Claude gets Personal Finance: Bank and card accounts connect with read-only access

What it does

On Nov. 5, Anthropic added a feature called Personal Finance to Claude. It is rolling out in beta this week on the Pro, Max and Ultra plans in the U.S. According to the help center, it works on the web, desktop, iOS and Android apps and is not available on the Free, Team or Enterprise plans.

Users link bank, credit card, loan and investment accounts and ask questions in their own words. Claude works from balances and transactions to sort spending into categories. It can point out charges that hit twice, unexpected fees and bills that have crept up over the year, and it can build a weekly spending chart or a calendar of what’s due. The Personal Finance page also has editable widgets for spending, cash flow, subscriptions and upcoming bills.

Claude@claudeai

Introducing Personal Finance in Claude, in beta in the US.

Connect the accounts you choose, and Claude answers your money questions in everyday language, from your own balances and transactions. Access is read-only, and Claude can't move, manage, or invest your money.

How accounts connect and what Claude sees

Accounts connect through Plaid, a service that links apps to banks. Users sign in to their bank themselves on Plaid’s screens, so Claude doesn’t ask for or see the bank password. Up to 16 banks can be linked. For the accounts a user chooses, Claude can read the account names, types and last four digits, balances and credit limits. It can also see up to 24 months of transactions, with amount, date, merchant and category. For investment, loan and card accounts it reads only balances and limits, not holdings, trades, rates or terms.

Access is read-only: Claude can’t move, manage or invest money. Conversations in the Personal Finance hub aren’t used to train models; for anything shared outside the hub, the user’s privacy settings apply. Bank data stays in the chat history until the chat is deleted. A bank can be unlinked at any time, and the connection can also be cut from Plaid’s own site.

Limits and a rival

Anthropic says the feature isn’t designed to give investment advice and that Claude can make mistakes, so important figures should be checked with the bank. According to the help center, balances can be a day or two old, and an account linked through two logins may be counted twice. There are no ads or sponsored recommendations, and Anthropic does not offer credit cards, loans or savings accounts of its own. The company says it is exploring ways for Claude to work alongside licensed professionals on bigger money decisions and wants to hear from banks.

OpenAI brought a similar feature to ChatGPT in May. According to Engadget, ChatGPT’s Finances also uses Plaid, started with Pro users in the U.S., and reads investments and liabilities to give personalized advice. BleepingComputer reported in September that the Claude feature had surfaced in the iOS app under the name “Claude Money.” Anthropic hasn’t said when Personal Finance will come to other countries.