Anthropic’s Claude AI has been updated with the ability to create and edit files, including PDFs, Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, Google docs, and more.
Anthropic made the announcement on their blog, explaining that the new features live on its consumer-facing platform, Claude.ai. Until now, the platform could analyse files, but couldn’t create or manipulate them.
In a video detailing how the new feature works, a user asks Claude to help them analyse revenue data for their small food truck fleet and package the findings in a Google doc. After the user uploads a few CSV files containing the data, Claude performs its analysis, creates a series of data visualisations, and puts it all together in a handy DOCX file that can either be downloaded or opened directly in Google Drive.
“Whether you need a customer segmentation analysis, sales forecasting, or budget tracking,” Anthropic wrote in its blog, “Claude handles the technical work and produces the files you need.”
To create files, Claude uses what Anthropic refers to as a “private computer environment,” in which the AI model can write code and run programs. This is similar to ChatGPT’s recently announced agent mode, which gives the AI platform access to a virtual browser that it can use to navigate the internet. These features, which involve giving an AI model access to additional tools, are referred to as agentic capabilities.
The company advises starting “with straightforward tasks like data cleaning or simple reports,” and then working up to “complex projects like financial models once you’re comfortable with how Claude handles files.”
Currently, when users ask Claude to create a document or spreadsheet, the model opens a window called an Artifact, which is essentially an interactive block of content. Prior to the release of these new features, if you were to ask for a document, Claude would create a document Artifact. If you asked for a spreadsheet, it would create an interactive Artifact. Now, instead of keeping those Artifacts contained within chats, users can download and use their AI-created files.
Anthropic says that file creation is currently available for workplace-based Claude Team and Enterprise users, and Claude Max subscribers, who pay $200 per month to the company. Claude Plus users, who pay $20 per month, will get access to the feature “in the coming weeks.”
