# Why we built longbook

> Why longbook exists: one place to see every payment that comes back, so you know where your money goes, and an AI that keeps it current. Our mission and what we believe.

- Page: https://longbook.app/why-we-built-longbook/

Do you know what you will pay this month, and to whom? Most people don't, and not because they are careless. Money leaves from a dozen places at once: cards, bank accounts, UPI, wallets and apps, each with its own statement, and no single place shows it together. longbook is that place.

## How it started

I built longbook for myself. I wanted every commitment remembered properly: the subscriptions, the insurance, the rent and the EMIs, and the yearly renewals that always seem to arrive as a surprise. I wanted my AI to go through my email and fill them in, so that what is coming shows up on my iPhone and my MacBook without me chasing it.

I also wanted to know what a month actually costs, and to be able to hand that to my wife rather than explain it. So the reports are in the app too. Every part of longbook started as something I needed, and every part of it is still something I use.

## What we believe

SEEING IT IS THE FIRST STEP

You cannot change where your money goes until you can see where it goes. longbook puts every payment that comes back, and every one that doesn't, in one view, so the question "where is my money going?" finally has an answer.

FINANCIAL EDUCATION STARTS WITH YOUR OWN NUMBERS

Nobody teaches us how to read our own month. We believe financial awareness is learned, not inherited, and the best lesson is not a textbook example but your own rent, your own EMIs and your own subscriptions, laid out plainly. A year of seeing them is how a person comes to know their financial life.

CONTROL SHOULD NOT COST YOUR PRIVACY

Your longbook is a folder of plain files in your own iCloud. We never see inside it. Your AI reads it when you ask, and every change it makes waits for you to keep or undo.

YOUR AI SHOULD DO THE BOOKKEEPING

Typing in every expense is why most people give up on tracking money. longbook is built for your AI to read your statements and your email and keep it current, so staying aware takes a glance, not an evening.

## Our mission

To help people take control of their financial life: to see all of their money in one place, and to become more aware, month by month, of where it goes.

## Our vision

A world where anyone can answer "what do I owe, and where does my money go?" in one question, to an app or to their own AI, and act on the answer before it surprises them.

## How longbook is paid for

longbook is made by one person and paid for once: $38 for a lifetime licence after a 3-day free trial, with [longbook Cloud](https://longbook.app/features/what-is-longbook-cloud/) at $4 a month only for what runs on longbook's server. The code is open source and your longbook is plain files, so technically you can use it without paying, for example through the [longbook npm package](https://longbook.app/features/longbook-npm-package/). If longbook helps you see your money, the licence is what keeps it getting better.

[Get longbook](https://longbook.app/download/)

— [@rohthebuilder](https://x.com/rohthebuilder)