The Chips

One memory, two surfaces

Anthropic’s Claude's memory works everywhere, and you decide what's in it is the primary source for this desk. The memory you use in chat is the same memory Claude Cowork uses. A preference explained once is available when Cowork runs a task in the cloud, and what comes up in that task carries back. That is why a stale topic is more expensive than it used to be: it now reaches both conversations and cloud work.

The stored unit is a topic file, not a rolling after-the-fact summary. Claude adds topics while you chat. Under Topics in Memory settings, each file is short, and each one can be read, edited, or deleted on its own. Correct a company name once and every later conversation, including Cowork, gets it right.

Who controls it

On Free, Pro, and Max, memory is on by default across web, desktop, and mobile. Saving sensitive topics remains off on those plans until you opt in. On iOS and Android you need the latest app version.

On Team and Enterprise, control moves up a level. Admins decide availability for the organization, and memory stays off for individual users until they turn it on. If you are on a managed plan and the topic list is empty, check the admin gate before assuming a bug. The desk’s Team / Enterprise mode is there so that sequence is visible.

Sensitive, then excluded

By default Claude does not store topics related to health, race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, politics, gender identity, or similar areas. The official example of a useful opt-in is a gluten allergy when suggesting recipes. Turn on include sensitive topics in memory and Claude saves those topics going forward only. Nothing from before is backfilled, you get a notice each time something in those categories is saved, and you can turn the setting off again.

Some categories stay out even with the setting on: sensitive identification numbers, criminal history, immigration status, and anything that violates the Acceptable Use Policy. Those never become chips. The dietary-notes chip on this desk is a synthetic stand-in for the opt-in path, labeled as such, and is not a real medical record.

What this is not

Memory everywhere is not a larger context window and not a caching feature. It changes what Claude knows at the start of a conversation or task, not how much it can hold during one and not what a repeated prompt costs. For windows, compaction, and prompt caching, useClaude Context.

It is also not Claude Code memory. CLAUDE.md andauto memory are files on your machine and in your repository. They are not the chat and Cowork topic list, and this announcement does not change them.