Claude Docs lets you write living documents with Claude and the people you work with. Ask for a doc in any conversation, and Claude drafts it in front of you, asks clarifying questions up front, and leaves comments explaining its choices. You can edit the doc yourself, ask Claude for the next pass, and share it by link, without moving your work into another tool.
This guide covers creating your first doc, editing it with Claude and your team, and sharing or exporting it when it's ready.
Claude Docs is available on Free, Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans, and it's on by default. On Enterprise plans, it turns on by default on October 15, 2026, and owners can turn it on before then in Organization settings > Artifacts.
How Claude Docs works
A doc is a rich-text document saved to your Claude account. It can include headings, tables, and other formatting, and it can have more than one tab, like sections of a notebook. Every doc you create is saved in the Artifacts tab, so you can find it again from any conversation.
Claude starts from the context it already has. When you ask for a doc, Claude can draw on your files, memory, projects, skills, and the apps you've connected, so you don't start from a blank page.
The person who creates a doc is its owner. Anyone the owner shares it with can view or edit it. Claude works on a doc only when a signed-in person asks it to, and it can't do anything that person doesn't have permission to do. Every change is attributed to whoever made it, whether that's a person or Claude.
Create a doc
From a conversation
Ask Claude for a doc in any conversation. For example:
"Turn the plan we just worked through into a product spec I can share with the team."
"Draft this week's status report from my notes and last week's numbers."
"Write an onboarding guide for new hires from the benefits deck in my Google Drive."
"Pull my notes on this account into a one-page brief for tomorrow's call."
Claude asks a few questions before it starts, then drafts the doc on screen. You can also start your request with /docs, or by selecting “Output” then “Docs” from the message box.
From the Artifacts tab
Go to the Artifacts tab.
Select a Docs template from the gallery.
Describe the doc you want.
Where you can create docs
You can ask for a doc wherever you talk to Claude:
Claude on web and desktop: Ask in any conversation, or start from the Artifacts tab.
Claude Code: Ask Claude to turn the session you're in into a spec, runbook, or readout. On desktop, the doc opens in the side panel. In the terminal, Claude gives you a link to open the doc on the web.
Claude app for iOS and Android: Ask for a doc in any conversation and check back later for the result. Open it from the Artifacts tab to view it full screen. You can also edit a doc.
Tips for better results
A good request says what the doc is for, who will read it, and what it should cover. "A two-page launch brief for our sales team covering pricing, timing, and the top three customer questions" gets you further than "a launch brief." If the content lives somewhere specific, name the file or connected app Claude should use.
Edit your doc
Nothing is locked while Claude works. You can edit alongside Claude at any time, and the final say is always yours.
Edit directly
Click into the doc and type. Your changes save automatically and appear right away for everyone who has the doc open.
Ask Claude
Ask for changes in the conversation, like "Tighten the intro and add a risks section." Claude edits the doc and tells you what changed.
Use comments
Select text and leave a comment for your collaborators. To ask Claude for an edit, mention @Claude in a comment. Claude replies in the thread, makes the change, and explains what it did and why. Claude also leaves its own comments while drafting, to explain its choices or ask you a question.
Add charts and visuals
Instead of pasting in screenshots, ask Claude to add a chart, diagram, graph, or timeline to your doc. Claude pulls the data from your connected apps and builds the chart in the doc. Charts and diagrams don't update on their own, even when the data comes from a connected app like Salesforce or Google Sheets. To refresh one, ask Claude to pull the latest data.
Work on a doc with your team
People with edit access can work on the same doc at the same time as you and Claude, and everyone's edits appear in real time. Claude always acts with the permissions of the person who asked, so it can't edit a doc for someone who only has view access.
Use Claude Docs with a keyboard
To get into and out of the artifact panel, see Use artifacts with a keyboard or screen reader. That article also explains what focus means, what to do on a Mac laptop or in Safari, and how shortcuts are written. For the full list of shortcuts, including the keys for tables, images, links, and the list of doc tabs, see Claude Docs keyboard shortcuts.
This section calls a doc's tabs doc tabs, so they aren't confused with the Tab key.
Open the list of keyboard shortcuts
Claude Docs lists its own shortcuts. With focus anywhere inside a doc, press Cmd+/ (Ctrl+/ on Windows). It works while you're typing and in a doc you can only view. When focus isn't in a text box, ? on its own opens the list too. Escape closes it and puts you back where you were. From the panel's header, Cmd+/ (Ctrl+/ on Windows) opens the shortcut list for Claude itself, which doesn't cover artifacts.
Note: On keyboards where / is typed with Shift+7, such as German, Italian, and Nordic layouts, Cmd+/ (Ctrl+/ on Windows) doesn't open the list: on those keyboards it's the numbered list shortcut. Press Escape to leave the text, and then press ?.
Move into and out of the text
In a doc's text, Tab works the way it does in a word processor: it indents a list item, moves to the next table cell, or moves between the title and the body. It doesn't leave the text.
To move into the text:
Press Tab from the panel's header to reach the doc's toolbar. If you can only view or comment on the doc and the list of doc tabs is shown beside the text, the toolbar may have no buttons for you, and Tab then goes to that list.
Keep pressing Tab. You pass the list of doc tabs, if it's shown beside the text, and the comments, if the doc has any, and then reach the text. How many presses it takes depends on what the doc contains.
