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The Claude memory checklist: 7 checks

By Stephen Thorn · 4 minute read ·

The Claude memory checklist: 7 checks on what it keeps about you

Deleting a Claude chat doesn't delete what Claude remembered from it. Anthropic's help page says so: "When a conversation expires or is deleted, related memory entries generated from it won't be removed, but you can delete individual memories at any time."

Run these 7 checks once, and again any time you've shared something you'd rather it didn't keep. Checked against Anthropic's help pages on 15 Oct 2026.

What you need

  • Claude on the web, Claude Desktop or Claude Mobile. On mobile, update to the latest version of the app.

  • Memory is on by default for Free, Pro and Max. On Team and Enterprise, owners control whether memory is available, and it's off for each member until they turn it on.

The checklist

1. Find out which memory you have

Open Settings.

  • If you see Settings > Memory, you're on the current memory system and this checklist applies to you.

  • If you see Memory under Settings > Capabilities instead, your organization is on the legacy memory, which a small number of Team and Enterprise organizations still use. There, deleted chats are removed from memory, so check 3 doesn't apply.

2. Read everything it remembers

Go to Settings > Memory > Topics. Everything Claude remembers is listed there.

  • Select any topic to read it.

  • Use the edit icon to change it, or select "Delete" to remove it.

  • A fix in 1 topic applies to every conversation from then on.

Two places this memory reaches that are easy to miss:

  • Cowork: your memory is shared with Claude Cowork tasks that run in the cloud. Cowork sessions that run locally on your computer don't use it.

  • Projects: each project has its own memory, and Claude uses it alongside your account memory. To keep a project's memory fully separate, open the project's page and turn off "Use account memory" under Memory.

3. Clean up after you delete a chat

Deleting the chat leaves its memories behind. Go back to Topics and delete what came from it.

You can also tell Claude in a chat what to change or forget, and the update applies to your next conversation.

4. Check sensitive topics

By default, Claude doesn't store topics like your health, race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, politics or gender identity.

  • If "Include sensitive topics in memory" is on in Settings > Memory, it saves them from then on.

  • Turn it off, and Claude removes any sensitive items already saved.

  • Some things are never saved, even if you ask: government ID numbers, criminal history, financial account numbers and immigration status.

5. Turn memory off for 1 chat

Do this before you send the first message. You can't change it once the chat starts.

  1. Start a new chat.

  2. Click "+" in the message box, then click "Memory" to turn it off. On mobile, tap "+" and turn off the "Memory" switch.

  3. Send your first message. On the web and Claude Desktop, a crossed-out memory icon appears next to the chat title.

Claude won't use what it remembers in that chat, and nothing from it is saved to memory. Unlike incognito, the chat stays in your history, and Claude can still find it when it searches your past chats. This works inside projects too.

6. Use incognito for chats you don't want in your history

When you start a new chat outside a project, click the ghost icon in the upper right.

  • Incognito chats aren't saved to your chat history or to Claude's memory.

  • They're still kept for 30 days by default, or longer under an Enterprise organization's custom data retention setting.

  • On Team and Enterprise, they're included in the data exports your account owners can run.

  • Incognito isn't available inside projects, so use check 5 there.

7. Pause or reset when you want a clean slate

In Settings > Memory, click the "Generate memory from chats" toggle and pick 1 of 2 options:

  • Pause memory keeps what Claude has saved, but it stops using memory and stops making new memories. Chats from while it was paused aren't added if you turn it back on.

  • Reset memory permanently deletes all memories, including project memories. You can't undo it.

The same screen has "Search and reference chats", which lets Claude search your past chats on paid plans. Turn it off if you don't want old chats pulled into new ones.

The mistake to avoid

Assuming that deleting a chat, or using incognito, means nothing is kept.

  • A deleted chat leaves its memories in Topics until you delete them yourself.

  • An incognito chat stays out of your history and memory, and it's still kept for at least 30 days.

Check Topics after you delete anything that matters, and keep anything you wouldn't want stored out of the chat in the first place.

Where this comes from

Settings move. If a step doesn't match your screen, those 2 pages have the current version.