“AI investing app” has become one of the least informative phrases in personal finance. It is attached to robo-advisors that have used algorithms since 2010, to stock screeners with a chat box bolted on, and to a small number of genuinely new products that read your existing accounts and explain them.
Those are three different businesses. Here is the field, sorted by what each one actually does, so you can tell which problem you are buying a solution to.
First, the test that sorts the whole category
Before the list, one question does most of the filtering: does the tool calculate, or does it predict?
Calculation is checkable. If an app tells you three of your funds share 41 percent of their holdings by weight, you can verify it. Prediction is not checkable at the moment you act on it. An app claiming to know which stock rises next quarter is making an unfalsifiable claim in the same confident tone as the verifiable one.
The second question: does it need custody of your money, or does it read the account you already have? That single difference explains most of the price gaps below.
1. Walnut, best overall for people who already have a broker
What it is: an AI investing app that connects to your existing brokerage account read-only and answers questions about what you actually hold, in plain English.
What the AI does: concentration and weight drift, look-through overlap across your funds, benchmark-relative return per holding, and research on any stock, fund or theme. It explains; it does not forecast.
Custody: none. Your assets stay at your broker and you approve every trade.
Price: free.
Best for: anyone at Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard, Robinhood or similar who wants a straight answer about their portfolio without moving it.
Honest limitation: most brokerage connections expose current positions but not cost basis, so it reports return over a window rather than lifetime profit and loss. It says so rather than guessing.
Walnut is our pick for best overall because it is the only one on this list that combines a real read-only account connection, plain English answers, and no fee.
2. Betterment, best if you want it done for you
What it is: a robo-advisor. You transfer money in, it allocates and rebalances automatically.
What the AI does: rules-based allocation, automated rebalancing, tax-loss harvesting on eligible accounts.
Custody: yes. Betterment holds the account.
Price: an annual percentage of assets.
Best for: people who genuinely do not want to make decisions.
Honest limitation: you cannot ask it questions, and it manages only the money you move to it.
3. Wealthfront, best automated tax features
Very similar in shape to Betterment: custody, an annual fee, automated allocation. It is generally regarded as the stronger of the two on automated tax strategies and cash management. Same core limitation: it manages its own account, not yours.
4. Empower, best free net-worth dashboard
What it is: account aggregation across banks, brokerages and retirement plans with a fee analyser and retirement projection.
Price: the dashboard is free.
Best for: seeing everything in one place across many institutions.
Honest limitation: the free tier is a lead generator for a paid advisory service, and the analysis is a static dashboard rather than something you can interrogate.
5. M1 Finance, best for rule-based portfolio building
You build “pies” of target percentages and M1 directs contributions to keep them on target. It is genuinely good at the mechanical job of maintaining target weights.
Honest limitation: it is automation, not analysis. It will hold your targets faithfully without ever telling you the targets overlap.
6. Magnifi, best pure fund search
A conversational search layer over funds and ETFs. Useful for “find me funds that do X” queries.
Honest limitation: it is oriented around discovery and buying rather than around understanding what you already own.
At a glance
| App | Reads your existing broker | Custody | Fee | Core job |
| Walnut | Yes, read-only | No | Free | Understand what you own |
| Betterment | No | Yes | % of assets | Manage money for you |
| Wealthfront | No | Yes | % of assets | Manage money for you |
| Empower | Yes, read-only | No | Free tier | Net worth dashboard |
| M1 Finance | No | Yes | Free tier | Maintain target weights |
| Magnifi | Partial | No | Subscription | Find funds |
Which one you should look at
If you already have a brokerage account and want to understand it, you want a read-only analysis tool, not a robo-advisor. Moving your money to get advice about it is a large price for a small convenience.
If you want the decisions taken away entirely, a robo-advisor is the honest answer and the annual fee is what that service costs.
If you have accounts scattered across six institutions, start with aggregation and get the total in one place before optimising anything.
We keep a fuller comparison of the category updated, including the cases where the alternatives above are the better choice.
This article is informational and not investment advice. Walnut is not a registered investment adviser. Fees and features change; verify current terms with each provider. Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal.
