Log receipts from your inbox into a spending sheet with AI
Receipt emails are read by AI, which pulls out the shop, date, amount, and currency and adds a row to your Google Sheet.
What you need
- A Gmail label called receipts (or a Gmail filter that adds it)
- An OpenAI API key
- A Google Sheet with the columns date, vendor, amount, currency, email_subject
Steps
Label your receipts
Create a Gmail filter that adds the label receipts to emails from shops and services you pay. You can also add the label by hand.
Watch for labeled emails
Trigger on new emails with the label receipts.
Extract the details with AI
Ask OpenAI to return JSON only: {"date": "YYYY-MM-DD", "vendor": "", "amount": 0, "currency": ""}. Tell it to use null if a value isn't in the email.
Add a row
Append date, vendor, amount, currency, and the email subject to your sheet.
Build it in your tool
Gmail > Watch emails (label receipts), OpenAI > Create a completion (JSON response), Google Sheets > Add a row.
Gmail Trigger (label:receipts), OpenAI with JSON output on, Set (pick the fields), Google Sheets (Append row).
Gmail > New labeled email, ChatGPT/OpenAI > Extract structured data, Google Sheets > Create spreadsheet row.
- n8n workflowDraft file: it imports into n8n (checked with n8n 2.43) but has not been run with real accounts yet. In n8n: create a workflow, open the menu, choose Import from file, then connect your own accounts.Download .json
- Make blueprintComing once this recipe has been built and tested in Make. Follow the Make notes above for now.Not yet
What it costs per month
| Tool | Monthly usage | Cheapest plan that fits |
|---|---|---|
| MakeCheapestPricing page | 800 credits How we counted720 hourly checks + 40 x 2 (AI, add row) = 800. |
FreeFree plan |
| n8nPricing page | 40 executions How we countedOne execution per receipt. |
$24/moCloud Starter plan$20/mo billed yearlyOr $0 for the software if you self-host the free Community Edition (you pay for your own server). |
| ZapierPricing page | 80 tasks How we counted40 x 2 actions = 80. It's under 100 tasks, but three steps need a paid plan. |
$29.99/moProfessional 750 plan$19.99/mo billed yearlyMulti-step Zap, so the free plan (two steps only) doesn't work. |
Assumption: 40 receipts a month, tool checks hourly. Prices in USD, checked 2026-10-17 on the official pricing pages. The plan shown is the cheapest that covers this recipe alone; if you run several automations, add their usage together.
This recipe uses OpenAI. The AI usage is billed separately by OpenAI on your own API key and is not included above. See OpenAI API pricing.
Watch out for
- Spot-check the amounts every month. PDF-only receipts are not read by this version, only the email text.
- This is for tracking, not accounting. Keep the original receipts.