Walnut vs Facet: 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.

The AI that knows your portfolio. Ask anything in plain English, research any stock or fund, and get an honest second opinion, on the broker you already use. Read-only by default, you approve every trade, and it never holds your money. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

How it works: You connect the brokerage you already use, read-only by default, so your login stays with your broker and your money never moves. Walnut gives each holding a keep, trim or exit read from its one-year price return against the S&P 500, its momentum and its size, and flags any position above a quarter of the portfolio. You ask follow-up questions in Walnut's own assistant, or inside Claude or ChatGPT through its connector, which only reads. You can turn a thesis into a basket with target weights, and when you decide to act Walnut drafts the trades and places the ones you approve at Public plus eight other brokers including E*Trade, tastytrade and Webull.

In practice, Walnut’s AI reads your real holdings, rates each one against the S&P 500, builds baskets and drafts trades. It is an AI investing app that connects the brokerage you already use, best suited to a keep, trim or exit read on the stocks you already own, and placing the trades you approve. On connecting an account: yes (the brokerage you already use, read-only by default). On execution: places the trades you approve at Public and eight other brokers. Cost: free; Walnut Plus $9.99/mo on the web; no fee on assets.

One real limitation: It has no cost basis or tax lots, so it reports one-year price returns and cannot show profit and loss, and it is read-only at Schwab, Fidelity and Vanguard.

Flat-fee financial planning with a dedicated CFP professional, priced by complexity.

How it works: You pay an annual membership and are assigned a CFP professional who covers planning across tax, insurance, estate coordination and retirement, with investment management available inside it. Because the fee is flat and set by complexity, it does not rise as your portfolio grows, and that is its main argument against the percentage model.

In practice, Facet’s AI none; this is human planning. It is a robo-advisor (hands-off automated investing), best suited to flat-fee financial planning with a dedicated CFP. On connecting an account: no (manages assets it custodies, planning covers the rest). On execution: advisor-managed. Cost: $2,600, $5,500 or $8,700/yr flat, no asset minimum (Oct 2026).

One real limitation: The flat fee is large in absolute terms at small balances, so it only beats a percentage once you have enough assets or enough complexity.

In short, Facet is about fully automated, hands-off investing where the platform builds and manages a diversified portfolio for you, while Walnut is about keeping your own brokerage, getting a keep, trim or exit read on each holding, and placing only the trades you approve. Facet holds your money and invests it for you, whereas Walnut sits on top of the broker you already use and leaves you in control.

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.

• Walnut: reads your real connected holdings. Walnut connects your real brokerage (Yes (the brokerage you already use, read-only by default)) and works from your actual positions, so its answers reflect what you actually own.
• Facet: manages a separate account it holds. Facet 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 Facet.

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 Walnut if you want a keep, trim or exit read on the stocks you already own, and placing the trades you approve. Its AI reads your real holdings, rates each one against the S&P 500, builds baskets and drafts trades, and it costs free; Walnut Plus $9.99/mo on the web; no fee on assets. It is built for investors who already own stocks at a broker and want an AI investing app to tell them which to keep, trim or exit, without moving their money. Keep in mind: it has no cost basis or tax lots, so it reports one-year price returns and cannot show profit and loss, and it is read-only at Schwab, Fidelity and Vanguard.
• Choose Facet if you want flat-fee financial planning with a dedicated CFP. Its AI none; this is human planning, and it costs $2,600, $5,500 or $8,700/yr flat, no asset minimum (Oct 2026). It is built for someone with a few hundred thousand or more, or real complexity, who wants planning more than portfolio management and objects to paying a percentage. Keep in mind: the flat fee is large in absolute terms at small balances, so it only beats a percentage once you have enough assets or enough complexity.

Because they sit in different categories, this is not strictly either-or: some investors use one for a keep, trim or exit read on the stocks you already own, and placing the trades you approve and the other for flat-fee financial planning with a dedicated CFP, and watch for overlapping costs.

Cost is easy to misread when two tools charge in different shapes, so compare the model, not just the number. Walnut: free; Walnut Plus $9.99/mo on the web; no fee on assets. Facet: $2,600, $5,500 or $8,700/yr flat, no asset 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.