To leave the text:
Press Escape. If the formatting toolbar or another pop-up is showing, this closes it.
Press Escape again if you need to. Focus moves to the doc tabs button at the start of the doc's toolbar, which shows the name of the doc tab you're on. If the list of doc tabs is shown beside the text, the button just says "Tabs". In a doc you can only view or comment on, there's no button while the list is shown, and focus moves into the list instead: to the doc tab you're on, or to the row you were last on.
Press Tab to go back toward the text (you pass the list of doc tabs, if it's shown beside the text and you aren't already in it, then the comments, if the doc has any), or keep pressing Escape to reach the artifact panel.
Format text
The usual shortcuts work in the text, such as Cmd+B (Ctrl+B on Windows) for bold, and a screen reader announces the result. To use the formatting toolbar instead:
Select some text.
Press Cmd+F6 (Ctrl+F6 on Windows). Focus moves to the formatting toolbar.
Press the Left arrow or Right arrow key to move between its buttons.
Press Return or Space to use a button. To open a button's drop-down, such as text style or list type, press the Down arrow key.
Press Escape or Tab to go back to the text. Your selection is kept.
Focus stays in the toolbar after you use a formatting button, so you can apply more than one format. Tab from the text never reaches this toolbar.
In a doc, move to the formatting toolbar with Cmd+F6 (Ctrl+F6 on Windows) before you use its buttons. If your screen reader's own cursor lands on the toolbar another way, some of its buttons, such as "Comment" and "Link," ask you to press the shortcut first.
Comment in a doc
To add a comment:
Select the text you want to comment on.
Press Cmd+Option+M (Ctrl+Alt+M on Windows). The "Add a comment" box opens with focus in it.
Type your comment. Shift+Return makes a new line, and @ mentions someone.
Press Return to post. Focus moves to your new comment.
Press Escape in the box to discard the draft and go back to the text with your selection kept. Where Claude is available in the doc, a "Send to Claude" checkbox comes before the send button. It starts selected, and after that it stays the way you last left it in that doc.
To read the comments on a doc, press Escape to leave the text, and then press Tab until you reach them (if the list of doc tabs is shown beside the text, you pass it first).
What you reach depends on how wide the panel is:
Beside a conversation, the panel is usually narrow, and comments show as icons in the margin. Each press of Tab moves to the next icon, and Return opens it. Comments also show as icons in a doc whose page width is set to Wide, and when the list of doc tabs beside the text leaves no room for them.
Otherwise, in a wider panel, comments sit beside the text, and Tab moves onto them once. Press the Down arrow or Up arrow key to move between them, and Return or Space to open one.
In an open comment, Return moves into its reply field, and Escape closes it.
Share a doc
Docs start private to you. Share a doc the way you share any artifact: open it and click "Share." Learn more about sharing artifacts.
A few things are different for docs:
Access levels: People you share a doc with can view or edit it. Viewers can read the doc. Editors can read, edit, comment on, and export it. There's no comment-only access level yet.
Outside your organization: Docs can't be shared by email invitation on any plan. On Team and Enterprise plans, they can't be shared outside your organization by link either.
Renaming and deleting: Only the owner can rename or delete a doc.
Who you can share with
Team and Enterprise plans: Invite specific people or a group, or share with everyone in your organization. Docs can't be shared outside your organization yet.
Free, Pro, and Max plans: Share with anyone who has the link.
Opening a shared doc requires a Claude account.
Access levels
Viewers can read the doc.
Editors can read, edit, comment on, and export the doc.
There's no comment-only access level yet. Only the owner can rename or delete a doc.
Important: Deleting a doc is permanent. There's no trash, and the doc becomes unavailable to everyone you shared it with after you delete it.
Export a doc
To export a doc, click "Export" and choose a format:
Word (.docx)
PDF (.pdf)
Markdown (.md)
Google Docs
You can also ask Claude to turn a doc into a presentation with Claude Slides.
Usage
Claude Docs counts toward your plan's usage limits, like the rest of your work with Claude. Larger requests, like drafting a long doc from several sources, use more of your limit than a typical message. Learn more about how usage and length limits work.
Turn on Claude Docs for your organization
This section is for Owners and Primary Owners on Team and Enterprise plans.
Owners turn Claude Docs on or off in Organization settings > Artifacts. On Enterprise plans, owners can also limit it to specific groups with custom roles. Learn more in the Artifacts admin guide for Team and Enterprise plans, which also covers offboarding and the Compliance API.
Known limitations
A few things to be aware of:
Version history: When the artifact panel is too narrow to show version history beside the text, version history opens over the text, and Tab from the doc's toolbar doesn't reach it yet.
Access levels: There's no comment-only access level.
Charts and diagrams: Charts and diagrams don't update automatically. Ask Claude to pull the latest data from your connected apps.
External sharing: On Team and Enterprise plans, docs can't be shared outside your organization, by link or by email invitation.
Compliance logging: Activity inside a doc, like edits and comments, isn't recorded in the Compliance API yet.
Mobile: You can't change sharing settings in the Claude app for iOS and Android.
VoiceOver and typing: In Chrome versions 150 to 152, and in Claude Desktop, VoiceOver doesn't read text as you type or move through it in a doc. Use Chrome 153 or later. Safari works for docs too.