The best free budgeting tools of 2026

Understanding how much you earn and spend is crucial to taking control of your finances. Maintaining a budget is the best way to do that. While there are lots of great paid budgeting apps, there are also a variety of reliable options that don't cost a thing.

CNBC Select has selected the best free budgeting tools in a variety of categories, including for beginners, investors and small business owners. See our methodology to learn how we made our selections.

Who's this for? Rocket Money is our pick for keeping on top of subscriptions. It will find recurring charges you may have forgotten about and (with Premium) even cancel them for you.

Standout benefits: Rocket Money's bill negotiation service will help you lower recurring fees from internet, phone and cable bills, in return for a percentage of the money you save

Who's this for? Empower is ideal if you're looking for an investment tool that tracks both your spending and wealth.

Standout benefits: The Empower Budget Planner automatically categorizes various financial accounts, including IRAs, 401(k)s, mortgages and personal loans.

Who's this for? Goodbudget is a great fit if you're new to budgeting. It's essentially a digital version of envelope stuffing that assigns a category to every dollar. It also comes with an easy-to-use interface and lots of educational tools.

Standout benefits: Users can share and sync their budgets, making this app a good option for couples and families.

Who's this for? A desktop application, GnuCash uses a double-entry accounting method that will appeal to small business owners. It also has invoicing, accounts payable and receivable and payroll management tools.

Standout benefits: GnuCash supports accounting across multiple currencies and languages.

Who's this for? SoFi Relay is available in the SoFi app, but you don't need a SoFi account to use it. It links to most cards and bank accounts to easily let you track your spending and savings. You also get access to a financial expert to discuss your savings goals.

Standout benefits: Relay comes with free credit score monitoring.

Who's this for? If you fall prey to mindless spending, this Dave Ramsey-branded app uses a zero-based framework, meaning every single dollar has a "job," whether that's paying bills, building you savings or building your nest egg.

Standout benefits: You can set up as many categories, groups and budget lines as you want and choose savings goals and use icons to track specific savings targets.

Budgeting can be tedious, but a good budgeting tool — whether it's an app, a website or even a calculator — should make the process easier.

Just as importantly, it should suit your needs, comfort level and financial approach, whether that's the cash envelope system or zero-based budgeting.

If you prefer an easy-to-follow system, for example, navigating a complex dashboard won't do you any good. And if you just want to keep track of overspending, you might not need an app that offers net-worth tracking and investment management.

Paid budgeting apps like You Need A Budget (YNAB) come with additional features, including more customization, couple/group budgeting and automatic syncing of your account.

Free apps, like the ones highlighted here, are usually more basic. They may serve your needs just fine, though, and since they're free, you can test several and see which you prefer.

Making a budget can sound intimidating, but it only takes a few steps.

1. Calculate your net income

Your net income is the amount of money you earn after taxes and can be found on your pay stub and bank statements.

2. List your monthly expenses

Look at your regular monthly spending on things like rent or mortgage payments, utilities, loan payments, insurance, transportation, child care, groceries and subscriptions. Don't forget to include your contributions to savings, like a 401(k), IRA or high-yield savings account.

Go through and label each as a fixed or variable. Housing costs, insurance, loan payments and gym memberships are fixed, while entertainment, food, travel and clothing are variable. This will help you see where you can cut back.

3. Determine your monthly costs and adjust as needed

Review how much you spend every month in each category. It's easiest to do this while looking at your bank account and credit card statements.

If your expenses exceed your income, focus on where in your budget that you can cut back. If your income is significantly higher than your expenses, reevaluate what you should be doing with the excess — for instance, putting it in a high-yield savings account.

At CNBC Select, our mission is to provide our readers with high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice so they can make informed decisions with their money. Every budgeting review is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors with extensive knowledge of personal finance products. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content without input from our commercial team or any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on our journalistic standards and ethics. See our methodology for more information on how we choose the best free budgeting tools.

CNBC Select analyzed over a dozen free budgeting tools, examining their features, availability and options for customization. We also considered each tool's security protocols and illustrative data insight, such as graphs and reports.

We limited our search to apps that offer a free service, not just a free trial, and that employ a variety of budgeting methods. We wanted variety in the ways users can build their budget, and we ranked each tool based on areas where they excel.

The tools we selected for this ranking are all free and provide users value. For our selection, we also favored budgeting tools that have strong user reviews.

Catch up on CNBC Select's in-depth coverage of credit cards, banking and money, and follow us on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to stay up to date.