Last updated: October 28, 2026
TL;DR
Claude Projects are the place to keep the documents and instructions your team's Claude work runs on. On a Team plan, build one Project per process or client, make it visible to the whole organization or to invited people only, and give most people "Can view" and the process owner "Can edit." Every chat started inside it then begins from the same files and rules.
- 📚 What a Project holds. Uploaded files, project instructions, its own chats and its own memory. Files can be up to 30MB each, and paid plans switch to retrieval when the knowledge gets large.
- 💬 Projects vs chats. A chat starts empty. A Project chat starts with the Project's knowledge and instructions, so nobody pastes the price sheet in again.
- 🔐 Sharing. Public Projects are visible to everyone in the organization. Private ones are invite-only. Members get "Can view" or "Can edit", and their chats inside a shared Project stay private.
- ⚙️ Admin settings. "Share projects" and "Public projects" live under Organization settings, then Data and privacy. Both are on by default.
- 🗂️ Structure. One Project per repeating process or per client, each with one owner, short instructions and only the documents that process needs.
- ⚠️ Limits. No sharing outside your organization, no Google Drive files in shared Projects, and group sharing is Enterprise-only.
What are Claude Projects?
Claude Projects are workspaces in claude.ai that hold their own files, instructions and chat history. Anything you add to a Project's knowledge is available in every chat started inside it. Projects work on every plan, including Free, which is capped at five Projects. Sharing with teammates needs a Team or Enterprise plan, per Anthropic's guide to projects.
On a Claude Team plan, that makes a Project the closest thing Claude has to a shared drive for how your business works:
| Part | What it does | Detail worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Project knowledge | Files Claude reads in every chat in the Project | Up to 30MB per file, no cap on the number of files, per Anthropic's upload limits |
| Project instructions | Standing rules for tone, role and format | Claude follows them in every chat in the Project |
| Name and description | How people find the Project | Claude can't see the description, so rules go in the instructions |
| Chats | The conversations started inside the Project | They don't see each other. What carries across is the knowledge, the instructions and the Project's memory |
| Memory | What Claude remembers from earlier chats in the Project | Each Project has its own. On Team, an Owner has to enable memory first |
| GitHub repositories | Code added as knowledge | Doesn't update itself. Someone presses Sync to pull the latest version, per the GitHub integration guide |
When a Project's knowledge nears the context limit, paid plans switch on retrieval automatically: Claude searches the files instead of reading all of them, which expands capacity "by up to 10x," per Anthropic's RAG for projects article. There is no switch to turn it off.
One naming clash to clear up. Anthropic has relaunched "Projects" inside Claude Code as one conversation that runs parallel cloud threads. That version is in beta on Pro and Max and, per the Claude Code docs, isn't available on Team or Enterprise yet. This post covers Projects in claude.ai chat. Cowork Projects share the same way and can import a chat Project, per Anthropic's Cowork projects guide.
Claude Projects vs chats
Use a chat for a one-off question and a Project for any work that repeats. A plain chat starts with nothing but what you type. A Project chat starts with the Project's files and instructions already loaded. If you have pasted the same document or the same rules into Claude twice, it belongs in a Project.
| Chat | Project | |
|---|---|---|
| Starts with | Only what you type or attach | The Project's files, instructions and memory |
| Files | Up to 20 per chat, 500MB each, for that chat only | Up to 30MB each, reused in every chat in the Project |
| Rules | Repeated by hand each time | Written once as project instructions |
| Who can use it | You. You can share a read-only snapshot link | Anyone you share the Project with, on Team or Enterprise |
| Good for | Quick questions, drafts, one-off analysis | Proposals, support replies, client work, anything that repeats |
You can move an existing chat into a Project from the dropdown next to its name, per Anthropic's guide to creating and managing projects.
Can you share Claude Projects? Public, private and permissions
Yes, on Team and Enterprise plans you can share a Project with anyone in your organization. Public Projects appear on the Organization tab for every member to open and chat in. Private Projects are visible only to people you invite. You can switch either way later from the Share button next to the Project name.
Each person you invite gets one of two roles, per Anthropic's project visibility and sharing article:
| Role | Can do | Give it to |
|---|---|---|
| Can view | See the knowledge and instructions, and chat in the Project | Everyone who uses the process |
| Can edit | Change instructions and knowledge, add and remove members, change roles | The one or two people who own the process |
Once a Project is shared:
- 🔒 Chats stay private. A member's chats inside a public Project aren't visible to anyone else unless they share one. Sharing a chat creates a link to a snapshot, and later messages stay private until they update it.
- 📦 Archiving keeps everything. An archived Project keeps its members, roles and knowledge, and comes back intact when you unarchive it.
Keep the Can edit list short. Anyone with Can edit can rewrite the instructions every chat follows, so a Project with five editors has no owner.
Project sharing settings in Data and privacy
Owners control Project sharing for the whole organization under Organization settings, then Data and privacy, in the Sharing section. There are two settings, "Share projects" and "Public projects," and both are on by default, per Anthropic's article on organization sharing settings. Primary Owners and Owners can change them.
| Setting | When on | When you turn it off |
|---|---|---|
| Share projects | Members can share Projects with other people in the org | Nobody can add new people. Existing shares stay. Public Projects become private, and "Public projects" turns off with it |
| Public projects | Members can make a Project visible to the whole org | Every public Project becomes private. Members can still invite specific people |
Leave both on if your Projects hold process documents everyone may see. Turn "Public projects" off if some hold client contracts, salaries or anything else that shouldn't be one click away for every member. Either way, check what is already public before you switch anything off: people who reached a Project only because it was public lose access.
