Help Center
Everything you need to get set up and get the most out of Glean. Can't find what you're looking for? Email support@glean.fyi and a human will get back to you.
1. Getting Started
Glean turns your card statements into something you can actually read: real vendor names, month-over-month comparisons, and automatic flags when something looks off. Setup takes a couple of minutes.
1. Create your account
Sign in with Google, or enter your email and we'll send you a one-time code. There's no password to remember.
2. Connect a card
Choose your bank, sign in through Plaid, and pick which cards you want Glean to track. Give each one a nickname so you can tell them apart later.
3. Wait for the first sync
Glean pulls your transaction history and analyzes it. The first sync takes longer than later ones because there's a lot to bring in — give it a minute or two, then refresh.
4. Look at your dashboard
Your spending trajectory sits at the top, comparing this month against the last. Below it you'll find your gleans, recent activity, top vendors, and top categories.
2. Connecting Your Accounts
How connections work
Glean uses Plaid to talk to your bank. You enter your bank credentials directly with Plaid — they never pass through Glean, and we never store them. Some banks will redirect you to their own login page to authorize access, which is normal.
Our access is read-only. Glean can see transactions. It cannot move money, make payments, or change anything at your bank.
Adding more cards
Go to Settingsand connect another institution, or add cards from an institution you've already linked. Each card can be renamed at any time — the nickname is what shows up throughout the app.
Disconnecting
Disconnect an institution from Settings at any time. That stops future syncing. Transactions already in your workspace stay there unless you delete them.
Which accounts should I connect?
Glean is built around credit card spending, so credit cards are where it shines. You can connect other account types, but vendor-level analysis is most useful on cards you actually spend from.
3. Fixing Merchant Names
Banks describe merchants badly. A single Amazon purchase might arrive as AMZN MKTP US*2H4XY1, and your bank can't tell an Amazon retail order from an AWS bill. Glean cleans up what it can automatically — and lets you fix the rest permanently.
Corrections that stick
Open any transaction and edit the merchant name. Glean remembers the correction and applies it to matching transactions going forward — and you can apply it retroactively to past ones too. Fix a vendor once and you've fixed it for good.
This is the difference between a spending report you skim and one you trust. It's worth spending ten minutes early on cleaning up your most frequent vendors.
If a correction goes too far
Because corrections work by pattern matching, one can occasionally catch a transaction you didn't intend — for example if two different merchants share a similar descriptor. Open the affected transaction and set the name you want; the more specific correction wins.
4. Understanding Gleans
A glean is something Glean noticed on its own. Rather than making you hunt for problems, it surfaces them on your dashboard. Today Glean looks for:
Duplicate charges
The same amount hitting the same vendor twice close together — sometimes a genuine double-charge, sometimes just a repeat purchase.
Annual renewals
A subscription that renewed about a year later, with the price change called out so a quiet increase doesn't slip by.
Spending spikes
A charge much larger than what you normally spend at that vendor, based on your own history rather than a fixed threshold.
Missing recurring charges
A regular bill that didn't arrive when expected — useful for catching a lapsed service or a failed payment.
New vendors
The first time a merchant shows up in your spending, so an unfamiliar name gets your attention early.
Exact duplicates
Identical charges on the same day at the same vendor — the pattern most likely to be a real billing error.
Gleans are signals, not verdicts.They're generated automatically from the data your bank provides, so they can be wrong in both directions — flagging a legitimate charge, or missing a real problem. A long-standing vendor can even show up as "new" after a re-sync or when your bank changes how it describes a merchant.
Treat a glean as a prompt to look closer. Your card issuer's statement is the authoritative record, and only your issuer can investigate or reverse a charge.
Dismissing gleans
Dismiss any glean you've dealt with or don't care about and it won't come back. Gleans also expire on their own after a while, so your dashboard stays current instead of accumulating old notices.
When do gleans appear? New ones are generated as transactions sync, and a daily pass looks for patterns that only become visible over time — like a bill that failed to show up.
5. Categories and Exclusions
Categories come from your transaction data automatically — dining, travel, groceries, and so on. Open any transaction and you can override the category when the automatic one is wrong; your override is what analytics and comparisons use from then on.
Excluding transactions
Some charges distort the picture — a reimbursed expense, a transfer, a card payment, a one-off you don't want in your averages. Open the transaction and mark it excluded; it drops out of your totals while staying visible in your transaction list.
6. History and Plan Limits
Every Glean feature works on the free plan. The only thing a paid plan changes is how far back you can look and how many institutions you can connect.
Free
- 60 days of transaction history
- 1 connected institution
- Every feature included
Pro
- 2 years (730 days) of history
- Unlimited connected institutions
- Every feature included
Downgrading never deletes anything. If a Pro plan ends, your history window narrows but your transactions, category overrides, and merchant corrections are all kept — and become visible again if you resubscribe.
Current pricing lives on the pricing page.
7. Troubleshooting Sync
My transactions aren't updating
Glean syncs automatically each day, and your bank may take a day or two to post a charge in the first place. To check immediately, trigger a manual sync from Settings. If an institution shows an error there, it usually needs to be reconnected — banks periodically expire access and require you to re-authorize.
A transaction changed or disappeared
That's expected for pending charges. A pending transaction is a hold, not a final charge — the amount can change or vanish before it posts. Restaurant tips and gas stations do this routinely. Glean updates to match whatever your bank ultimately reports.
I connected a bank but see no cards
Connecting an institution and choosing which accounts to track are two separate steps. If the second one was interrupted, Glean will prompt you to finish selecting accounts next time you open your dashboard.
My history looks shorter than expected
Two things limit history: your plan's window, and how much your bank is willing to hand over. Some institutions provide substantially less back-history than others, and how much arrives is fixed at the time you connect. Reconnecting an institution can sometimes pull in a longer history.
Still stuck? Email support@glean.fyi with the institution name and roughly when you noticed the problem, and we'll take a look.
8. Privacy and Security
- We never see your bank password. Plaid handles authentication; your credentials never reach us.
- Access is read-only. Glean cannot move money or change anything at your bank.
- We don't sell your financial data, and we don't serve ads.
- You can ask us for a copy of your data, or ask us to delete it. Email support and we'll handle it — see the Privacy Policy for how long that takes.
Full details are in our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
Found a security vulnerability? Please report it to support@glean.fyi. We take reports seriously and will investigate promptly.
9. Contact Support
We'd rather hear from you than have you give up on something that isn't working.
Including the institution involved, the approximate date, and what you expected to see helps us resolve things on the first reply.
Reporting a security issue? Same address — start the subject line with Security and we will prioritize it.