Claude Adds Personal Finance Tool With Read-Only Bank Access

Anthropic announced Thursday that Claude now has a tool called Personal Finance, built to help users track their money. Through Plaid, users can connect bank and credit card accounts and ask Claude questions about their finances. Anthropic says access is read-only, so the tool cannot move, manage, or invest anyone's money.

By linking directly to accounts, Anthropic is pitching Claude as a financial companion that helps people understand their spending rather than just offering generic advice. The move puts Claude in catch-up mode with OpenAI's ChatGPT, which introduced similar personal finance tools in May.

Anthropic said in a blog post that Claude answers in everyday language using balances and transactions, and explains unfamiliar terms. The company said Personal Finance carries no ads or sponsored recommendations and doesn't offer credit cards, loans, or savings accounts of its own, so money questions get a straight answer.

A user could ask where their money went this month, and Claude will total spending across connected accounts and sort it by category such as rent and utilities, food and drink, and shopping. Follow-up questions can go deeper. Anthropic says the tool also flags potential issues like duplicate charges, unexpected fees, and steadily rising bills, and can explain concepts such as APR while showing how much interest was paid over the past year.

On privacy, Anthropic says Claude's access is limited to each bank's name, account name and type, the last four digits of the account number, balances, credit limits, and up to two years of transaction history. Conversations in the Personal Finance hub aren't used to train its models, the company said.

Personal Finance begins rolling out in beta this week to Pro, Max, and Ultra plan users in the U.S. The launch follows Anthropic's expansion of Claude into new areas, including Claude for Legal and Claude for Financial Services earlier this year.