Memory sits elsewhere. An Owner enables it for the organization under Capabilities. To keep a Project's memory separate from the rest of a member's chats, turn off "Use account memory" in that Project's settings.
How to use Claude Projects: one Project per process or client
Build one Project for each process that repeats and, if you do client work, one per client. A Project per person or per department turns into a dumping ground nobody owns. A Project per process has an obvious owner, a short list of documents, and instructions for one job.
A starting set for a small services business:
| Project | Knowledge | Visibility | Can edit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proposals | Price sheet, three past proposals that won, scope templates | Public | Whoever owns sales |
| Support replies | Help docs, refund policy, tone rules, 10 good replies | Public | Support lead |
| One per client | Contract, brief, meeting notes, brand guide | Private, client team only | Account lead |
| Onboarding | Handbook, tool list, first-week checklist | Public | Operations |
To set one up:
- Open claude.ai/projects and click New Project. Name it after the process ("Proposals"), not the person.
- Pick Public or Private. Public for process documents anyone may use. Private for anything client-specific or sensitive.
- Write the instructions first. Five to 10 lines: who Claude is for this job, what it produces, the format, and what it must never do. The description is for people. Claude doesn't read it.
- Add only the documents this process uses. Three good examples beat 40 mixed ones. Mark the canonical version in the file name, such as "price-sheet-2026-10."
- Share it. Add the people who use the process with Can view, and the owner with Can edit. Paste a list of emails to add several people at once.
- Run three real tasks through it. Fix the instructions where the output is wrong, not in each chat.
- Give the owner a monthly check. Replace stale files, re-sync GitHub repositories, archive Projects nobody uses.
Once a Project's instructions settle, they are a candidate for a skill: a written process Claude follows in any chat or Cowork task, which owners can publish to the whole organization. Anthropic ships ready-made skills for finance, sales and support, covered in our breakdown of Claude for Small Business.
Limits to know before you build on Projects
Projects handle shared documents and rules well, but they have four hard edges:
- 🚫 No sharing outside your organization. Project sharing works only between members of the same Team or Enterprise organization. A client or contractor has to join your organization as a member, or you share a single chat as a snapshot link.
- 📁 No Google Drive files in shared Projects. Anthropic's Google Workspace connector guide says the Drive option "is only available when adding to Files in private projects." For a shared Project, upload the file itself, and remember to replace it when it changes.
- 👥 No group sharing on Team. Sharing a Project with a group, where access follows group membership, is Enterprise-only and in beta. On Team you add people one by one or paste a list.
- 📏 30MB per project file. Split large PDFs, or export the pages that matter.
None of these stop a small team. They decide which documents go in as uploads and who needs a seat. After the shared Projects, the next stage is automating the repetitive work around them, covered in our guide to AI agents for small business.
Frequently asked questions
What are Claude Projects?
Claude Projects are workspaces in claude.ai with their own files, instructions and chat history. Everything in a Project's knowledge is available in every chat inside it. Every plan has Projects, Free accounts are limited to five, and sharing with teammates needs a Team or Enterprise plan.
What is the difference between a project and a chat on Claude?
A chat starts empty and only knows what you type or attach. A Project chat starts with the Project's uploaded files, instructions and memory already loaded. Use chats for one-off questions and Projects for any work that repeats, such as proposals, support replies or client work.
Can Claude projects be shared with other users?
Yes, on Team and Enterprise plans, but only with people in your organization. You can make a Project public to the whole organization or invite specific people with "Can view" or "Can edit" access. Pro and Max accounts can't share Projects. Owners can turn sharing off in Data and privacy settings.
Can I share a Claude project with someone outside my organization?
No. Project sharing works only inside one Team or Enterprise organization. To give an outside person access, add them as a member with a seat. To show them a single conversation, share that chat instead, which creates a read-only link to a snapshot of the messages.
How do I share project chats in Claude?
Open the chat and share it. Chats inside a Project are private by default, even in a public Project. Sharing creates a link to a snapshot of the messages so far, including artifacts. Later messages stay private until you update the snapshot. Set the chat back to Private to unshare it.
Do Claude projects have memory between chats?
Yes, if memory is on. Each Project keeps its own memory, separate from other Projects. On Team plans an Owner must enable memory first. Turn off "Use account memory" in a Project's settings to keep it apart from your other chats. Without memory, only the knowledge and instructions carry over.
Can you use projects in the free version of Claude?
Yes. Free accounts can create up to five Projects with files and instructions. Retrieval for large knowledge bases, which expands capacity up to 10x, is on paid plans only. Sharing Projects with other people needs a Team or Enterprise plan.
Are Claude projects worth it?
For a team, yes. A shared Project means everyone works from the same price sheet, examples and rules instead of their own pasted copies, and the knowledge stays with the company when someone leaves. For one-off questions, a plain chat is faster.
Get Claude Team set up properly
We set up Claude Team for small businesses: the seat plan, the security settings, shared Projects and skills written from your actual processes, and the first scheduled routines. If you'd rather have it done once and done right, see how our Claude Team setup works or book a 30-minute call.
Stop guessing. Score your first workflow.
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