Claude Personal Finance vs. ChatGPT Finances: Privacy Is the Big Difference

Anthropic has announced a new Claude feature called Personal Finance, a direct competitor to OpenAI's Finances tool in ChatGPT, which launched in May. Both tools link to your bank account through Plaid and offer read-only access, letting you ask questions about financial goals and see dashboards covering spending, investments and monthly expenses. Neither is meant to give expert financial advice.

The split comes down to privacy. Anthropic says conversations in Claude's Personal Finance hub aren't used to train its models by default, and unlinking your bank account means Claude no longer sees data you previously provided. OpenAI says conversations with connected accounts follow the same model training settings you choose across ChatGPT, so you have to opt out by turning off "Improve the model for everyone" in Data controls. Disconnected account data is deleted from OpenAI's systems within 30 days.

Anthropic also says its feature carries no ads or sponsored recommendations and doesn't offer credit cards, loans or savings accounts of its own. OpenAI has been testing ads on cheaper tiers since January and plans to add features through a partnership with Intuit, covering things like credit card applications and tax questions. Anthropic says it wants to hear from banks, wealth managers and financial services companies to improve its tool.