Persistence Across Conversations

Memory is how Claude identifies useful information from your conversations and stores it for future use. Even before setting up Custom Instructions, you may have noticed Claude remembering certain details about you. That's Memory in action.

Seeing Memory in Action

Start a new chat and provide some information that could be useful later:

After sending the message, Claude may display a notification indicating that it's updating its memory. This lets you know that some of the information has been saved for future conversations. Now open a completely new chat and ask:

Claude can retrieve the information from memory and answer The Frozen River without needing you to repeat the details.

Keep in mind that Memory isn't perfect. Claude may occasionally miss information or fail to surface something you've shared previously. However, the memory indicators help show when information has been stored and can provide confidence about what Claude is likely to remember.

Incognito Mode

Sometimes you may not want a conversation to become part of your history or memory. In those situations, you can use Incognito Mode.

Incognito chats are:

• Not added to memory
• Not saved in chat history
• Not used to improve future models

Anything discussed remains confined to that conversation. Once you leave the chat, it won't appear in your recent conversation list.

This can be useful for sensitive topics, private questions, or situations where you simply don't want information stored.

Chat Search

Another useful feature is Chat Search. Availability depends on your subscription plan, so check whether it's enabled for your account. If available, you can search for keywords.

Claude will show previous conversations containing that topic. Selecting a result opens the relevant chat, making it easy to revisit old discussions, continue unfinished work, or find information you know you've shared before.

Memory is still a relatively new feature, and Anthropic continues to improve how it works. If you plan to use it regularly, it's worth checking the Settings page occasionally, as memory controls and options may change over time.