A Claude Project is a workspace that groups related chats and gives all of them the same uploaded knowledge and the same instructions. Projects are available on every plan, including free accounts. Sharing a project with teammates is limited to Team and Enterprise plans, and admins can switch it off.
What goes inside a project
Anthropic's help center lists two main ingredients. Project knowledge is the documents, text files or code snippets you upload, and Claude uses them in every chat inside that project. Project instructions describe how Claude should behave and respond, and they also apply to every chat in the project.
The name and description you type when you create a project are for you. The help article states that Claude cannot see them, so do not put guidance there and expect it to be followed.
Context isolation
Chats in a project do not share context with each other. If a fact from chat A should be available in chat B, add it to the project knowledge. This is a feature: a long, messy debugging chat does not leak into the next one.
Each project also has its own memory. If you want a project kept fully separate from your account memory, the page says you can turn off "Use account memory" for that project.
Plans, limits and sharing
- Free accounts can create up to five projects.
- On paid plans, Claude automatically turns on RAG mode when project knowledge nears the context window limit. In plain terms, it starts retrieving relevant pieces instead of loading everything.
- Sharing is for Team and Enterprise only. When you create a project there, you choose "Keep it private" or "Share with your broader organization".
Shared access has two levels. Can view lets a member read the contents and chat in the project but not edit it. Can edit lets them change instructions and knowledge and update member settings. The creator can change roles or remove access later.
Housekeeping
You can star projects, move chats into or between projects, and archive projects you are not using. Archiving keeps members, permissions and knowledge intact. An archived project cannot be deleted until you unarchive it.
What to put in knowledge, and what to leave out
Treat project knowledge as shared reading material. Style guides, product briefs and reference code fit well. Credentials, customer data and anything you would not paste into a shared document do not. On Team and Enterprise plans, a project shared with the organization is readable by the people you shared it with, so check the audience first.
If you are choosing between a project and other features, see Claude Projects vs Skills vs custom instructions.
For teams that also scan the code and dependencies those documents describe, Safeguard offers a free scan at gold.safeguard.sh/scan.
Quick check
Can free users use Projects?
Yes. The help center says projects are available to all users, including free accounts, with a limit of five projects.
Do chats in one project see each other?
No. Context is isolated unless the information is added to the project knowledge.
Sources
Last reviewed: 19 October 2026.
