Personal Finance in Claude is in beta, and a linked bank is off limits to Claude Code

Anthropic opened Personal Finance in Claude on 5 November 2026, in beta on the Pro, Max and Ultra plans in the US. It connects read-only to a bank or card account through Plaid and answers questions about balances and transactions. If you build on Claude, the detail that matters is the boundary rather than the feature: Anthropic's help centre states that Claude cannot use a linked account in scheduled tasks, Cowork tasks or Claude Code, and names projects in the same breath, so nothing you automate can reach it.

The announcement and the help centre article are both Anthropic's own pages, and they agree on the limits. Below is what each one actually says.

#What can Claude see from a linked account?

The help centre lists the data for connected accounts only. It is the account metadata plus a transaction history:

• The bank's name, the account name, its type and the last four digits.
• Balances and credit limits.
• "Up to 24 months of transactions, including the amount, date, merchant, category, and your bank's description".

The announcement describes the same window as "up to two years of transactions". Nothing from an unlinked account is included, and the announcement is explicit that Claude "doesn't ask for or see your bank password".

With that data Claude answers questions the announcement gives as examples, including "Where did my money go this month?", "So what's left before payday?" and "What's an APR, and what has mine cost me this year?". It can also build a view you keep: "Ask for a weekly spending chart, a calendar of what's due, or a dashboard of the numbers you choose, and Claude builds one you can keep adjusting."

#Where can a linked account be used?

This is the table to read if you automate anything with Claude. The exclusions are stated in the help centre, not inferred:

Surface	Can it use a linked account?	What Anthropic says
Personal Finance in the Claude app side menu	Yes	Open Personal Finance from the side menu, connect an account through Plaid, then ask a question
Scheduled tasks	No	"Claude can't use your linked accounts in scheduled tasks, Cowork tasks, or Claude Code"
Cowork tasks	No	Same sentence
Claude Code	No	Same sentence
Projects	No	Named in the remainder of that same sentence, which we did not capture word for word

We have not seen a statement either way about ordinary chats outside the Personal Finance hub, so we are not claiming one. What the pages do address for chats outside the hub is training, which is covered below.

#What can it not do?

Both pages carry the same one-line limit: "Access is read-only, and Personal Finance can't move, manage, or invest your money." The announcement adds three more boundaries. It "isn't designed to give investment advice". Anthropic "doesn't offer credit cards, loans, or savings accounts of its own" here. And there are no ads or sponsored recommendations in the feature.

The same current limitations section names two more boundaries worth knowing before you try it: you can link US banks only, and "Personal Finance isn't available in Claude Duet." It also notes that a data export does not yet include a saved Personal Finance dashboard.

There is also an accuracy caveat from Anthropic itself rather than from us: "Claude can make mistakes in its answers", with the advice to check important figures against your bank and to ask which transactions sit behind a number. For a feature whose whole output is arithmetic on your own money, that is the sentence to keep in view.

#How does the bank connection work?

Through Plaid, which the announcement describes as "a service that connects apps to banks". The sign-in happens on Plaid's side: "Your accounts are only connected once you sign in to your bank yourself through Plaid." The help centre adds where that window opens, which differs by client: "Plaid opens in a new window (web), in your default browser (Claude Desktop), inside the app (iOS), or in a browser tab (Android)."

Setup is to open Personal Finance from the side menu, start setup, optionally pick goals, and link accounts through Plaid. You select which accounts to share before returning to Claude.

#Is the data used to train Anthropic's models?

Anthropic says conversations in the Personal Finance hub "aren't used to train our models". Chats outside the hub follow your ordinary privacy settings. The exemption is therefore scoped to the hub, not to the account, which is worth knowing if you paste a figure from the hub into a normal conversation. Our write-up of Anthropic's 2026 usage policy update covers the account-level settings that govern the rest.

#How do you disconnect it?

Two routes, and the help centre names both. Unlink the bank from your linked accounts in Claude, after which "Claude stops reading your accounts at this bank." You can also disconnect from Plaid's side at my.plaid.com, "Plaid's own site for your connections". Having a revocation path that does not depend on the app is the better of the two to know about.

#What does this change for agent builders?

Nothing you can wire up today, which is the point. Personal Finance is a first-party data connection inside the Claude app, not a connector you configure, and the help centre's exclusion of scheduled tasks, Cowork tasks and Claude Code means there is no supported path from a linked account into an automation. If you want Claude reading a financial data source from an agent, that remains a job for a connector you set up yourself; our guide to adding a custom MCP connector to Claude covers that route, and the Claude platform page tracks what each plan includes.

Anthropic calls the release "a first step" and says it is exploring how licensed professionals and regulated firms could work with Claude on larger money decisions. No date or product is attached to that, so treat it as stated direction and nothing more.