Privacy & terms

Effective October 29, 2026

beans is a small, invite-only budgeting app at threebeanscapital.com, run by Alex Olguin ("we", "us"). This page explains, in plain language, what beans does with your information and the rules for using it. beans is for adults 18 and over.

What we store

Your account

Your name, email address, and password. Passwords are stored as a one-way hash, so we can't see them.

Data from your banks

When you connect a bank through Plaid, beans stores what Plaid returns: account names and the last 4 digits of account numbers, balances, transactions (merchant, amount, date, and category), credit card details such as interest rates, statement balances, and due dates, and mortgage details such as balance, rate, and property address when your lender provides them. The credential beans uses to talk to Plaid for your bank is encrypted. beans never sees or stores your bank username or password; you enter those with Plaid.

What you add

Account nicknames, tags, notes on transactions, manual mortgages, payment links, and Goals coach conversations.

Your settings

Whether you've turned on AI features, which AI provider you agreed to, and when.

All of this lives in our database, hosted by Render. Each person's data is kept separate; other beans users can't see yours.

Who we share with

• Plaid, to connect your bank accounts. Plaid's handling of your data is covered by the Plaid End User Privacy Policy.
• xAI, only if you turn on AI features. See AI features.
• Render, which hosts the app and its database and keeps server logs.
• Google Fonts, jsDelivr, and Plaid's script server. Your browser loads fonts, the charting library, and Plaid's connect window from these services, which can see your IP address. They don't receive your financial data.
• When the law requires it. We'll share information if we're legally required to, and tell you when we're allowed to.

We don't sell your data, use it for advertising, or run analytics or tracking scripts.

AI features (Grok by xAI)

AI features are off by default. You can turn them on or off at any time in Settings → AI features.

What's sent to xAI when they're on

When you use the Home summary, the "Ask beans" chat, or the Goals coach, beans sends xAI: your account names or nicknames, balances, credit card interest rates, and spending totals by category and by month, plus your question and, in the Goals coach, that conversation so far.

beans does not send your name, email, password, account numbers, or your individual transactions. Each request carries a scrambled identifier so xAI can report abuse without knowing who you are.

What xAI keeps

beans uses xAI's Zero Data Retention setting, so xAI deletes each request and reply once it has answered. beans checks this before sending anything and pauses AI features if xAI doesn't confirm it. xAI states that it does not train its models on API data.

What beans keeps

• Goals coach: your messages and the replies are saved so you can come back to a goal. They stay until you delete the conversation, or delete them all in Settings → AI features.
• "Ask beans" chat: not saved. It disappears when you close or reload the page.
• Home summary: the latest one is cached in your own browser and cleared when you log out.
• The financial summaries sent to xAI are built fresh for each request and not saved.

Please keep in mind

AI replies can be wrong or incomplete. They are general information, not financial, investment, tax, or legal advice, and beans won't recommend specific investments. Check anything important before acting on it.

Cookies and browser storage

beans uses one cookie to keep you signed in, for up to 30 days. Your browser also stores your light or dark theme and the cached Home summary. There are no advertising or tracking cookies.

Logs

Our host keeps server logs, including IP addresses and which pages and features were requested, to troubleshoot problems and protect against abuse. They're kept for a limited time and aren't used for anything else.

Security

beans uses HTTPS, encrypts bank connection credentials, limits sign-in attempts, keeps the database off the public internet, and only lets you see your own data. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects your data, we'll tell you promptly.

Deleting your data

• Everything: Settings → Account → Delete account. This disconnects your banks at Plaid and deletes your account and all of its data from our database right away. Copies in our host's backups expire on their normal schedule.
• One bank: Settings → Connections lets you disconnect a single bank.
• AI conversations: delete a Goals conversation from inside it, or all of them in Settings → AI features.

If you'd like a copy of your data or need help deleting it, email us at the address below.

Terms of use

By creating an account you agree to these terms.

• A beta, offered as-is. beans is an invite-only beta. It's provided without warranties, may have bugs, and may change or shut down; we'll give notice when we can. To the extent the law allows, we're not liable for losses from using beans.
• Not advice. Nothing in beans, including AI replies, is financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. Decisions about your money are yours.
• Your account. Keep your password private, and only connect accounts you own or are authorized to use.
• Fair use. Don't try to access other people's data, get around security or rate limits, overload or reverse-engineer the service, or use beans for anything illegal, fraudulent, or harmful.
• AI features are also subject to xAI's Acceptable Use Policy. Don't try to make the AI ignore its instructions or produce harmful content.
• Enforcement. We may suspend or close accounts that break these terms.

Changes

If we change this page, we'll update the date above. For important changes, we'll tell you in the app before they take effect.

Contact

Questions, data requests, or concerns: privacy@threebeanscapital.com