Keep the Diff Premium Download
All articles

How many people used Mint, and why Intuit shut it down

By , who built Keep the Diff

Mint was one of the most used personal finance apps in the United States, and Intuit closed it anyway. This article sticks to the numbers that can be traced to a source: how many people signed up, how many were still using it, and what Intuit said when it shut Mint down. Where everyone went afterward is a separate story, told in Mint shut down: where that crowd actually went.

The short version

  • Founded by Aaron Patzer in 2006, and bought by Intuit in 2009 for $170 million.
  • Over 20 million users, by Mint's own count in 2016.
  • 13 million registered users in early 2020, as reported by Fast Company.
  • 3.6 million active users in 2021, as reported by Bloomberg.
  • Closure announced on November 1, 2023, for January 1, 2024.
  • Final closing date moved to March 23, 2024, with users pointed to Credit Karma.

How many people used Mint

The three figures above measure different things, which is why they look so far apart.

"Users" in 2016 counted everyone who had ever created an account over nearly a decade. "Registered users" in 2020 is the same kind of count, taken later. "Active users" in 2021 counts the people still opening the app, and that is the number that describes how much Mint was actually used near the end.

Read together, they say that most people who ever signed up for Mint had stopped opening it well before Intuit closed it. The figures come from different years and different sources, so they do not make a precise ratio. The direction is clear enough: millions of sign ups, and a much smaller group of regular users.

Engagement: what kept the active users

No public source gives a reliable breakdown of how often Mint's remaining users opened it, and this article does not guess at one. What the reporting at the time does show is which loss got the attention. When Intuit said its replacement in Credit Karma would not offer monthly and category budgets, that gap is what most of the coverage focused on.

When Mint shut down

Intuit announced the closure on November 1, 2023. The first date given was January 1, 2024. It was later moved to March 23, 2024, which is when Mint stopped working. Users could move their accounts to Credit Karma from inside the Mint app before then.

Why Intuit shut it down

Intuit's own wording was that Mint was being reimagined, and that some of its most popular features would move to Credit Karma, which Intuit also owns. Intuit did not publish a financial reason beyond that. Anything more specific, such as how much Mint earned or cost, was never made public, so it is left out here.

What is on the record is the gap. Credit Karma could show linked accounts, transactions and net worth. It did not let users set monthly or category budgets, which had been a core part of Mint.

If you were one of those users

If you want what Mint did, with budgets on top of linked accounts, the roundups after the shutdown cover that ground well. If you used Mint mostly to feel on top of your money, and never liked giving it your bank login, Mint alternatives if you never wanted your bank connected is the closer fit.

Keep the Diff is one of those. It records the money you decided not to spend: what you were ready to spend, minus what you actually spent. It has no bank connection, and you can try it in your browser.

Sources

More on this