Empower vs Fidelity Go: Which Is Better in 2026?

Figures and features are point-in-time and change; treat the table as a starting map, not a live quote.

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 falls under hands-off automated investing (robo-advisors), which makes it best suited to free portfolio tracking; the paid advice is a separate decision. On connecting an account it is “Yes, for tracking (aggregates held-away accounts)”, and on execution it is “Only in accounts it manages”. It is priced as free tools; managed accounts charge a percentage (verify current).

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

Fidelity's automated service, free below a stated balance and built from zero-expense-ratio Fidelity Flex funds. Best for people starting out.

How it works: A questionnaire sets the allocation, and Fidelity invests it in its own Flex mutual funds, which carry no expense ratio because Fidelity earns the advisory fee instead. Below a stated balance there is no advisory fee at all, which makes it one of the genuinely free ways to get a managed portfolio; above it, a flat percentage applies.

In practice, Fidelity Go’s AI automates a fidelity flex fund portfolio. It falls under hands-off automated investing (robo-advisors), which makes it best suited to small balances, where it is free. On connecting an account it is “No (holds your money at Fidelity)”, and on execution it is “Automated”. It is priced as free under a stated balance, then a flat percentage (verify current).

One honest limitation: No tax-loss harvesting, which removes the strongest argument for a managed taxable account.

The core difference is category. Empower focuses on free portfolio tracking; the paid advice is a separate decision (aggregates accounts and analyses them), and Fidelity Go on small balances, where it is free (automates a fidelity flex fund portfolio). On broker connection they differ too: Empower is “Yes, for tracking (aggregates held-away accounts)” versus Fidelity Go at “No (holds your money at Fidelity)”. 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. Here is the honest give-and-take on each, so you can weigh the specific strengths against the limitations that come with them rather than judging on the headline category alone.

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.

• Empower: manages a separate account it holds. Empower 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 Empower.
• Fidelity Go: manages a separate account it holds. Fidelity Go 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 Fidelity Go.

On this specific question the two land on the same side, so the deciding factors between them are elsewhere: category, cost, and who each is built for. 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.

There is no universal winner here; the right pick depends on the job you are hiring the tool for. Match the category to your intent rather than chasing a single “best.”

• Choose Empower if you want free portfolio tracking; the paid advice is a separate decision. Its AI aggregates accounts and analyses them, it is priced as free tools; managed accounts charge a percentage (verify current), and it fits hands-off automated investing (robo-advisors). 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 that the free tools are a lead source for a high-fee managed service, and the sales contact is persistent.
• Choose Fidelity Go if you want small balances, where it is free. Its AI automates a fidelity flex fund portfolio, it is priced as free under a stated balance, then a flat percentage (verify current), and it fits hands-off automated investing (robo-advisors). It is built for someone with a smaller balance who wants automation at no cost and holds it in a retirement account where harvesting would not apply anyway. Keep in mind that no tax-loss harvesting, which removes the strongest argument for a managed taxable account.

Because both sit in the same category, the choice comes down to the finer details above rather than a fundamental difference in approach.

Cost is easy to misread when two tools charge in different shapes, so compare the model, not just the number. Empower is priced as free tools; managed accounts charge a percentage (verify current), while Fidelity Go is priced as free under a stated balance, then a flat percentage (verify current). 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.

Pricing and tiers change often. Confirm the current numbers on each provider’s own site before you decide; the framing above is point-in-time.

If neither quite fits, Walnut sits in a third category: chat-driven management of your own brokerage. It connects the brokerage you already use through SnapTrade, lets you analyze and manage it by talking through Claude or ChatGPT, build thematic portfolios around a thesis, and place trades you approve. Read-only by default. See Walnut vs Empower and Walnut vs Fidelity Go. Walnut is not an investment adviser.