If you pay for Claude in the US, you can now link your bank and credit card accounts and ask Claude plain questions like “Where did my money go last month?” or “Which subscriptions am I paying for?” Anthropic launched Personal Finance in Claude on November 5, 2026 as a beta for the Pro, Max and Ultra plans. Access is read-only through Plaid, so Claude never sees your bank password and can’t move money. Setup takes a few minutes. The parts most people will get wrong are not the setup but what happens afterwards: shared chat links and published artifacts can keep showing your figures even after you unlink a bank, and removing your last bank wipes your dashboard for good. This guide covers the setup step by step, exactly what Claude can read, the privacy settings worth changing, and fixes for the errors Anthropic lists.

Nothing in this guide needs code.

Last checked: November 6, 2026, against Anthropic’s launch post and the Claude Help Center article Use Personal Finance in Claude. It is a beta that Anthropic is rolling out gradually, so menu names and limits may change.

The short version

• Who gets it: Claude Pro, Max and Ultra plans, US only, on the web, Claude Desktop, and the iOS and Android apps. It is not on Free, Team or Enterprise plans. Rollout is gradual, so a paid plan doesn’t guarantee you see it today.
• How it connects: through Plaid, the service many finance apps use to connect to banks. You sign in to your bank inside Plaid, not inside Claude.
• What Claude can do: read balances and transactions, answer questions, build a dashboard of widgets. It cannot move, manage or invest money, and Anthropic says it “isn’t designed to give investment advice.”
• What it can read: bank names, account names and types, usually the last four digits of account numbers, balances and credit limits, and up to 24 months of transactions.
• Training: chats inside the Personal Finance hub aren’t used to train Anthropic’s models. Chats elsewhere follow your normal privacy settings.
• Limit: up to 16 banks, US banks only.

What you can actually do with it

Anthropic’s launch post walks through one example. Late in the month, you ask “Where did my money go this month?” Claude adds up spending across the accounts you linked and sorts it by category (in Anthropic’s example, $4,309.37 in total, more than half on rent and utilities, $1,024.51 on food and drink). You can then follow up with “Is that more than usual?”, “Anything else I’m missing?” or “So what’s left before payday?”, and Claude compares previous months, points out a membership renewal and lists payments due before payday.

Things Anthropic says it is good at:

• Spending breakdowns by category and comparisons with earlier months.
• Spotting things that are easy to miss: charges that hit twice, unexpected fees, or a bill that has crept up over the year.
• Bigger-picture questions such as “Am I spending more than I make?”
• Explaining terms, for example “What’s an APR, and what has mine cost me this year?”, followed by the interest you were actually charged.
• Charts and dashboards: a weekly spending chart, a calendar of what’s due, or a dashboard you keep adjusting.

The Personal Finance page itself is a dashboard of widgets covering spending, cash flow, accounts, subscriptions, upcoming bills and short insights from Claude. You can add, edit, remove and reorder them.

What it won’t do: pay bills, transfer money, open accounts, or recommend financial products. Anthropic stresses there are no ads or sponsored recommendations and it doesn’t sell its own cards, loans or savings accounts.

Before you start: a quick checklist

1. Use your personal Claude account on a Pro, Max or Ultra plan. Team and Enterprise accounts don’t get it. (If you’re unsure which plan you’re on after Anthropic’s recent renaming, see our note on Claude Max 20x becoming Ultra.)
2. Be in the US and turn off any VPN that routes you through another country. The Help Center says Personal Finance doesn’t appear outside the US.
3. Update the app if you’re on iOS or Android.
4. Have your online banking login ready, including any two-step verification code your bank sends.
5. Set aside 10 minutes of uninterrupted time. Plaid’s sign-in must be finished within 10 minutes.

Step-by-step: set up Personal Finance and link your first bank

These steps follow Anthropic’s Help Center article.

1. Open Claude on the web, Claude Desktop or the mobile app.
2. Open Personal Finance in the side menu. If you don’t see it, hover over More.
3. Select Get started.
4. Choose your goals, or skip them.
5. Select Continue.
6. Select Link accounts with Plaid.
7. On the Connect Plaid to Claude screen, read the list of what Claude will be able to access.
8. Select Continue.
9. In Plaid, choose your bank, sign in to it, and choose the accounts you want to share. Only the accounts you tick here are shared.
10. Back in Claude, wait for your accounts to show up, then choose Link another account or Done.

Where Plaid opens depends on your device: a new window on the web, your default browser on Claude Desktop, inside the app on iOS, and a browser tab on Android. Finish within 10 minutes and come straight back to Claude. Transactions can take a few minutes to sync, so don’t panic if the dashboard looks empty at first.

Tip from the launch post: start small. Connect one account and ask a single question, such as “How much could I save each month?”, before linking everything.

Linking more banks

• Web and Claude Desktop: click Link another account at the top of the page.
• iOS and Android: tap the gear icon in the top right, then Link another account.

The limit is 16 banks. To add another account at a bank you’ve already linked, you link that bank again and, in Plaid, share every account you want Claude to read, not just the new one.

