Anthropic has upgraded Claude’s free tier, apparently using OpenAI’s planned integration of ads with ChatGPT. On Wednesday, Anthropic said that free Claude users can now create files, connect to external services, use skills and more.

Anthropic adds the ability to paid user to create files in September. From now on, free chatbot users can also create and edit Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, Word documents and PDFs. Claude’s file creation capabilities are powered by Sonnet 4.5.

Meanwhile, Connectors allow free users to link Claude to third-party services. There is one long list of available ones, including Canva, Slack, Notion, Zapier and PayPal.

Skills, on the other hand, will teach you Claude to “complete specific tasks in repeatable ways.” In short, the chatbot loads folders of instructions, scripts and other resources when performing related tasks. Other upgrades to the free tier include longer conversations, interactive responses and improved voice and image search.

Claude’s free level upgrades seem to be a direct response to The planned introduction of ads on ChatGPT for its free users. Anthropic’s announcement today ended with the tag line, “No ads in sight.” This is following the company’s promise last week that Claude will remain ad-free. Anthropic even poked fun at OpenAI’s monetization move in a Super Bowl ad (below), which also took a swipe at GPT-4o’s penchant for kissing ass.