Budget Category Autotagger

How Budget Category Autotagger works

Press Load model once: your browser downloads Gemma 4 E2B instruction-tuned (web build) (2.0 GB) from this site and keeps it in its cache. Then add your text and press Analyze locally. The model runs on this device using your graphics card, so nothing you enter is sent to a server. Until the model is loaded, or if your device cannot run it, the tool falls back to a simple keyword check and labels the result as the fallback.

Gemma 4 E2B instruction-tuned (web build) is a small open language model from Google. The tool sends it the instruction below plus your text, asks for a JSON answer with fixed fields, and shows each field as a card. It runs at temperature 0, so the same input gives the same answer on the same device, though different graphics cards can word it slightly differently.

Inputs longer than 6,000 characters are cut to that length before they reach the model, and the result says so. The model only sees what you paste: it does not look anything up.

The instruction the model gets

You tag bank or card transactions with budget categories. Give every transaction exactly one category from this list: Groceries, Dining and coffee, Fuel and transport, Housing and utilities, Subscriptions and software, Shopping, Health, Entertainment, Transfers and person-to-person, Income, Other. Use what you know about common merchants (for example Trader Joe's and Safeway are Groceries, Shell and Chevron are Fuel and transport, Netflix is Subscriptions and software). Payments to a person through Venmo, Zelle or Cash App go in Transfers and person-to-person even when the note says what they were for. If you cannot tell what a merchant sells, use Other and list it for review. This is not financial, tax or legal advice, so do not tell the user what they should do with their money. Do not do any arithmetic: copy every amount, date and percentage exactly as written, and never compute totals, differences, gaps, averages or percentages.

What it returns

• Category per transaction: One entry per transaction, written exactly as 'transaction → Category'. Keep the amount as written.
• Transactions to check: Transactions tagged Other or that could fit two categories, with a few words on why.
• Categories used: Each category that appears, written once, with no amounts or counts.

Worked example

The model's output for the built-in sample, recorded on a desktop browser. Your run may word things slightly differently.

Transactions: SQ COFFEE 8.42, TRADER JOE 76.18, SHELL 48.11, COPILOT SUBSCRIPTION 13.00, CITY WATER 92.40, VENMO JASON DINNER 31.50.

Category per transaction

SQ COFFEE → Dining and coffee TRADER JOE 76.18 → Groceries SHELL 48.11 → Fuel and transport COPILOT SUBSCRIPTION 13.00 → Subscriptions and software CITY WATER 92.40 → Housing and utilities VENMO JASON DINNER 31.50 → Transfers and person-to-person

Transactions to check

CITY WATER 92.40 VENMO JASON DINNER 31.50

Categories used

Dining and coffee Groceries Fuel and transport Subscriptions and software Housing and utilities Transfers and person-to-person

The model

The files are served from this site, versioned so a cached copy is never stale. Nothing is fetched from a third party while you use the tool.

Limitations

• Small language models make mistakes: they can miss an item, merge two, or state something more confidently than the text supports. Check the result against your input before you rely on it.
• It needs WebGPU and about 8 GB of memory, so it is offered on desktops and laptops, not on phones and tablets. Devices that cannot run it get the keyword fallback, clearly labelled.
• Results describe the input you gave, not the real-world situation behind it. Review them yourself before acting.
• This is not financial, tax or legal advice. Confirm anything important against your own records and with a qualified professional.

Good uses

• Monthly close: tag a full card or bank export in one pass instead of row by row.
• Budget restart: label three months of history so your first budget uses real numbers, not guesses.
• Shared accounts: agree on where each recurring charge belongs before the household argument starts.
• Spreadsheet prep: get a category column you can pivot on, without paying for a bank-linked app.