Copper reads your balances and transactions through Plaid. You sign in to your bank inside Plaid’s secure window, and Copper only ever gets read-only access. It can’t move money.

Before you start

Linking a bank needs a Copper plan. Core links up to 5 banks and Plus up to 10. A “bank” here is one sign-in at one institution: every account under that login (checking, savings, cards) counts once. See Plans & billing.
1

Open Connected Accounts

Go to Settings › Connected Accounts and tap Link another account. With no banks yet, you can also tap Connect bank on the Transactions tab.
2

Sign in with Plaid

A secure Plaid window opens. Find your bank, sign in, and choose the accounts to share.
3

Let Copper save it

When Plaid finishes, Copper saves the bank and its accounts. Balances appear right away and transactions follow shortly after.
On the web, go to Settings › Banks & accounts. Plaid opens in a pop-up window, so allow pop-ups for Copper if your browser asks.
A bank that’s already linked to a budget can’t be linked to it a second time. Manage its accounts from the existing connection instead.

What Copper gets

History

A newly linked bank brings in up to two years of past transactions, so once-a-year bills can show up twice. Anything older than a week arrives quietly: it isn’t auto-assigned, rounded up or announced with a notification.

Syncing

Copper syncs every linked bank on its servers throughout the day, and right away when Plaid reports new activity. You don’t need to open the app. Pulling down to refresh reloads what’s already been synced; it doesn’t contact your bank.

Your accounts

Open Settings › Connected Accounts, tap a bank, then tap an account. Accounts are grouped as Checking, Savings, Credit Cards, and Loans & Other.
  • Include in budget decides whether a checking or savings balance counts toward left-to-spend.
  • Track as a savings bucket (savings accounts) turns the account into a bucket whose balance mirrors it. That money stays out of left-to-spend and shows with your goals.
  • Credit card bucket (cards) sets card purchases aside for the bill. See Credit cards.

When a bank needs attention

Banks sometimes need you to sign in again. Copper flags the connection: To fix it, open the bank in Settings › Connected Accounts and tap Reconnect. Plaid opens so you can sign in again; your accounts and history stay as they are. Reconnecting also needs an active plan.

Removing a bank

Open the bank in Settings › Connected Accounts and tap Remove. You choose what happens to its data: Either way, the bank is removed at Plaid and bucket balances stay as they are: what you spent stays spent. Linking the same bank again later starts a fresh history.
If your plan ends, Copper disconnects your linked banks and they stop updating. Your budgets, buckets and history stay, and you can link your banks again after you resubscribe.