Claude Artifacts: What They Are and How to Share One

A Claude artifact is a self-contained piece of work — a document, a design, a slide deck, a dashboard, or a small interactive tool — that Claude builds in its own panel beside the conversation. Anthropic's help center: "An artifact is anything Claude makes for you that you'd put in front of someone: a design, a deck, a document, a dashboard, or a small interactive tool. It opens beside your conversation, and you can edit it, come back to it, and share it with others" (Claude Help Center, "What are artifacts and how do I use them?", checked September 2026). Ask for one in any conversation, or start from a template in the Artifacts tab. This guide covers what each plan can create and share, sourced from that help center, read live today.

What counts as an artifact?

Claude makes one when the content is "significant and self-contained, typically over 15 lines," something "you're likely to want to edit, iterate on, or reuse outside the conversation," and "content you're likely to refer back to or use later" (same source). Documented content types: "documents, code snippets, single-page websites, images, diagrams and flowcharts, dashboards, and small interactive tools" (same source).

Three named templates start directly: Docs ("Living documents you write with Claude and your team in real time"), Slides ("Presentations built from your notes, reports, or the work already in your chat"), and Design ("Visuals, mockups, prototypes, one-pagers, and landing pages, built with your design system") (same source).

Which plans can create an artifact, and what needs a paid plan?

Creating an artifact in a chat works on Free, Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise, and in Claude Code on any plan that includes it (same source, feature table). Three capabilities need a paid plan instead — templates, connecting an artifact to your other apps, and storing data — checked only for Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise; Free is blank on all three (same source). Templates are "in beta on paid plans only," "on by default on Pro, Max, and Team plans," and on Enterprise "off until an owner turns each one on" (same source). One setup step applies to everyone: artifacts "require Cloud code execution and file creation to be turned on in Settings > Capabilities" (individuals) or organization settings (Team, Enterprise) (same source).

What is a "legacy" artifact, and why does it matter?

Anthropic drew a hard line partway through 2026: "Legacy artifacts are artifacts made in a chat before September 16, 2026. They keep working, and you can still publish and share them, but you can't make new ones" (same source). That date decides which flow you see: legacy artifacts use Publish (Free, Pro, Max) or Share & copy link (Team, Enterprise), while a current artifact uses Share instead, with its own access levels and, on Team and Enterprise, named invitations.

How do I share a current artifact, and who can I share it with?

Open the artifact and click Share. On Team and Enterprise, add specific people and set each one's access level; Enterprise can also add groups. Under Who has access, choose who else can open it, and copy the link (Claude Help Center, "Share artifacts", checked September 2026). "Artifacts start private to you. Nothing is shared until you share it" (same source), and Team/Enterprise organizations stay internal until "an owner decides whether users can share outside it" (same source).

Choices differ by plan. Pro and Max: "Only you" or "Anyone with the link." Team and Enterprise: "Only people invited," "Anyone at [your organization's name]," or "Anyone with the link" — the last option appears only once an Owner "has turned on External sharing or has allowed that artifact individually" (same source). Access comes in three levels: Can view (open and read comments), Commenter (adds "comments and download any files the artifact offers"), and Can edit (adds "make changes") (same source).

Can I invite specific people by email?

Yes, on Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise, "in beta," and it works differently from a link: "Unlike 'Anyone with the link,' an invitation works only for the person you invite" (same source). The invitee needs a Claude account under that exact address, since "Claude doesn't tell you whether or not they have an account" (same source). A Claude Docs document, an artifact that connects to other websites, or one with an uploaded file still being checked can't be shared this way at all (same source). There's also a cap: "up to 50 people from outside your organization per artifact, counting pending and accepted invitations," with pending ones expiring "after 30 days" while "Accepted invitations don't expire" (same source). Outside invitees "can't invite others or change sharing settings," and connector or Claude-powered features "don't work for them" (same source).

Does a visitor need a Claude account to open a shared artifact?

Yes, with one narrow exception. "Everyone needs a Claude account. People without one can't open a shared artifact, even with the link. The only exception is a legacy artifact published from a chat" (same source). A published legacy artifact still works the old way — "Anyone with the link can view and use it without a Claude account" (same source). Share something made today, and plan on your recipient signing in; an older, already-published legacy link stays open to anonymous visitors. One related limit: artifacts "that connect to your apps or use Claude can't use 'Anyone with the link,'" and on Team and Enterprise, "docs can't use it yet either" (same source).

How does publishing a legacy artifact work?

For a legacy artifact, Free, Pro, and Max use Publish: open it, "Click 'Publish,'" then "Copy the public link and send it" (same source). Team and Enterprise use Share & copy link, and viewers must be "signed in with their Team or Enterprise account," or, if an owner has turned on link sharing, anyone with the link — but "They need a Claude account" (same source). Check for sensitive attachments first: "viewers also get access to the attachments and files in that chat" (same source).

Unpublishing a legacy artifact is final. "You can't publish an artifact again after you unpublish it. To share it later, you'll need to create a new artifact. Unpublishing also permanently deletes any personal and shared storage data the artifact used" (same source). Export anything you'd want to keep before you unpublish.

How does remixing someone else's artifact work?

This is a legacy-only feature: "Available on Free, Pro, and Max plans, for legacy artifacts published from a chat" (Claude Help Center, "What are artifacts and how do I use them?"). It's copy-and-paste, not a live fork: "Open the published artifact and click 'Copy' to copy its code. Start a new chat, paste the code, and describe the changes you want" (same source), and the result is independent — "Your version is separate, so nothing you do affects the original." Anthropic frames this as a trust boundary: "treat it the way you'd treat a file from an unknown sender" (same source).

What can an artifact store, and who sees it?

Persistent storage — a tracker, a checklist, a journal — is "Available on Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans, on Claude on the web and Claude Desktop" (same source), in two forms: "Personal storage: Everyone keeps their own private data" and "Shared storage: Everyone sees and works with the same data" (same source). The ceiling is fixed: "Storage has a 20 MB limit per artifact and accepts text only, no images, files, or binary data" (same source). For legacy artifacts, "storage works only after you publish"; new ones "don't need to be published to store data" (same source). "Some artifacts save information that everyone who opens them can see, like items in a shared tracker" (Claude Help Center, "Share artifacts") — check that before entering anything sensitive.

A quick reference

Where does this fit next to Figment?

Figment doesn't touch Claude's artifacts — it publishes designs made in Figma as live websites through its Figma plugin, and its AI editor is public now, working on a separate static copy of a site — still not a public product. If you've used a Claude artifact to draft page copy or a mockup, bring that content into a Figma file and publish it from there, rather than treating the artifact link as the finished site. Two related jobs get confused with this: publishing already-reviewed plain HTML and CSS files is covered in our static website publishing guide, and editing an existing website's actual source repository is covered by how ChatGPT, Claude, Codex or Cursor can edit an existing website and the Claude Code walkthrough.

Bottom line: an artifact is Claude's name for a self-contained piece of work it builds beside the chat. Every plan can create one, but templates, connected apps, and persistent storage need a paid plan. Anything made in a chat before September 16, 2026 is legacy and shares by Publish or Share & copy link; anything made after uses Share, with access levels and, on Team and Enterprise, named invitations. The account rule changed with that split: a current artifact's link needs a Claude account, while an already-published legacy artifact still opens for anyone with the link. Check Anthropic's help center before relying on this — both pages were rewritten the same week as this guide.