Acorns vs Empower: Which Is Better in 2026?

Prices checked October 2026. A price marked (Oct 2026) was read on the vendor's own pricing page; others are described without a number because we could not verify one.

Round-ups and small automated contributions into a diversified ETF portfolio, priced as a flat monthly subscription.

How it works: Acorns rounds up card purchases to the nearest dollar and invests the difference, alongside optional recurring contributions, into a diversified ETF portfolio chosen by questionnaire. Pricing is a flat monthly fee by tier, whatever the balance, so the cost as a share of the balance falls as the balance grows.

In practice, Acorns’s AI automates small recurring investments. It is a robo-advisor (hands-off automated investing), best suited to starting to invest at all, when the barrier is behavioural. On connecting an account: no (holds your money at Acorns). On execution: automated. Cost: $4, $8 or $12/mo by plan (Oct 2026).

One real limitation: A flat monthly fee is enormous as a percentage of a small balance, and small balances are the ones the product is designed for.

Free account aggregation and portfolio analysis tools, alongside a percentage-fee wealth management service for larger balances.

How it works: You link accounts from across providers and Empower shows net worth, allocation, and a fee analyser that surfaces expense ratios you may not have noticed. That tier is free. Separately, Empower runs a managed wealth service with human advisors at a percentage of assets, with minimums, and the free tools are the funnel into it.

In practice, Empower’s AI aggregates accounts and analyses them. It is a robo-advisor (hands-off automated investing), best suited to free portfolio tracking; the paid advice is a separate decision. On connecting an account: yes, for tracking (aggregates held-away accounts). On execution: only in accounts it manages. Cost: 0.89%/yr from $100,000, tiered down to 0.49% (Oct 2026).

One real limitation: The free tools are a lead source for a high-fee managed service, and the sales contact is persistent.

Category comes first. Acorns focuses on starting to invest at all, when the barrier is behavioural (automates small recurring investments), and Empower on free portfolio tracking; the paid advice is a separate decision (aggregates accounts and analyses them). On broker connection they differ too: Acorns is “No (holds your money at Acorns)” versus Empower at “Yes, for tracking (aggregates held-away accounts)”. That shapes everything downstream: how personal the answers are, where trades settle, and how much control you keep over individual positions.

Every tool gives something up for what it does well. Below is the give-and-take on each, so you can weigh the specific strengths against the limitations that come with them, beyond the headline category.

For AI investing tools, the distinction that matters most is whether the tool works from your actual, connected positions or reasons from something else: a separate account it manages for you, or the tickers and numbers you feed it. It decides how personal the answers can be, and where your money physically lives.

• Acorns: manages a separate account it holds. Acorns does not read the brokerage you already use. It opens and holds a new account, then invests the money you move into it, so its view is limited to what sits inside Acorns.
• Empower: reads your real connected holdings. Empower connects your real brokerage (Yes, for tracking (aggregates held-away accounts)) and works from your actual positions, so its answers reflect what you actually own.

This is where they diverge most. One works from your real, connected account while the other does not, so if you want an assistant grounded in the exact positions you already hold, that gap is the thing to weigh first. This holdings-aware angle is the one Walnut is built around: it connects the brokerage you already use and reasons from your live positions, read-only by default, with any trades left for you to approve.

Each one wins a different job, so the answer depends on which job you need done.

• Choose Acorns if you want starting to invest at all, when the barrier is behavioural. Its AI automates small recurring investments, and it costs $4, $8 or $12/mo by plan (Oct 2026). It is built for someone who has not managed to start investing and needs the decision removed, with a plan to reassess the fee once the balance grows. Keep in mind: a flat monthly fee is enormous as a percentage of a small balance, and small balances are the ones the product is designed for.
• Choose Empower if you want free portfolio tracking; the paid advice is a separate decision. Its AI aggregates accounts and analyses them, and it costs 0.89%/yr from $100,000, tiered down to 0.49% (Oct 2026). It is built for someone who wants a free, honest view of accounts spread across providers and is comfortable declining the follow-up call. Keep in mind: the free tools are a lead source for a high-fee managed service, and the sales contact is persistent.
• Choose Walnut if you want a keep, trim or exit read on the stocks you already own, and placing the trades you approve. It is an AI investing app that connects the broker you already use, and it costs free; Walnut Plus $9.99/mo on the web; no fee on assets.

Because both sit in the same category, the choice comes down to the finer details above. Their basic approach is the same.

Cost is easy to misread when two tools charge in different shapes, so compare the model, not just the number. Acorns: $4, $8 or $12/mo by plan (Oct 2026). Empower: 0.89%/yr from $100,000, tiered down to 0.49% (Oct 2026). A percentage-of-assets fee scales with your balance, a flat subscription does not, and a “free” tier usually earns elsewhere (on cash, order flow, or premium upgrades), so the cheapest headline is not always the cheapest outcome for your situation.

Prices checked October 2026. Pricing and tiers change, so confirm the current numbers on each provider’s own site before you decide.

Walnut is an AI investing app, and it is the pick for a keep, trim or exit read on the stocks you already own, and placing the trades you approve (free; Walnut Plus $9.99/mo on the web; no fee on assets). It connects the brokerage you already use, read-only by default, gives each holding a keep, trim or exit read against the S&P 500, flags any position above a quarter of the portfolio, and places the trades you approve. You use it through its own assistant, or inside Claude or ChatGPT. See Walnut vs Acorns and Walnut vs Empower.