Guide

How to upload files to Claude

Claude can read your PDFs, Word files, spreadsheets and photos, but the limits differ between a chat and a project, and long PDFs are handled differently from short ones. Here's how to attach files, what's supported and how to avoid the common errors.

Updated 18 October 2026

Quick answer: click the + button in the lower left of the chat box, choose Add files or photos and pick your files, or drag them into the chat window. In a chat you can attach up to 20 files of up to 500MB each, and PDFs up to 1,000 pages. Project files are capped at 30MB each. Claude reads PDF, DOCX, CSV, TXT, HTML, ODT, RTF, EPUB, JSON and XLSX, plus JPEG, PNG, GIF and WebP images.

Limits and menu names were checked against Anthropic's help pages on 18 October 2026 and may change.

Attach a file to a chat

Open a new or existing conversation on claude.ai.
Click the + button in the lower left corner of the chat box.
Select Add files or photos.
Choose one or more files from your device and click Open.
Type your question about the files and send it.

Two shortcuts: drag files straight onto the chat window, or copy an image (a screenshot, for example) and paste it into the message box.

Add files to a project instead

If you'll ask about the same documents across many chats, put them in a project's files section rather than attaching them each time. They stay available to every conversation in that project. Our Claude Projects guide walks through creating a project and adding knowledge.

Projects have two advantages beyond convenience. Anthropic says files uploaded to a project are cached, and cached content counts less against your usage limits than new content. And on paid plans (Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise), when a project's knowledge gets close to the context window limit, Claude switches on retrieval (RAG) automatically and searches the files for the relevant parts, which Anthropic says expands capacity by up to 10 times.

Supported files and limits

Limit	In a chat	In a project
Size per file	500MB	30MB
Number of files	Up to 20 per chat	Unlimited, as long as the content fits Claude's context window (or RAG takes over on paid plans)
PDF length	Up to 1,000 pages	Not stated separately
Image size	Up to 8000 × 8000 pixels	Not stated separately
What Claude reads	Text, plus visuals in PDFs of up to 100 pages and in images	Extracted text only, except multimodal PDFs

Documents: PDF, DOCX, CSV, TXT, HTML, ODT, RTF, EPUB, JSON and XLSX.
Images: JPEG, PNG, GIF and WebP.
Excel files need a setting. XLSX uploads only work when Code execution and file creation is on. On Free, Pro and Max, find it under Settings → Capabilities; it's on by default.
Extra token limits. Even inside the size limits, a very long document can produce more text than Claude can take in at once.

How Claude handles PDFs

Up to 100 pages: Claude reads the text and looks at visual elements such as images, charts and graphics.
101 to 1,000 pages: text only. Charts and pictures are ignored, so ask about tables and figures in shorter extracts.
Over 1,000 pages: the upload is refused with an "Uploaded file is too large" error.

When you point Claude at a specific page, use the page number your PDF viewer shows, not the number printed on the page. They often differ because of covers and front matter.

Tips for better answers

Send sharp images. Anthropic recommends 1000 × 1000 pixels or more and advises against small, low-resolution pictures.
Split big documents. Breaking a long report into sections keeps each part within the limits, and keeps a long PDF under 100 pages so its charts are read too.
Export visuals to PDF. Word and other non-PDF files are read as text only. If a diagram matters, save the document as a PDF of 100 pages or fewer.
Name files clearly. In large projects that use retrieval, descriptive filenames help Claude find the right document, and you can mention a file by name in your question to focus its search.
Ask for a file back. With code execution on, Claude can turn an upload into a new file, for example pulling tables from a PDF into an Excel spreadsheet.

If it doesn't work

"Uploaded file is too large". Anthropic shows this error for PDFs with more than 1,000 pages. Split the document or remove pages you don't need, and keep each file under the size limits in the table above.
An XLSX file won't attach. Turn on Code execution and file creation in Settings → Capabilities. On Team and Enterprise, owners control it in Organization settings → Capabilities, so ask them if it's off.
A project file is rejected. Project files have a 30MB limit, much lower than in chats. Compress or split the file. Anthropic also notes that Claude can process PDFs over 30MB through its computing environment without loading them into the context window.
Claude misses a chart or picture. Check whether the PDF is over 100 pages or the file isn't a PDF at all. Either way Claude sees text only.

Once Claude has read your files, it can also produce documents and small apps you can reuse; see our guide to Claude artifacts.

Sources

Upload files to Claude (Claude Help Center, checked 18 October 2026)
Create and edit files with Claude (Claude Help Center, checked 18 October 2026)
Retrieval augmented generation (RAG) for projects (Claude Help Center, checked 18 October 2026)
Usage limit best practices (Claude Help Center, checked 18 October 2026)

Frequently asked questions

Can Claude read charts and images inside a PDF?

Yes, for PDFs of up to 100 pages. Anthropic says Claude analyzes both text and visuals such as charts and graphics in those. Between 101 and 1,000 pages it reads the text only. Other document types, like Word files, are read as text only, so embedded pictures are skipped.

Do uploaded files count against my usage limit?

Yes. Anthropic lists file attachment size among the things that affect usage. Files kept in a project are cached, and cached content counts less against your limits, so a project is cheaper than re-uploading the same files to new chats. The cache expires after a period of inactivity.

Is the upload limit 500MB or 30MB?

Both figures appear in Anthropic's help pages. The upload page gives 500MB per file for chat attachments and 30MB per file for project files. The page on creating and editing files says 30MB per file for uploads and downloads in Claude's code-execution environment, while noting that larger PDFs can still be processed there without being loaded into the context window. If a big file fails, splitting it is the safest fix.