Empower vs Wealthfront: 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.

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.

Automated indexing with strong financial-planning tools. Best for hands-off investors who want planning bundled in.

How it works: You set your goals and risk level and fund an account, and Wealthfront allocates across a set of low-cost index ETFs, then rebalances and tax-loss harvests automatically. Its Path planning tool projects retirement and other goals against your linked accounts, and larger balances can unlock direct indexing that holds individual stocks to harvest losses more granularly.

In practice, Wealthfront’s AI automates indexing + financial planning. It is a robo-advisor (hands-off automated investing), best suited to hands-off investing with planning built in. On connecting an account: no (holds your money). On execution: automated. Cost: 0.25%/yr, $500 minimum (Oct 2026).

One real limitation: Limited control over individual positions.

Category comes first. Empower focuses on free portfolio tracking; the paid advice is a separate decision (aggregates accounts and analyses them), and Wealthfront on hands-off investing with planning built in (automates indexing + financial planning). On broker connection they differ too: Empower is “Yes, for tracking (aggregates held-away accounts)” versus Wealthfront at “No (holds your money)”. 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.

• 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.
• Wealthfront: manages a separate account it holds. Wealthfront 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 Wealthfront.

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 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 Wealthfront if you want hands-off investing with planning built in. Its AI automates indexing + financial planning, and it costs 0.25%/yr, $500 minimum (Oct 2026). It is built for hands-off investors who want automated indexing with serious planning tools and a cash hub in one place. Keep in mind: limited control over individual positions.
• 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. Empower: 0.89%/yr from $100,000, tiered down to 0.49% (Oct 2026). Wealthfront: 0.25%/yr, $500 minimum (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 Empower and Walnut vs Wealthfront.