Anthropic Is Adding Multiple Premium Claude Features to the Free Plan

Anthropic is bringing Claude's several paid features to the free users. The artificial intelligence (AI) startup announced on Wednesday that those on the free plan of the chatbot will now be able to use four new features that were only accessible with the Pro and Max plans. So, anyone logged into Claude can now use File Creation, Skills, Connectors, and Compaction features. Interestingly, these new capabilities for the free plan come at a time when OpenAI is testing ads in ChatGPT.

Claude Brings New Features to the Free Plan

In a post on X (formerly known as Twitter), the official handle of Claude announced that four new features will now be expanded to the free tier. All of these are currently available to any user who has registered on Claude and has logged into their account. However, these capabilities will only be powered by the AI models available in the free tier.

First is File Creation, which allows users to generate and download standalone files, such as spreadsheets, documents, or code scripts, directly within the chat interface. Rather than simply providing raw text for the user to copy, the system structures data into appropriate formats like .csv, .pdf, or .py. It is designed to help users quickly generate ready-to-use assets in specific file formats and then export them.

Next is Connectors, which is enabled by Anthropic's Model Context Protocol (MCP). It lets the AI chatbot connect to external data hubs and third-party applications, such as Google Drive, Notion, and Slack. Once connected, Claude can retrieve data and even perform certain tasks directly within the applications. With this, those in the free plan will also be able to experience Claude's agentic capabilities.

Skills in Claude are essentially custom instructions, but coupled with a specific knowledge base. Users can create skills or use existing skills anywhere across the platform to quickly help the chatbot understand the role it needs to play. With Skills, users can avoid prompting multiple times in chat windows and projects when instructing the chatbot how to behave and respond.

Finally, Compaction is a useful tool that allows users to get a quick summary of a long conversation when they rejoin it after some time has passed. It provides the user with earlier context to help them understand where they left the project, and allows them to seamlessly continue the chat.