Know what's safe to spend before your next paycheck.
Pocket Runway is a personal-finance app for people paid weekly, biweekly, or irregularly. It plans each paycheck around the bills due before the next one — stop budgeting by month and see a clear daily number for what's yours to spend between paychecks, updated automatically.
Free to use — no card required. Works with weekly, biweekly, twice-a-month, or income that changes week to week.
Features
Every Account
In One Pay-Period View
Safe to Spend
Updated as You Spend
Daily Allowance
Through Next Payday
Secure by Design
Private by Default
How it works
Set up in 3 minutes. See what this paycheck covers.
Pocket Runway reserves only the bills due before your next check — and defers the rest. What's left becomes one daily number that updates the moment you spend.
Set your pay-period window
Enter your paycheck and cadence — weekly, biweekly, twice a month, monthly. Pocket Runway tracks the actual window between checks, down to when your paycheck clears.
We reserve only what's due before your next check
Add your bills once. Each pay period, Pocket Runway fences off just the obligations due inside that window — and defers the rest to next cycle.
Spend from what's actually available
What's left ÷ days until payday. Your bank balance still counts money that's spoken for; this number doesn't — and it stays honest even when you're running short.
Why it's different
A monthly budget fights your pay schedule.
Conventional budgets organize bills inside one calendar-month view, even when different paychecks will cover them. If you're not paid on the 1st, that view blurs what this check has to handle into what the next one does — so the number you're looking at isn't the money you really have this week.
A monthly budgeting app
$1,178
set against the whole month — including a phone bill, streaming, and savings that aren't due until after your next check. A tense, shrunken "left to spend" for money you don't need yet.
Pocket Runway
$900
reserved — only the rent that's actually due before payday. The rest is deferred to its own window. You see the money you really have to work with this week.
Who it's for
Built for the way you actually get paid.
If your bills don't line up with your paychecks, a calendar-month budget was never built for you.
Biweekly & semi-monthly
26 checks a year that drift, or the 1st-and-15th split — either way, your bills cluster unevenly across each window. Pocket Runway sorts them automatically.
Gig, 1099 & freelance
Income that changes week to week. Reserve only what's imminently due instead of guessing against a monthly average you don't actually earn.
Anyone tired of mid-cycle surprises
If your budget falls apart the moment a bill lands at the wrong time, the fix isn't more discipline — it's budgeting in the window that matches your pay.
Pricing
Simple, honest pricing.
Your daily "safe-to-spend" number is free now, and stays free.
Every new account starts with a 34-day Plus trial, so you can try the pay-period forecast, trends, and savings automation. When it ends, you keep the full Free plan — we never charge unless you choose to upgrade.
Free
$0
- ✓No card required
- ✓Daily dashboard — balance + daily allowance
- ✓Manual transaction logging
- ✓Runway Reset (payday closeout)
- ✓Bill & transfer setup
- ✓Net-worth snapshot
- ✓1 manual account
Plus
$4 / month
Billed monthly · cancel any time
- ✓Everything in Free
- ✓CSV import · bank linking coming soon
- ✓Calendar + what-if simulator
- ✓Spend Trends — 30 / 90-day analytics
- ✓Savings goals & sinking funds
- ✓Self-employed tax reserve
- ✓AI spending nudges + net-worth history
- ✓Unlimited manual accounts
Pro
$9 / month
- ✓Everything in Plus
- ✓Custom categories & rules
- ✓Full data export (JSON / CSV)
- ✓Multi-user household
- ✓Investment tracking (beta)
FAQ
Common questions, straight answers.
What is pay-period budgeting?
Pay-period budgeting plans your money from one paycheck to the next instead of across a calendar month. Each cycle, you set aside the bills due before your next check, and what's left is what you can actually spend in that window. It matches the way money really arrives, so the plan doesn't fall apart mid-month.
How is Pocket Runway different from a monthly budgeting app?
Monthly apps organize bills inside one calendar-month view, even when different paychecks will cover them. Pocket Runway reserves only what's due before your next check, defers the rest to the cycle that pays for it, and turns what's left into one daily spending number.
Who is Pocket Runway for?
Anyone who thinks in paychecks rather than months: hourly, freelance, gig, commission, and seasonal workers — and salaried people whose bills don't line up with their paydays. If your budget breaks when a bill lands at the wrong time of the month, this was built for you.
What pay schedules does Pocket Runway support?
Weekly, biweekly, semi-monthly (like the 1st and the 15th), monthly, and irregular income. You tell it how much and how often you're paid, and every calculation follows the actual window between your checks.
How does Pocket Runway handle irregular income?
You confirm each paycheck as it arrives, and the plan adjusts to that check instead of pretending every check is identical. A strong week extends your runway; a quiet stretch tightens the daily number. Forecasts for future cycles use a rolling average of your recent spending.
What is a Runway Reset?
A Runway Reset is Pocket Runway's payday closeout. When a new pay cycle begins, you confirm the paycheck that landed, review what's left over from the last cycle, and decide what to do with it — roll it forward, save it, or put it toward a goal — so every cycle starts with a clean, intentional plan.
Does Pocket Runway support sinking funds?
Yes. Sinking funds and savings goals let you set aside a little from each pay period toward irregular costs — annual renewals, car repairs, quarterly tax bills — so they stop being surprises. Sinking fund automation is part of the Plus plan.
Is Pocket Runway free?
Yes — the daily safe-to-spend number, manual tracking, and the full pay-period engine are free with no card required. Every new account also starts with a 34-day trial of the Plus plan ($4/month), which adds spending trends, calendar forecasting, sinking funds, and the what-if simulator.
More questions? Visit the full Support & FAQ page.
Guides
Built for how you're actually paid.
However your money arrives, the plan follows your pay cycle. Start with the guide that matches your schedule.
Comparing tools? Pocket Runway vs. YNAB · Pocket Runway vs. spreadsheet budgeting
You don't need a budget. You need a Runway.
Built by the people who finally got tired of budgeting that assumes a steady, predictable paycheck.
Start free →Privacy first — no ads, no data selling. Ever.