Is Minara AI Worth It, or Are There Better AI Investing Assistants? (2026)

How did we compare these assistants?

This guide is by Ecomerate, one of the tools compared. Every fact about another product comes from its own website, docs, help center or terms, checked on October 29, 2026, and listed under Sources. We looked at what each assistant is built for, what it covers, whether it can place trades and what it costs. Where a company's pages don't mention a feature, we say it is not stated rather than assume it is missing.

How do the nine assistants compare?

What is Minara, and is it worth it?

Minara presents itself as an AI-native financial OS for trading. You can ask it about markets and then let it act: Copilot helps with trades, Autopilot trades automatically, and its strategy tools generate and backtest strategies. No-code workflows can watch prices or wallet addresses and alert you by email or Telegram. It runs as a web app and on desktop and mobile.

What it trades: perpetual futures on crypto, on tokenized stocks such as AAPL, TSLA and NVDA, and on commodities such as gold, all settled in USDC on the Lighter or Hyperliquid order books. Its docs warn that stock perpetuals are not actual shares: you get no dividends or voting rights, and positions can be liquidated. Leverage goes up to 25x on crypto perpetuals.

What it costs: Free includes 300 credits; Lite is $19 a month for 1,400 credits, Starter $49 for 4,000 and Pro $199 for 20,000, with unlimited Copilot and Autopilot on paid plans. Chat and research spend credits. Trades are charged separately, at 0.018% to 0.086% depending on mode, venue and asset.

The catch for US investors: its terms, last updated June 18, 2026, prohibit anyone in the US or Ontario from features that route trades to Hyperliquid. Features that don't touch Hyperliquid fall under its general country rules.

Best for: crypto and derivatives traders in places its terms allow, who want research, backtesting and automated execution in one app and accept the risks of leverage.

Where does Ecomerate fit, and what is it best for?

Ecomerate is an AI research analyst you text in iMessage, like any other contact. There's no app to install: you create an account on ecomerate.com and text it from an iPhone, iPad or Mac.

Tell it what you own and why. It remembers your reasons, reads new 10-K, 10-Q, 8-K and Form 4 filings for those companies, answers from earnings-call context, and names the filing, section and date so you can open the passage. It texts first when a filing touches your thesis, when a holding makes an unusually large move and a cause is found, or when a price crosses a line you set. By default that is about three texts a week, with smaller items folded into a weekly note.

Its limits: US-listed stocks and ETFs only, no Android, no crypto, and no brokerage connection yet, so you text it your positions. It is research software, not an adviser, and doesn't tell you what to buy or sell. On trading: not yet; automated trading is coming soon.

Best for: people who own US stocks and want each new filing and earnings report checked against why they own them, by text.

How much does Ecomerate cost, and how many messages do you get?

Every message you send counts as one. The texts Ecomerate sends you, such as filing alerts and the weekly note, don't count. Use the table to size a plan.

What is Astor best for?

Astor is an investing agent in iMessage that links your brokerage accounts. It watches the positions, earnings dates, filings and headlines that touch what you own, and sends a morning brief, market alerts and an evening check-in. Pro adds custom deep-dive reports. On Max, Text to Trade lets you describe an idea, size it against what you hold and execute it in a Robinhood agentic account, only after you approve.

Gaus, Inc. DBA Astor is an SEC-registered investment adviser (CRD #338424). It works on iPhone, in iMessage, in the US only. Free; Pro is $19 a month or $120 a year; Max is $29 a month or $228 a year.

Best for: US iPhone users who want an agent that sees their brokerage account, from a registered adviser, with the option to trade by text.

What is Origin best for?

Origin is a money app built around what it calls a proactive AI financial advisor. It tracks spending, budgets, subscriptions and net worth. On the investing side it shows analyst ratings, earnings estimates against results and fundamentals for your holdings, sends daily market briefs, and answers questions about your portfolio. It also offers automated index investing and themed stock bundles with no AUM fees, a high-yield cash account, estate planning and shared access for couples.

Advisory services come through Origin Investment Advisory LLC, an SEC-registered adviser. Origin has iOS, Android and Mac apps. Its help center lists $12.99 a month or $99 a year with a 7-day free trial, and its blog advertises $1 for the first year.