”This bank is already linked”

When you link the same bank twice, Claude asks what to do:

• Switch to the new link: the new sign-in replaces the old one, and Claude reads only the accounts you shared this time. Use this to add an account or to fix a broken bank.
• Keep it as it is: nothing changes.
• Keep both: for a second login at the same bank, such as a joint or business account.

Watch out with Keep both: if the same account appears under both logins and your bank shows it differently in each, Claude may count it twice in your totals.

Exactly what Claude can see (and what it can’t)

For the accounts you choose to share, the Help Center lists:

Claude can read	Claude can’t read
Bank names	Your bank password (you sign in through Plaid)
Account names, types and last digits (usually four)	Investment holdings or trades
Balances and credit limits	Loan or card interest rates and terms
Up to 24 months of transactions: amount, date, merchant, category and your bank’s description	Anything at accounts you didn’t tick in Plaid

Two details worth knowing:

• Full account numbers can still leak. Plaid only passes the last few digits, but if your bank writes a full number into an account name or a transaction description, Claude may see it there.
• Plaid may ask for more than Claude uses. Plaid’s own screens may ask for consent to share investment, credit and loan data. Anthropic says Claude today reads only the items in the left column above.

Privacy: the settings and traps that matter

This is where Claude’s version differs from a normal budgeting app, because your figures end up in chats, and chats can be shared.

Training

Conversations inside the Personal Finance hub are not used to train Anthropic’s models. If you ask about your money in a regular chat, your normal Claude privacy settings apply. If you care about this, ask money questions from the Personal Finance page.

Memory, search and monthly recap

Once Claude has used your accounts in a chat, Anthropic says that chat is designed not to be saved to memory, not to be searched later, and left out of your monthly recap, including its title.

Chat history

Your financial data appears in the conversation and stays in your chat history until you delete the chat, subject to Anthropic’s retention practices. Anthropic also notes that the service providers that host Claude handle bank data, and Plaid handles it under its own terms.

Shared links and artifacts (the big one)

• A shared chat link shows your messages and Claude’s replies, including any figures from your accounts, plus any chart or artifact Claude made.
• Claude asks before it publishes an artifact from a chat that used your accounts. A published artifact stays until you delete it, even if you delete the chat.
• Figures saved in an artifact are shown to everyone who opens it. On top of that, an artifact can read the linked accounts of the person who opens it, if that person also has Personal Finance and allows Plaid.

Practical rule: don’t share chats or publish artifacts that came from Personal Finance unless you’re happy for the viewer to see those numbers. Unlinking a bank later does not remove figures already in chats, artifacts or shared links.

Turn Plaid off for chats

By default Claude reads your linked accounts without asking each time. If you’d rather it asked first, or never touched them in normal chats:

• Web and Claude Desktop: click + in the message box, click Connectors, then switch Plaid off or on.
• iOS and Android: tap + next to the message box, then Connectors, then Plaid. Under All tools (on Android, Set all tools), choose Blocked to turn it off, Always allow to turn it back on, or Needs approval to have Claude ask before each read (unless the chat is set to automatically approve). Your choice also applies to new chats.

Claude always asks before it links or unlinks a bank from inside a chat.

How accurate are the numbers?

Anthropic is upfront that Claude “can make mistakes,” and asks you to check important figures against your bank’s own app or statements. Known reasons a number may differ:

• Balances can be a day or two old.
• An account linked through two logins may be counted twice.
• If Claude can’t read one of your banks, that bank is left out of the spending figures, so a budget can show more money left than you really have.

A good habit, straight from the launch post: when Claude gives you a total, ask which transactions are behind that number and spot-check a few.

What doesn’t work yet (current limitations)

According to the Help Center:

• US banks only.
• Claude can’t use your linked accounts in scheduled tasks, Cowork tasks or Claude Code, and may not be able to use them inside a project.
• Personal Finance isn’t available in Claude Duet.
• Data exports don’t include your saved dashboard yet.
• In a chat that used your accounts, Claude can show text and tables and make plain text files such as .csv, but it may not be able to run code or work with Word, Excel, PowerPoint or PDF files. If you want a spreadsheet, ask for a CSV.

Keeping it working: re-signing in to a bank

Banks sometimes end Claude’s access, and you’ll see “Sign-in expired” or “Claude’s access to this bank has ended.” To fix it:

1. Go to Personal Finance.
2. Open your linked accounts: on the web and Claude Desktop, click the ”…” menu at the top of the page, then Manage linked accounts. On iOS and Android, tap the gear icon.
3. Select Sign in again on that bank.
4. Sign in with the same bank login you used before.

When it works you’ll see “Claude can read [bank] again,” and your dashboard stays as it was.

How to unlink a bank, or stop completely

Unlink one bank:

1. Go to Personal Finance.
2. Open Manage linked accounts (web and Desktop, via the ”…” menu) or the gear icon (mobile).
3. Select Unlink on the bank (on mobile, tap the bank first), then Unlink again to confirm.

