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Claude’s past-chat search lets eligible users ask it to find relevant details from earlier conversations and bring them into the chat they are having now. It is a requested search of chat history, not the same feature as saved memory, which stores topics for use across future conversations.
How to ask Claude to find an earlier conversation
In a new conversation, ask Claude in ordinary language what you want it to look for. Anthropic gives examples such as:
- “What did we discuss about [topic]?”
- “Can you find our conversation about [subject]?”
- “Let’s continue where we left off with [project].”
Claude searches past conversations and brings relevant context into the current one. The search uses retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and it appears in the conversation as a tool call. Anthropic says Claude may provide references linking to the original chats. See Anthropic’s chat search and memory help article for the current instructions and examples.
Projects have separate search boundaries
Chats outside projects are searched as a group. Conversations inside a project are searched within that same project, rather than across all projects. If you are trying to pick up a project discussion, ask from the relevant project context.
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Who can use past-chat search
Anthropic’s current Help Center lists the feature for paid Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans on Claude’s web, Desktop, and Mobile apps. It is enabled by default after rollout to an account. Enterprise accounts using customer-managed encryption keys cannot search past chats because the conversation content is encrypted.
Anthropic’s release notes say past-conversation search was introduced for Max, Team, and Enterprise users on August 11, 2025. Current help guidance also includes Pro, but the sources do not establish when Pro access began. Separately, a March 2, 2026 release-note entry says memory from chat history became available to all Claude users, including Free users; that update does not change the documented paid-plan eligibility for past-chat search.
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Chat search and saved memory are different features
Search fetches context from existing conversations when you ask Claude to look for it. Memory saves and updates topic entries so Claude can use them to personalize later interactions. Anthropic’s August 2026 announcement says memory now adds topics as people chat, rather than summarizing conversations only after they end.
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|---|---|---|
| How it starts | You request a search in a conversation. | Topics are saved for use across later interactions. |
| Availability | Current help guidance lists Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise. | Available on Free, Pro, and Max; Team and Enterprise owners decide whether to make it available, and each member must enable it. |
| What it uses | Earlier chats, respecting project boundaries. | Saved topic entries, with separate project memory. |
| Controls | Can be disabled with “Search and reference chats” in Settings > Memory. | Can be inspected and edited topic by topic, paused, reset, or turned off for one chat before its first message. |
| A chat with memory off | It remains in chat history and may still be found by a later search. | Memory is off for that chat. |
For details on memory controls, see Anthropic’s memory management guidance.
What happens to chats and memory when you use privacy controls
Incognito chats are not searchable later
Incognito chats are not saved to chat history or memory, so they are not available for a later past-chat search. This differs from a regular chat started with memory off: that conversation remains in history and may be searchable even though it did not use memory.
Memory can persist after a source chat is gone
Anthropic says sensitive topics are excluded from memory by default, though users can opt in to include them. Some information, including government ID numbers and financial account numbers, is never saved to memory. Deleting or allowing a source conversation to expire does not necessarily delete memory entries created from it; individual entries can be deleted in memory controls.
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Deleting a chat and model-training settings are separate issues
For consumer accounts, Anthropic says a deleted conversation is removed from chat history immediately and deleted from backend storage within 30 days. Its separate model-training policy says data may be retained in de-identified form for up to five years in model-training pipelines when a user has enabled model improvement; safety review and other explicit opt-in situations are also identified as cases in which data may be used for model improvement. Anthropic says Incognito chats are not used to improve Claude. These retention and training policies are distinct from whether a chat is available to search.
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How to disable search or export conversations
Turn off past-chat search
- Open Claude’s Settings.
- Select Memory.
- Turn off Search and reference chats.
Anthropic’s current help guidance says this setting controls past-chat search and reference.
Export account data
Anthropic says individual Free, Pro, and Max users can export conversation and account data through Claude on web or Desktop. Team and Enterprise exports are available to the Primary Owner. Individual exports cannot be initiated from the iOS or Android apps. Consult Anthropic’s data export instructions for the current process.
What Claude’s feature announcement does not establish
Anthropic’s reviewed feature and release-note material does not publish a named statistic for recall accuracy, adoption, or time saved. Search can surface relevant context and references, but the published guidance does not quantify how reliably it finds a particular detail. Check the returned source-chat reference when the exact wording or context matters.
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