Anthropic Lets Claude Read Users' Bank and Card Accounts With New Personal Finance Tool

The launch takes Claude from general money advice to working on a user's actual transaction records. It puts Anthropic up against OpenAI, which in May gave ChatGPT a similar feature that also connects to bank accounts through Plaid. Anthropic has been building versions of Claude for particular industries, including Claude for Legal and Claude for Financial Services earlier this year, and consumer finance takes that effort to individual subscribers.

Accounts are linked through Plaid, which connects apps to banks. Anthropic says access is read-only, so Claude cannot move, manage or invest money, and it says the tool "isn't designed to give investment advice." Because Plaid handles the connection, Claude never sees a user's banking passwords.

Anthropic gave a specific list of the data the chatbot can see: each bank's name, the account name and type, the last four digits of the account number, balances, credit limits and up to two years of transaction history. The company also says conversations held in the Personal Finance hub are not used to train its models.

The example Anthropic gives is a user asking at the end of the month, "Where did my money go this month?" Claude adds up spending across the linked accounts and sorts it into categories such as rent and utilities, food and drink, and shopping. The user can then ask follow-ups such as whether that is more than usual.

Anthropic says the tool also goes through transactions for problems such as duplicate charges, unexpected fees and bills that keep rising. It can answer broader questions, including whether a user is spending more than they earn, which bills are still due before the next payday and whether they can afford a large purchase such as a holiday. It also explains financial terms. Asked about APR, for instance, it can work out how much interest a user has paid over the past year.

Anthropic is pitching the tool on the absence of commercial conflicts. "Like the rest of Claude, Personal Finance has no ads or sponsored recommendations, and it doesn't offer credit cards, loans, or savings accounts of its own, so your money questions get a straight answer," the company wrote in its announcement. OpenAI has said it is bringing advertising to ChatGPT.

The feature was first spotted in Claude's apps in September and October under the internal name Claude Money, before Anthropic renamed it and confirmed it on Thursday.

Anthropic described the launch as a first step towards something bigger. "For life's bigger money decisions, we think people are best served by Claude working alongside the licensed professionals and regulated firms they trust," the company said, adding that it is exploring how to make that possible in Claude and wants to hear from banks, wealth managers and financial services companies who want to help shape it.

Anthropic has not said when Personal Finance will reach users outside the US or people on its lower-priced plans.