Allowance

People increasingly want AI agents to handle real-world tasks like shopping, but letting an agent spend money means either sharing a real card number or closely supervising every step. Handing over a credit card to an AI agent risks unauthorized or excessive charges, with no easy way to limit, track, or revoke that access. Today there is no simple way to grant an AI narrow, temporary spending permission for a specific merchant or task and be confident it cannot exceed that boundary.

Allowance acts as an agent wallet that sits between a user and their AI, letting the AI (named Alfie in examples) find products, propose a purchase, and complete it only after the user approves, including via Face ID. Users set spending limits per task, day, or month, and every allowance is locked to a specific merchant with permissions that auto-expire and can be revoked instantly. The AI never sees the user's actual card number; Allowance generates a temporary credential for each purchase, and every transaction is logged with a full receipt. The product works inside iMessage and WhatsApp, connects to ChatGPT, Claude, or other MCP-compatible agents, and also has its own web, iPhone, and Android apps; it additionally offers one-time virtual card numbers that a person can use themselves at any checkout.