On-Device AI
The On-Device AI tab does two things on your phone: Capture turns a bank message, a receipt photo, a card email, or a sentence you type into a logged expense, and Ask answers questions about what you've already logged. Share something to Pocket Clear, paste it, snap a photo, or say it out loud, and Capture reads it on your phone and either logs it or hands you a card to confirm.
Turn it on
On-Device AI is a beta you switch on yourself: open the On-Device AI tab, read what it does, and tap Enable On-Device AI. The same toggle at the top of the tab turns it off again — nothing you've logged is removed. Until it's on, sharing to Pocket Clear and the Siri phrase will ask you to enable it first.
What it reads
Capture is built for the kind of text and photos a bank or a shop actually sends you:
- Bank debit and credit SMS, and card alerts — including Indian UPI formats and US, UK, Canadian and Australian card notifications.
- Card and order confirmation emails.
- Receipt photos and screenshots.
- A typed sentence, like "450 coffee at Starbucks".
Three ways in
All three land in the same place — a confirm card or an instant save with Undo.
- Share. From Messages, Mail, or Photos, tap Share and choose Pocket Clear.
- Quick Log. The button on Home — paste, type, scan, or choose a photo.
- Siri, Shortcuts and Control Center — iPhone only. Say "Log an expense in Pocket Clear" and speak the amount and merchant. The same thing is available as a Shortcut, as a Control Center control, and as a result row in Visual Intelligence. None of these exist on Android, where Capture is reached through Share, Quick Log and the camera — there is no voice entry point.
What happens after
When Capture is confident it has read a message correctly, it saves the expense immediately and shows a 5-second Undo toast at the bottom of the screen — tap Undo and it's gone, do nothing and it stays. Anything Capture isn't sure about — an unclear amount, an unfamiliar format — stops on a card for you to confirm or edit before it saves anything.
If a capture looks like something you've already logged, Pocket Clear flags it as a possible duplicate rather than saving it twice.
Every transaction Capture created shows "captured from …" in Edit, so you can always see where it came from. It can be edited or deleted like any other transaction.
Ask about your spending
Type a question in the Ask box on the On-Device AI tab — or tap one of the suggestions — and Pocket Clear answers from your own ledger, on your phone. Nothing you ask, and nothing it answers, leaves the device.
Questions it answers exactly, with the numbers taken straight from your transactions:
- Totals. "How much on food this month?", "Total spent in the last 30 days", "How much by UPI in August?"
- Comparisons. "Am I spending more than last month?", "Compare food in August with July"
- Top lists. "Biggest merchant this year?", "Top categories this month"
- Lookups. "When did I last pay Uber?", "How much was the Apollo bill?"
- Budgets. "Am I over budget?", "How much is left in Transport?"
"This month" follows your budget start day, the same way Home does; a named month is the calendar month. If you use a word that isn't one of your categories or payees, Ask searches your transaction notes for it instead — except in budget questions, where it tells you it couldn't find the budget and shows all of them.
Open-ended questions — "Where can I cut back?" — are different: the on-device model writes a short answer from a summary of your last six months. Every number it uses is checked against that summary before you see it, and the answer is marked as AI-generated. If it can't answer from your data, it says so. These questions need on-device AI on your phone (iPhone with Apple Intelligence, or a Pixel or Galaxy with Gemini Nano); the exact questions above work on every phone.
With a partner linked, answers cover your own transactions unless you switch to Ours above the box. Tap See transactions under any answer to open the rows behind it. Ask never edits anything.
On iPhone you can also ask Siri: "Ask Pocket Clear about my spending", then say the question.
How it decides the category
Capture picks a category in this order: first, your own history — if you've filed a merchant before, it uses that category again. Second, a built-in list of well-known merchants. Third, the on-device model, when one is available on your phone. Whatever it picks, you can always change it — Capture never locks a category in.
Privacy
Capture reads the text or photo on your device using Apple's on-device model on iPhone and Google's on-device model on Android. Nothing you share is uploaded to Pocket Clear or to any AI company. Only the expense you confirm is saved — and it leaves your phone only if you have cloud sync turned on.
A share or paste you don't confirm isn't kept: an unconfirmed draft is discarded within a day.
Set it up
A few small setup steps make Capture faster to reach next time.
- Add it to your Home Screen. Add the Pocket Clear widget or shortcut to your phone's Home Screen so Quick Log is one tap away, without opening the app first.
- Add it to Control Center. On iPhone, add Pocket Clear's Capture control to Control Center for a swipe-down shortcut from anywhere, including the Lock Screen.
- Set up the Siri phrase. On iPhone, say "Log an expense in Pocket Clear" to Siri once so it's recognised as a shortcut going forward.
Requirements
- iPhone. iPhone 15 Pro or later with Apple Intelligence turned on gets the on-device model for reading receipt photos and less structured text. Every iPhone on iOS 17 or later — including older models — still reads bank messages and card alerts using Pocket Clear's own built-in rules.
- Android. Phones with Gemini Nano — Pixel 9 and newer, Galaxy S25 — get the on-device model. All other Android phones read bank messages and card alerts using the built-in rules.
- Siri. The Siri phrase works everywhere Siri does. Apple decides where Apple Intelligence itself is available, by device, country and language.
Free until 31 December 2026
Capture is a Pro feature, and it's free for everyone until 31 December 2026. After that date it becomes part of Pro — anything you've already captured stays exactly as it is.
Still need help? Email us at [email protected]