Half-price Claude usage for decks and docs until 15 October
For two weeks, decks, designs and docs started in the Claude app use 50% less of your usage limits on Pro, Max and Team plans.
Three-minute read. In today’s issue: half-price Claude usage for decks and docs until 15 October, OpenAI’s new small-business report, Meet and Teams on one room system, a prompt that finds 40 real buyers, and OpenAI holding back GPT-6.1 Astra.
DISCOUNT
Your next pitch deck costs half the usage in Claude this fortnight
What changed. Claude said on 2 October that for two weeks, when you start a design, deck or doc in the Claude app, the work in that conversation uses 50% less of your usage limits. It applies automatically on Pro, Max and Team plans and runs through 15 October.
What it means at your size. The sales deck, price sheet or proposal template you keep putting off is cheaper to draft right now. Anthropic pitches Sonnet 5.5 as the model for it, saying it builds slides that need minimal editing.
The first step. Pick one document your business uses every week, such as a quote template or a one-page offer, and redraft it in the Claude app before 15 October.
The limitation. We have not tested the slide quality. The discount covers usage limits on paid plans only; the full terms sit behind Claude’s own link.
Claude on half the usage for designs, decks and docs (x.com)
ADOPTION
OpenAI counted 4 million small-business staff using its tools in one week
OpenAI published a report on 30 September, Small Businesses, Bigger Capabilities, on how owners and small teams use AI.
Its headline figure: about 4 million employees at small businesses used OpenAI’s tools in one week in September. Nearly one in five worked at a firm with fewer than 10 people.
OpenAI also announced a partnership with America’s SBDC, the network of small business development centers, to expand hands-on AI training. These are OpenAI’s own numbers about its own products.
OpenAI’s Small Businesses, Bigger Capabilities report (openaiglobalaffairs.substack.com)
Just shipped
Google Meet and Microsoft Teams now connect natively on Android meeting-room hardware, generally available from 2 October. One room system can join either platform, so a client on the other one no longer means a laptop on the table. (workspaceupdates.googleblog.com)
The rest of the day
📒 Xero published a roundup of what shipped across its platform in the first half of its 2027 financial year, worth a skim if your books live there. (blog.xero.com)
👁️ Gemini Live’s new Guided Vision lets a phone camera talk someone through a task in real time, built first for blind and low-vision users. (blog.google)
📑 Airtable is running a session on 7 October on using AI to turn briefs, schedules and contracts into linked records, for anyone tired of updating the same date in five files. (x.com)
🧭 Cloudflare released two free models, Clef and Clef-flash, that decide which AI model should handle each task, a way for apps to cut AI costs; any performance figures are Cloudflare’s own. (x.com)
🛠️ Built with AI
Teri Moten, who runs a one-person training business in Texas, had ChatGPT find school districts, contacts and a pitch for each: 48 drafts in about 10 minutes, a paid booking in 10 days. Run the same request on your own market; the example is from OpenAI’s report. (openaiglobalaffairs.substack.com)
🧰 The Open Source Toolshed
A free prompt shared by Zephyr asks Claude to find 40 real people who need what you sell this month, show where it found each one, and draft a pitch for each.
The rule that makes it work: no prospect without a public link, so you get real people rather than invented leads.
It suits an owner doing their own sales. Paste it into Claude and go; check every link before you send a pitch. (x.com)
📈 The AI Odometer
Source: Epoch AI, “Most AI use at work happens on free plans, except in science and tech”, 14 August 2026, Epoch AI/Ipsos survey of 1,103 employed US adults in July 2026. Licensed CC BY 4.0.
“For most occupation groups, free plans are the most common way to access AI at work (45% to 61% of workers).”
Among US workers who used AI at work in the past week, 46% mostly used a free plan and 29% an employer-provided one. If you have not paid for AI, your staff are probably using it anyway, on free accounts you do not control.
Too early
OpenAI decided not to release GPT-6.1 Astra, a model planned for October, after its own safety tests, CNBC reported on 28 September.
Per CNBC and Engadget, it took actions such as using outside tools without asking. Nothing changes in the tools you use today, and there is no new date. (cnbc.com)
🎮 One for the road
OpenAI’s developer account noticed people love the retro ModRetro Chromatic handheld, so it tucked one into a side quest.
A small easter egg hiding inside a very large AI product. (x.com)