Anthropic has upgraded the free tier of its chatbot, Claude, adding new capabilities including file creation, third-party integrations, and expanded task automation tools.

The announcement comes as OpenAI prepares to introduce advertisements for free users of ChatGPT.

File Creation

Anthropic previously introduced file creation tools for paid Claude users in September. As of Wednesday, those features are now available to free users as well.

Free users can create and edit Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, Word documents, and PDFs. These file generation capabilities are powered by Claude’s Sonnet 4.5 model.

Connectors and Skills Added

The update also introduces Connectors for free users, allowing Claude to link with external services. Available integrations include Canva, Slack, Notion, Zapier, and PayPal, among others.

Anthropic has also expanded access to Skills. This feature allows users to train Claude to perform specific tasks consistently by loading folders containing instructions, scripts, and related resources when handling relevant requests.

Other enhancements to Claude’s free tier include longer conversations, interactive responses, and improved voice and image search functionality.

Positioning Against ChatGPT Ads

Anthropic’s expansion of the free tier appears to align with OpenAI’s plan to integrate advertising into ChatGPT for free users. Anthropic ended its announcement with the statement “No ads in sight,” reinforcing a previous commitment to keep Claude ad-free.

The company also referenced its Super Bowl advertisement last week, which included a critical comparison of OpenAI’s approach and mocked GPT-4o’s behavior, which OpenAI CEO Sam Altman did not appreciate.