Claude's Personal Finance beta reads US users' bank and card accounts through Plaid, but cannot move money

Anthropic has started rolling out Personal Finance, a beta feature that lets Claude answer questions about a user's spending from connected bank and card accounts. Anthropic says the access is read-only, so the feature cannot move, manage, or invest money. The practical question for anyone considering it is what data Claude receives, and Anthropic has listed that in detail.

What Claude can see

Users connect an account by signing in to their bank through Plaid, a service that links apps to banks. Anthropic says Claude neither asks for nor sees the bank password. Only the accounts a user picks are shared, and an account can be unlinked at any time.

• The bank's name, plus each account's name, type, and last four digits.
• Balances and credit limits.
• Up to two years of transactions.

How the data is used

Anthropic says conversations inside the Personal Finance hub are not used to train its models. Anything shared with Claude outside the hub falls under the user's normal privacy settings, so the same question asked in an ordinary chat is treated differently.

What it does and where it stops

Claude sums spending across accounts, sorts it by category, and can flag double charges, unexpected fees, or bills that have grown over the year. It also explains terms such as APR, the annual cost of credit, and adds up the interest a user has paid. Anthropic warns that Claude can make mistakes and advises checking important figures with the bank, and it says the feature is not designed to give investment advice. TechCrunch notes that ChatGPT gained similar tools in May.