AI company Anthropic is now upgrading the free version of its Claude chatbot with several features that were previously exclusive to paying users, reports Engadget. Free users can now create and edit files like Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, and PDFs directly within Claude.
In addition, free users will have access to so-called Connectors, which make it possible to connect Claude to external services like Canva, Slack, Notion, Zapier, and PayPal. The Skills feature is also being opened up to free users, which means users can teach the chatbot to perform recurring tasks according to predefined instructions.
The Claude upgrade also includes longer conversations, more interactive responses, and improved voice and image search.
It comes at a good time, allowing Claude to differentiate itself from its competitors more strongly. Recently, OpenAI rolled out ads in the free version of ChatGPT—and when Anthropic subsequently promised no ads, it prompted a prickly response from OpenAI’s CEO.