Telegram Expense Tracker Bot: Log Spending by Just Texting
Most expense trackers die of friction: open app, tap plus, fill five fields, categorize. Budget (BudgetLogBot) reduces the whole ritual to a Telegram message — send 12.50 coffee to the bot in your DMs and the expense is saved with the amount parsed, the note kept, and a category guessed from your words.
Beyond logging, it totals your spending by day, week, and month with a per-category breakdown, lets you set a monthly cap with alerts at 80% and 100%, and sends an automatic weekly summary every week so the numbers catch up with you even if you never open the stats.
It works per-user in your DMs — no group setup, no spreadsheet. This guide covers the exact message format, the budget alerts, and what Pro adds.
Steps
- Log an expense with one message. Start a chat with @BudgetLogBot and send any message beginning with a number: 12.50 coffee. The amount is saved, the rest of the text becomes the note, and a category is auto-guessed from keywords. Typo in the category? It only affects the guess, not the log itself.
- Try it before committing. Type @BudgetLogBot 12.50 coffee in any chat (even a group) and the inline parser shows the amount and category it would extract — nothing is saved until you message the bot directly.
- Check totals with /today, /week, /month. Each command returns your spending for that window, broken down by category. Free tier includes all three views — the breakdown is the part that actually changes behavior.
- Set a monthly cap with /budget. Run /budget 1500 to set a monthly spending cap. The bot alerts you at 80% of the cap and again at 100%, so you find out before the month is over, not after the statement arrives.
- Rely on the weekly summary. Every user gets an automatic weekly summary DM — the total, the categories, the trend. No need to remember to check anything.
- Pro: CSV export and custom categories. Pro (one-time 150 Stars) unlocks /export to get a CSV of all logged expenses, /cat add to create up to 50 custom categories, and unlimited monthly logging instead of 30.
Good to know
- Any DM starting with a number is treated as an expense — amount first, note after.
- Categories are auto-guessed from keywords in your note; custom categories need Pro.
- Free: 30 expenses/month, all totals, one /budget cap with 80%/100% alerts, weekly summary.
- Pro per user (150 Stars one-time): unlimited logs, CSV /export, up to 50 custom categories.
- Inline parsing works anywhere via @BudgetLogBot, but saving only happens in your DM chat.
FAQ
- Is there an expense tracker bot for Telegram?
- Yes — Budget (BudgetLogBot). Send 12.50 coffee in a DM and the expense is logged and auto-categorized; /today, /week, and /month give per-category totals.
- How does it know the category?
- The bot guesses from keywords in your note text. Pro lets you define up to 50 custom categories with /cat add.
- Can I export my expenses?
- Yes, with Pro: /export sends a CSV of your logged expenses as a DM file.
- How do budget alerts work?
- Set a monthly cap with /budget 1500 and the bot messages you at 80% and again at 100% of it during the month.