What that does:

• Claude stops reading every account linked through that bank login. You can’t unlink just one account at a bank.
• What Claude already said stays in your chats, artifacts and shared links until you delete them.
• If it’s your last linked bank, your dashboard resets. Widgets, their settings (such as budgets) and your setup answers are deleted, and this can’t be undone.

Stop using Personal Finance entirely: in the same menu, choose Unlink all banks. You can also disconnect Claude from Plaid’s own site, my.plaid.com. Plaid’s help page notes that disconnecting there stops future sharing only and doesn’t delete data the app already stored, so also delete any chats or artifacts you don’t want to keep.

If you cancel your plan: you can’t open Personal Finance and Claude can’t read your accounts, but your banks stay linked until you unlink them. Unlink before your plan ends if you don’t plan to come back. If you resubscribe, your banks and dashboard are as you left them. If you already cancelled, on the web click Customize in the sidebar (some accounts see Plugins), then Connectors, open Plaid and use the Unlink button, or disconnect at my.plaid.com.

If you move to a Team or Enterprise organization, Claude unlinks your banks when the move starts. If you delete your Claude account, your banks are unlinked automatically once the deletion is processed.

If you lose a phone or laptop, log that device out of Claude from your active sessions.

Troubleshooting

What you see	What to do (per Anthropic’s Help Center)
No “Personal Finance” in the sidebar	Check your plan, use your personal (not Team/Enterprise) account, update the app, turn off a foreign VPN. It may also simply not be on for your account yet.
”Nothing new was linked.” or “[Bank] is already linked.”	Claude found no new account. Link the bank again and, in Plaid, share the new account and every other account you want Claude to read.
Linking from Claude Desktop or Android fails	Finish in the browser Claude opened and don’t reload Plaid’s page. From Desktop, that browser must be signed in to Claude with the same account.
The bank linked but isn’t in your list	Wait a minute or two and reopen Personal Finance. If it’s still missing, link again, finish within 10 minutes, don’t close Plaid yourself, and return to Claude right away.
Transactions are missing	New banks take a few minutes to sync. If asked, choose Sign in again. If nothing loads after a day, link again and choose Switch to the new link.
”Claude can’t read this bank.”	Don’t unlink first. Use Link another account, link that bank again and choose Switch to the new link (or Keep both if that’s not offered). Remove the old entry afterwards if it remains. Exception: at 16 banks, unlink this one first, then relink.
Claude ignores your accounts in a chat	Update the mobile app, ask Claude to use your linked accounts, and check Plaid is on under Connectors. Start a new chat outside any project: a chat that already ran code, made files, or started from an artifact can’t use your accounts. If the app still fails, try claude.ai in a browser.

Anthropic’s own warning bears repeating: never share your bank login or full account numbers with anyone, including Claude Support.

Claude Personal Finance vs. ChatGPT Finances

OpenAI shipped a similar feature, Finances in ChatGPT, earlier this year, also built on Plaid. Based on OpenAI’s announcement and updates, the practical differences today are:

	Claude Personal Finance	ChatGPT Finances
Plans (US)	Pro, Max, Ultra (beta, gradual rollout)	Expanded from Pro to Plus and Pro, then (Oct 2, 2026) rolling out to Free and Go
Investments	Reads balances only, not holdings or trades	Says it can access investments and liabilities; adds stock watchlists
Model training	Hub chats never used for training	Follows your ChatGPT Data controls setting
Disconnect	Personal Finance > Manage linked accounts, or my.plaid.com	Settings > Apps > Finances, or the Finances page; synced data deleted within 30 days
Extras	Ad-free, no own financial products	Credit monitoring, weekly updates, voice, manual account entry; partner actions with Intuit

If you’d like ChatGPT to stay out of model training too, our guide on turning off ChatGPT and Codex training shows where that switch lives.

FAQ

Is it free? No. It’s only on the paid Pro, Max and Ultra plans, and only in the US.

Can Claude pay my bills or move money? No. Access is read-only. Personal Finance “can’t move, manage, or invest your money.”

Does Anthropic see my bank password? No. You sign in to your bank inside Plaid, and Claude never asks for or sees the password. It’s the same idea as letting Claude use logins through 1Password without seeing your password.

How far back does it go? Up to 24 months of transactions per shared account.

I’m outside the US. Can I use a VPN? The Help Center says Personal Finance doesn’t appear outside the US or on a VPN that connects from another country, and only US banks can be linked.

Can I use it with Claude Code or scheduled tasks? Not yet. Linked accounts can’t be used in scheduled tasks, Cowork tasks or Claude Code.

Will unlinking delete what Claude already told me? No. Earlier answers stay in your chats, artifacts and shared links until you delete them. Only unlinking your last bank deletes the dashboard, and that can’t be undone.

Sources

• Anthropic, Introducing Personal Finance in Claude (November 5, 2026)
• Claude Help Center, Use Personal Finance in Claude
• Plaid Help Center, How do I disconnect my financial accounts from an app?
• OpenAI, A new personal finance experience in ChatGPT
• TechCrunch, Claude can now analyze your spending with its new Personal Finance tool

More guides on the 7minai homepage.