OpenAI wants ChatGPT to see your bank account. The pitch is convenience. The risk is everything else.

OpenAI has launched a personal finance feature inside ChatGPT, allowing Pro subscribers in the US to connect bank accounts, credit cards, and investment portfolios via Plaid. The tool, powered by GPT-5.5, generates spending dashboards and answers personalized financial questions. The launch follows OpenAI's acquisition of fintech startup Hiro Finance and comes one day after Perplexity added the same Plaid integration. Key concerns include the lack of fiduciary obligation, the combination of financial data with ChatGPT's recently introduced advertising, and the broader platform ambition to become a conversational layer sitting above traditional banking. OpenAI says it cannot make account changes or see full account numbers, and data can be deleted, but regulators and privacy advocates are expected to scrutinize the setup.