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Track Expenses Automatically with Telegram Bot using GPT-4o, OCR and Voice Recognition

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Created by: Dmitrij Zykovic || dmitrijz

Dmitrij Zykovic

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Last update 20 hours ago

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Personal Expense Tracker Bot 💰

AI-powered Telegram bot for effortless expense tracking. Send receipts, voice messages, or text - the bot automatically extracts and categorizes your expenses.

✨ Key Features

  • 📸 Receipt & Invoice OCR - Send photos of receipts or PDF invoices, AI extracts expense data automatically
  • 🎤 Voice Messages - Speak your expenses naturally, audio is transcribed and processed
  • 💬 Natural Language - Just type "spent 50 on groceries" or any text format
  • 🌍 Multilingual - Processes documents in any language (EN, DE, PT, etc.)
  • 📊 Smart Statistics - Get monthly totals, category breakdowns, multi-month comparisons
  • 🔒 Private & Secure - Single-user authorization, only you can access your data
  • ⚡ Zero Confirmation - Expenses are added instantly, no annoying "confirm?" prompts

🎯 How It Works

  1. Send expense data via Telegram:

    • Photo of receipt
    • PDF invoice
    • Voice message
    • Text message
  2. AI processes automatically:

    • Extracts amount, date, vendor
    • Categorizes expense
    • Stores in organized format
  3. Query your expenses:

    • "Show my expenses for November"
    • "How much did I spend on groceries?"
    • "Compare last 3 months"

📋 Expense Categories

Groceries, Transportation, Housing, Utilities, Healthcare, Entertainment, Dining Out, Clothing, Education, Subscriptions, Personal Care, Gifts, Travel, Sports, Other

🔧 Setup Requirements

1. Telegram Bot

Create a Telegram bot via @BotFather and get your API token.

Configure credentials for nodes:

  • Input, WelcomeMessage,
  • GetAudioFile, GetAttachedFile, GetAttachedPhoto
  • ReplyText, NotAuthorizedMessage, DeleteProcessing

2. OpenRouter API

Get API key from OpenRouter for AI processing.

Configure credentials for:

  • Gpt4o (main processing)
  • Sonnet45 (expense assistant)

3. Ainoflow API

Get API key from Ainoflow for storage and OCR.

Configure Bearer credentials for:

  • GetConfig, SaveConfig
  • ExtractFileText, ExtractImageText
  • TranscribeRecording
  • JsonStorageMcp (MCP tool)

🏗️ Workflow Architecture

Section Description
Message Trigger Receives all Telegram messages
Bot Privacy Locks bot to first user, rejects unauthorized access
Chat Message / Audio Routes text and voice messages to AI
Document / Photo Extracts text from files via OCR and forwards to AI
Root Agent Routes messages to Expense Assistant, validates responses
Expense Assistant Core logic: stores expenses, calculates statistics
Result / Reply Sends formatted response back to Telegram
Cleanup / Reset Manual trigger to delete all data (⚠️ use with caution)

💬 Usage Examples

Adding Expenses

📸 [Send receipt photo]
→ Added: 45.50 EUR - Groceries (Lidl)

🎤 "Bought coffee for five euros"  
→ Added: 5.00 EUR - Dining Out (coffee)

💬 "50 uber"
→ Added: 50.00 EUR - Transportation (uber)

Querying Expenses

"Show my expenses"
→ November 2025: 1,250.50 EUR (23 expenses)
   Top: Groceries 450€, Transportation 280€, Dining 220€

"How much on entertainment this month?"
→ Entertainment: 85.00 EUR (3 expenses)

"Compare October and November"  
→ Oct: 980€ | Nov: 1,250€ (+27%)

📦 Data Storage

Expenses are stored in JSON format organized by month (YYYY-MM):

{
  "id": "uuid",
  "amount": 45.50,
  "currency": "EUR",
  "category": "Groceries",
  "description": "Store name",
  "date": "2025-11-10T14:30:00Z",
  "created_at": "2025-11-10T14:35:22Z"
}

⚠️ Important Notes

  • First user locks the bot - Run /start to claim ownership
  • Default currency is EUR - AI auto-detects other currencies
  • Cleanup deletes ALL data - Use manual trigger with caution
  • No confirmation for adding - Only delete operations ask for confirmation

🛠️ Customization

  • Change default currency in agent prompts
  • Add/modify expense categories in ExpenseAssistant
  • Extend Root Agent with additional assistants
  • Adjust AI models (swap GPT-4o/Sonnet as needed)

📚 Related Resources

💼 Need Customization?

Want to adapt this template for your specific needs? Custom integrations, additional features, or enterprise deployment?

Contact us at Ainova Systems - We build AI automation solutions for businesses.


Tags: telegram, expense-tracker, ai-agent, ocr, voice-to-text, openrouter, mcp-tools, personal-finance