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How to delete Claude chats and history

A long Claude sidebar fills up with test prompts, half-finished drafts and chats you'd rather not keep. Here's how to remove one conversation or a whole batch, and what actually happens to the data once you do.

Updated 18 October 2026

These steps follow Anthropic's help pages as checked on 18 October 2026. Button names and icons may move in later versions of Claude.

Delete a single chat on the web

1. Find the conversation in the left sidebar, or click Chats and tasks to see the full list.
2. Hover over it and click the ⋮ button that appears on the right.
3. Choose Delete.
4. Click Delete again in the confirmation box.

The same menu has Rename, which is often the better choice when a chat is worth keeping but has an unhelpful title.

Delete many chats at once

1. Click Chats and tasks in the sidebar.
2. Hover over any conversation, click ⋮ and choose Select.
3. Tick the box next to each chat you want gone, or use Select all to mark every chat in the list.
4. Click Delete, then confirm with Delete.

Before you use Select all, scan the list for anything you'd regret losing.

Delete chats in the mobile apps

• iPhone and iPad: in your chat list, touch and hold a conversation, tap Delete and confirm. From inside an open chat, tap the ⋯ button in the top right, then Delete. Anthropic's iOS steps cover one chat at a time.
• Android, one chat: open it, tap the ⋮ menu in the top right, tap Delete and confirm.
• Android, several chats: in the chat list, tap the checklist icon in the top right, tick the conversations, tap the trash icon and confirm with Delete.

What deletion actually removes

Memory needs the most attention. On Free, Pro and Max it's switched on by default, and Anthropic says deleting a conversation doesn't erase the memory entries generated from it. Open Settings → Memory and use Topics to view, edit or delete individual memories. The same page has Reset memory if you'd rather start over, and Pause memory if you want Claude to stop adding to it for now.

Good to know

• Shared links: the sharing help page doesn't say what happens to a public link when its chat is deleted. To be safe, turn sharing off first: open the chat's Share menu and switch it from Public to Private. On Free, Pro and Max, Settings → Privacy has a Manage button next to Shared chats that lists every chat you've shared.
• Work accounts: on Team and Enterprise plans, deleting only cleans up what you see. Anthropic still keeps some data in its back-end systems under the organization's retention rules, and Enterprise customers can set their own retention period.
• Skip the cleanup next time: for one-off questions, start an incognito chat with the ghost icon in the top right of a new chat. It isn't saved to your history or memory. Incognito isn't available inside projects; there you can turn off Memory in the + menu before your first message.
• Deleting everything: the only way to remove all of your Claude data is to delete the account under Settings → Account → Delete account. That's permanent and also removes your projects. On Pro or Max, cancel the subscription in billing settings and wait for the paid period to end first. Our guide to exporting your Claude conversations shows how to keep a copy before you go.

If it doesn't work

• You can't find the ⋮ button. On the web it only appears when you hover over a chat. Move the pointer over the conversation's row in the sidebar or in Chats and tasks.
• There's no Select option on your phone. Anthropic only describes bulk deletion for Android and the web. On an iPhone, delete chats one by one or use claude.ai in a browser on a computer.
• Claude still mentions something from a deleted chat. That's usually memory. Remove the related entry in Settings → Memory.
• You want a fresh start without losing your account. Use bulk delete for the chats, then Reset memory in Settings → Memory. Projects have to be deleted separately from their own ... menu.

Cleaning up ChatGPT as well? See our guide to deleting ChatGPT chats.

Keeping the chats you do want

Many people delete because the useful conversations get buried. Workbranch is a separate AI workspace, with answers from Google Gemini, that files chats in an inbox by day and in color-coded project folders, with pinning, flags and ⌘K search. It has a 3-day free trial.

Sources

• Delete or rename a conversation (Claude Help Center, checked 18 October 2026)
• Use Claude's chat search and memory to build on previous context (Claude Help Center, checked 18 October 2026)
• Can you delete data that I sent via Team and Enterprise plans? (Claude Help Center, checked 18 October 2026)
• Use incognito chats (Claude Help Center, checked 18 October 2026)
• Share and unshare chats (Claude Help Center, checked 18 October 2026)
• How can I create and manage projects? (Claude Help Center, checked 18 October 2026)
• Delete your Claude account (Claude Help Center, checked 18 October 2026)

Frequently asked questions