Best for: people who want budgeting, investing and planning in one app, with AI across all of it, more than deep research on individual stocks.

What is Empower best for?

Empower's Personal Dashboard is free and covers net worth, budgeting and cash flow, transactions, portfolio analysis and a retirement planner. Its paid Personal Strategy service pairs you with a financial adviser for a custom portfolio, tax optimization and planning. It is available when you invest more than $100,000, at 0.89% a year on $100,000 to $999,999; Private Client starts at $1 million. Advisory services come from Empower Advisory Group, LLC, an SEC-registered adviser.

Empower is included because it often comes up alongside AI money apps, but an AI assistant is not stated on the pages we checked.

Best for: investors who want a free net worth and retirement dashboard, with the option to pay a human adviser later.

What is Cleo best for?

Cleo is an AI money assistant you chat with in its iOS and Android app. It reviews your spending, points out bad habits, helps you set and reach savings goals, tracks debt and helps build credit through the Cleo Card. Its fall 2026 releases added Pay Later, Savings and Invest, an automatically managed portfolio offered through Atomic Invest, an SEC-registered adviser.

The app is free to download. Its help center lists Plus at $1.99 to $5.99 a month or $44.99 a year, Pro at $8.99 a month and Builder at $10.99 to $14.99 a month, with the price depending on when you signed up.

Best for: people who want help with spending, saving and credit, more than research on individual stocks.

What is ChatGPT's Finances feature best for?

OpenAI launched Finances in ChatGPT on May 15, 2026 for Pro users in the US, extended it to Plus users and Android on June 26, and opened it to Free and Go users on October 2, 2026. You link accounts through Plaid and credit report data through Experian, then see spending, bills, subscriptions, net worth, investments and your credit score in one place and ask questions grounded in that data.

OpenAI's help center says ChatGPT can't move money, pay bills or make trades, and isn't a fiduciary, registered investment adviser or broker-dealer. You can view or delete the financial memories it keeps, and disconnecting Finances removes your connected financial data from ChatGPT. It is available in the US only.

Best for: people who already use ChatGPT and want answers about their own balances, spending and holdings without another app.

What is Walnut best for?

Walnut calls itself "the AI investing app that knows your portfolio." It alerts you on price levels, daily moves of 1% to 50%, earnings dates and recaps, by notification and email. It says it works from your portfolio rather than an archive of filings. Walnut is free, and Unlimited is $9.99 a month, sold on the web only.

Best for: investors who want portfolio-aware answers and simple alerts at a low monthly price.

What is Moneda best for?

Moneda's agent searches SEC filings and transcripts and shows the source behind each figure, and it keeps notes on the companies you follow. It covers US-listed shares and ETFs only. Standard is free; Premium starts at €9.99 a month or €99.90 a year, and Ultra at €19.99 a month.

Best for: investors who want to research US companies by asking questions and seeing the filing or transcript behind each number.

When is another tool the better choice?

• • You trade crypto or derivatives: Minara, where its terms allow it. Ecomerate doesn't cover crypto.
• • You want trades placed for you today: Minara's Autopilot or Astor's Text to Trade. For Ecomerate, not yet; automated trading is coming soon.
• • You want your accounts linked now: Astor, Origin and ChatGPT Finances connect accounts. Ecomerate's brokerage connections aren't live yet.
• • You want budgeting, bills and credit help: Origin, Cleo, Empower or ChatGPT Finances.
• • You want a human adviser and a financial plan: Empower's Personal Strategy, or another registered adviser.
• • You use Android: Ecomerate needs an iPhone, iPad or Mac.

How do you pick an AI investing assistant?

Start with what you want the assistant to do with your money, then match it to the tool built for that job.

Before you sign up, check three things on the provider's own site: whether it is a registered adviser, whether it can move money or place trades, and how it charges.

• • Trade for you: Minara for crypto and perpetuals where its terms allow; Astor's Max plan for US stocks in a Robinhood agentic account.
• • Run your whole financial life: Origin or Cleo for budgeting with AI; Empower for a free dashboard and paid advisers; ChatGPT Finances if you already use ChatGPT.
• • Watch the stocks you own: Ecomerate for filings and earnings checked against your thesis, by text; Astor for a brokerage-linked agent; Walnut for portfolio alerts; Moneda for answers that show the filing.