, non-identifiable request IDs | Yes |
| Consumer Demographic Data | Age or date of birth, gender, zip code, city, region, country | Yes |
| Commercial and Debt-Related Data | Financial transactions, account balances, credit reports, credit score, debt information | No: service providers and parties you authorize only |
| Household Data | Income, dependents, tax filing status | No: service providers and parties you authorize only |
The pattern is clear. Your transactions, balances, debts and household details are listed as going to service providers and to parties you authorize (such as the data providers that connect your bank), not to advertising partners. The categories that can reach advertisers are the kind a visitor to almost any website generates: who you are at the contact level, what device you used, and how you moved around.
The policy also says that, depending on your state, these disclosures "may constitute 'selling,' 'sharing,' or 'targeted advertising.'" That sentence is the source of the Reddit threads asking whether Monarch really does not sell your data. It is a legal-definition issue about cookies and ad identifiers, and the policy states it openly instead of hiding it.
Monarch's security page makes a related promise in softer language: the app is "privacy-first and ad-free," meaning you will not see ads inside it. That is a statement about the product experience. It does not contradict the cookie disclosures about the marketing website, but it is not the same claim either, which is why reading the policy matters more than reading the slogan.
Does Monarch Money share your bank transactions with anyone?
Yes, with the companies that make the service run, which is different from selling. The policy lists "service providers" including hosting and technology providers, analytics providers, security and fraud-prevention consultants, support vendors, payment processors (Stripe, Apple or Google, depending on how you pay), and artificial intelligence platforms that power Monarch's AI features.
Your bank connection works through third-party data providers. Monarch's security page says it connects accounts through "secure third-party data providers," does not directly access your accounts, cannot move money in or out of them, and does not see or store your bank login credentials. It also says those providers are vetted, and that Monarch holds SOC 2 certification, which means independent auditors verified its security controls.
If you want the full safety picture rather than the data-selling question alone, our guide on whether Monarch Money is safe covers the security side in more detail.
Does Monarch Money use your data to train AI?
Monarch says no. Its security page states that it uses "only the minimum data that's strictly necessary for a given task," that your data is not retained or stored by third-party models after processing, and that it does not allow third-party providers to use your data to train their models, nor does it use your data to train internal models. It says its enterprise agreements with the model providers explicitly prohibit both storage and training.
The privacy policy, for its part, names AI platforms (with OpenAI as an example) in its list of service providers. That fits the security page: your data can pass through a model provider to generate an answer, under contract terms that restrict what the provider may do with it.
How do you opt out of data sharing or delete your data in Monarch?
You have three routes, all described in Monarch's policy. First, you can submit Monarch's "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" form, which is linked from the footer of its website. Second, you can turn on the Global Privacy Control signal in your browser; the policy says it honors a recognized universal opt-out signal from your browser (Do Not Track is not included). Third, you can use the cookie preferences link in the footer.
For deletion, the policy separates two actions. You can close your account in account settings, which closes it permanently, but the policy states this "does not erase every copy of your information from our systems." To have Monarch delete or de-identify the personal data it holds, you email support@monarch.com, and the policy says some information may be kept where the law allows and that deletion from backups can take longer.
Does Spendalyst sell your data?
No, and since we are the other option in this comparison, here is the same level of detail about us, taken from the Spendalyst privacy policy (last updated April 2026).
| Question | Monarch Money (policy effective Aug 10, 2026) | Spendalyst (policy updated Apr 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Sells your financial data? | No. "We will never sell your financial data." | No. States it does not sell or rent your personal financial data. |
| Shares data with advertisers? | Some non-financial data (profile, device, web analytics, demographics) with advertising partners via cookies | States it does not share data with advertisers or data brokers |
| Product analytics | Analytics providers listed among service providers | PostHog, described as anonymized product analytics |
| AI model providers | Yes, named in the policy; security page says no training on your data | Yes: Google Gemini models via the Lovable AI Gateway power the money coach and support chat; your bank credentials are never sent |
| Delete your data | Close account in settings; email support to have personal data deleted or de-identified | Delete your account and all associated data from Settings; policy says permanent deletion within 30 days |
| Export your data | Not covered in the policy sections reviewed for this post | CSV and JSON export of your transactions; complete JSON copy from Settings |
| Bank access | Read-only, through third-party data providers | Read-only, through Plaid; manual entry and CSV import also available |
Two honest notes on that table. Spendalyst is not a no-third-party app: it sends the spending figures and question text the money coach needs to an AI model provider when that feature runs, and it uses an analytics provider. We list both in our policy for the same reason Monarch lists its providers. And "sells your data" is not the only measure of a good fit. Monarch is a mature, established app, and the cookie-based advertising disclosures above apply to its website visitors and are the same kind most consumer sites make.
Where Spendalyst differs is the model: the subscription is the business, and you can skip the bank link entirely and enter expenses by hand. If you are weighing the two on price and features rather than privacy, see how Monarch compares with Rocket Money.
How do you decide whether a money app's data practices are acceptable?
Check four things in any app's policy, in this order. Does it say it sells financial data, and does it say what counts as a sale? Which categories can reach "advertising partners," and are any of them financial? Which outside companies handle your bank connection, and can the app move money? And can you delete your data and take it with you?
A simple rule of thumb: an app that answers all four in plain language, including the awkward parts, is usually safer to trust than one with a clean slogan and a vague policy. Our guide to linking a bank account to a budgeting app safely walks through the same checklist, and the Rocket Money safety review applies it to another popular app.
Try Spendalyst free for 14 days
If you want clarity about where your money goes without building a budgeting system, Spendalyst gives you a 14-day free trial with no credit card. At the end of the trial your account pauses until you choose a plan, so nothing charges you by surprise. Plans are $10.99 a month or $89.99 a year (about $7.50 a month). Connect your bank read-only through Plaid, or skip the link and use manual entry or CSV import. See the details on the pricing page.
Sources: monarch.com/privacy (Privacy Policy, effective Aug 10, 2026) and monarch.com/security, both read October 17, 2026; spendalyst.com/privacy and spendalyst.com/pricing, read October 17, 2026. Privacy policies change; check the current version before you decide.