Claude Memory: How It Works and How to Manage It
What Claude Remembers, Where to Find It, and Where It Stops
Disclosure: Membase is our product. Claude’s built-in memory works well, and you don’t need anything else to use it. We cover it first, then where a shared memory helps. Facts were checked against Anthropic’s Help Center in November 2026.
Quick answer
Yes, Claude has memory. As you chat, it saves what it learns about you as separate topics: your role, projects, preferences and the people you work with. It uses them in later chats.
- Where to find it: Settings > Your Claude (Settings > Memory on the older layout)
- Who gets it: on by default for Free, Pro, Max and Ultra. On Team and Enterprise, your organization turns it on.
- How to control it: view, edit or delete each topic, pause memory, or use an incognito chat
Claude’s memory stays inside Claude. ChatGPT, Gemini and other assistants don’t see it. To keep one memory across all of them, add a shared memory such as the Membase Chrome extension.
In this guide: How Claude memory works · What Claude remembers · Settings · Project memory · Incognito · Search past chats · Where it stops · Claude vs ChatGPT memory · Share memory across AI · FAQ
How Claude memory works
Claude saves memory as individual topics while you chat, not as one summary written after the conversation ends. It saves automatically, and you can also ask directly: “Remember that I prefer short answers.”
Memory updates as you go. If you tell Claude something has changed, it updates the topic.
Some Team and Enterprise accounts still use an older version, which builds one memory summary about every 24 hours.
What Claude remembers, and what it doesn’t
| Remembers | Doesn’t remember |
|---|---|
| Your role and work context | Sensitive topics, unless you turn them on (health, religion, politics and similar) |
| Projects you’re working on | Government ID numbers, financial account numbers, criminal history or immigration status, even if you ask |
| People and places in your work and life | Anything from incognito chats |
| How you like answers written, technical and coding preferences | Chats where you turned memory off |
Claude’s memory focuses on work. Personal details that aren’t work-related may not be kept, so say “remember this” if something matters.
Claude memory settings
Go to Settings > Your Claude. On the older layout, it’s Settings > Memory.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Generate memory from chats | Turns memory on or off |
| Search and reference chats | Lets Claude search your past chats (paid plans) |
| Include sensitive topics in memory | Off by default. When on, Claude saves sensitive topics from then on and shows a notice each time |
| Pause memory | Keeps your memory but stops using it or adding to it |
| Reset memory | Deletes all memory, including project memory. This can’t be undone |
To see or edit your memory: select Manage next to Your memory. Your memories are listed under Topics. Open one to read it, edit it, or delete it. You can also ask in a chat: “Forget that I work at Acme.”
Good to know: deleting a conversation doesn’t delete the memory Claude learned from it. Delete the topic too.
Project memory
Each Claude Project has its own memory.
- Inside a project, Claude uses that project’s memory plus your general memory from chats outside projects.
- It doesn’t use other projects’ memory.
- New memories from a project chat are saved to that project.
- To keep a project fully separate, turn off Use account memory on the project page.
Incognito chats and turning memory off for one chat
- Incognito chat (the ghost icon on a new chat): not saved to memory or chat history, and Claude can’t search it later.
- Memory off for one chat: open the “+” menu and turn off Memory before you send your first message. You can’t change it after that. The chat still stays in your history.
Search past chats
Separate from memory, Claude can search your earlier conversations when you ask, for example “What did we decide about the launch date last week?” It shows which chats it found and links to them.
Chat search is on paid plans: Pro, Max, Ultra, Team and Enterprise. Turn it on or off with Search and reference chats.
Where Claude memory stops
Claude’s memory is good at one job: remembering you inside Claude. Outside that, it doesn’t reach:
- Other AI assistants. ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek and Kimi keep their own memory. What you tell Claude stays in Claude, and the reverse.
- What you told another assistant before. Claude can import a summary from ChatGPT or Gemini once, but it doesn’t stay in sync. See How to Transfer ChatGPT Memory to Claude.
- Personal context. Memory focuses on work, so some personal details aren’t kept.
- Across projects. Each project’s memory stays in that project.
- Claude Code. Claude Code uses its own memory files (CLAUDE.md and auto memory). See How to Add Persistent Memory to Claude Code.
If you only use Claude, none of this matters much. If you switch between assistants, you end up explaining yourself again.
Claude memory vs ChatGPT memory
| Claude | ChatGPT | |
|---|---|---|
| What it saves | Topics about you, saved as you chat, focused on work | Saved memories, plus what it learns from your past chats |
| Where to manage it | Settings > Your Claude | Settings > Personalization > Memory |
| Search past chats | Paid plans | Draws on your chat history |
| Project memory | Each project has its own | Depends on your plan and project settings |
| Reads the other’s memory | No | No |
Both work well on their own. Neither can see the other.
Share one memory across Claude, ChatGPT and other AI
You don’t have to replace Claude’s memory. Keep it on, and add one memory that every assistant can use.
The Membase Chrome extension saves your conversations in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek and Kimi into one memory, and brings the relevant parts into whichever chat you’re in.
- Add the Membase Chrome extension (the Chrome Web Store may still list it as Unibase Memory).
- Sign in, or create a free account at app.membase.com.
- Chat as usual. Your conversations save to one memory, and what you told ChatGPT yesterday is there when you open Claude today.
Want Claude to search that memory on its own? Add Membase as a custom connector in Claude with this URL. Claude gets read-only access to the Memories you approve.
https://api.app.membase.com/mcp-http
| Claude memory | Membase | |
|---|---|---|
| Works in | Claude | ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek, Kimi |
| Saves | Topics, focused on work | Your conversations, organized into Memories you choose |
| You control | Each topic, pause, reset, incognito | Which Memories each assistant can read; review, edit or delete anything |
| Cost | Included with Claude | Free in beta |
Stop starting over every time you switch AI
One memory for Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek and Kimi.
Quick links
- Membase Chrome extension: install and see supported assistants
- Membase web app: review, edit or delete your memory
- How to Transfer ChatGPT Memory to Claude: move what ChatGPT knows into Claude
- How to Share Memory Between ChatGPT and Claude: full setup for both assistants
- How to Add Persistent Memory to Claude Code: memory for Claude Code
- Membase home