About Griotta

Griotta is an iOS app that helps people interrupt impulse spending before it happens. It adds a short pause between the impulse to buy and the purchase, so the urge can pass before the money is gone. It is a behavioral money app, not a budgeting app, and it works without a bank connection.

Why Griotta exists

Most money apps look backward. They show you what you already spent, sorted into categories, after the money is gone. That is useful for accounting and quiet in the moment that matters.

Impulse spending happens in seconds, on emotion, before judgment arrives. Griotta exists to reach that moment. It puts a short pause between the impulse and the purchase, so the urge has time to pass before you spend.

The Pause Layer

The core of Griotta is the Pause Layer, an optional feature that places a short, user-chosen pause in front of the apps where you tend to overspend. You select the shopping, delivery, or trading apps yourself using Apple Screen Time. When you open one, Griotta invites you to pause first, then you decide whether to continue or walk away.

Whatever you decide, the moment lands in your Journal, and your pause impact adds up the amounts you paused, walked away from, planned, and bought. It is self reported, not a verified bank figure. Read the full explanation of how the Pause Layer works.

What spending interception means

Spending interception is the idea behind Griotta: interrupting a purchase before it happens rather than reviewing it after. A pause at the moment of decision does what a month-end budget cannot. Learn what spending interception means.

Griotta rests on a small set of behavioral concepts about impulse decisions. Read the concepts behind Griotta.

What Griotta is not

Not a budgeting app. Griotta does not track transactions or sort spending after the fact.
Not a tracker of money already gone.
Not a parental control. You set the pause for yourself, and you can always continue.
Not a financial advisor. Griotta does not give financial, investment, tax, or legal advice.

Private by design

Privacy is the point, not an afterthought.

Griotta has no bank connection and no card linking.
Griotta cannot see your cart, your purchases, your merchants, or any transaction.
Griotta never learns which apps you selected. They are represented only through privacy preserving Screen Time tokens.
Your choices stay on your device.

Guidance is educational

Anything Griotta reflects back about your spending pattern is educational, behavioral guidance to help you decide with a clearer head. It is not financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. For high-stakes decisions, speak with a qualified professional.

Frequently asked questions

What is Griotta?

Does Griotta connect to my bank?

No. Griotta has no bank connection and no card linking. It does not read your accounts or your transaction history.

Does Griotta see my purchases?

No. Griotta cannot see your cart, your purchases, your merchants, or any transaction. The apps you select are represented only through privacy preserving Screen Time tokens.

Is Griotta a financial advisor?

No. Griotta offers educational, behavioral guidance to help you reflect before spending. It does not give financial, investment, tax, or legal advice.