How to Reference Another Chat in Claude?

July 25, 2026

Quick answer: To reference another chat in Claude, just ask it naturally — for example, “What did we discuss about the marketing plan?” or “Continue where we left off with the auth project.” On paid plans (Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise), Claude uses a built-in Search and reference chats feature to pull relevant details from your past conversations automatically. You can also rely on Claude’s memory, which retains durable context like your role and preferences across sessions, or manually copy/paste context from an old chat if you want full control. For details on current plan availability, see Anthropic’s support center or the pricing page.

Method 1: Ask Claude to Search Past Chats (Built-In Feature)

Claude can search through your previous conversations and pull in relevant details when you explicitly ask it to. This uses retrieval-augmented search (RAG) behind the scenes, and you’ll see it show up as a visible search step in your conversation.

Availability: Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans, across web, desktop, and mobile.

To use it, just prompt Claude naturally:

“What did we discuss about [topic]?”
“Can you find our conversation about [subject]?”
“Let’s continue where we left off with [project].”

Claude will search relevant past chats and cite the original conversations it pulled from, so you can jump back to the source if needed.

Scope: Claude can search across all your non-project chats, or — if you’re working inside a Project — it searches within that project’s conversations only, keeping context separated by project.

Method 2: Let Claude’s Memory Carry Context Automatically

Separate from on-demand chat search, Claude also has a memory feature that builds durable context about you over time — your role, working style, technical preferences, and ongoing projects — without you needing to ask it to search anything. This is closer to Claude “just knowing” stable facts about you across sessions, rather than retrieving specific past transcripts.

Memory is available on free, Pro, and Max plans (Enterprise admins control rollout for their org).
Each Project gets its own separate memory space, so context stays relevant to that project.
You can view exactly what Claude remembers, edit it, or delete individual entries anytime.

To manage it: go to Settings > Memory in Claude.ai.

Method 3: Manually Copy Context Into a New Chat

If you want full control over exactly what carries over — or you’re on a plan without search/memory access — you can:

Open the previous chat.
Copy the relevant messages or a summary of the discussion.
Paste it at the start of your new chat with clear instructions, e.g., “Here’s our previous discussion — continue from where this left off.”

This works regardless of plan and gives you precise control over what context Claude sees.

Method 4: Use Projects to Keep Related Chats Together

If you’re working on an ongoing body of work, keeping all related chats inside a single Project is often more reliable than searching after the fact. Each project maintains its own focused context and memory space, separate from your other conversations, so Claude has continuity across every chat within that project by design.

How to Turn Off Chat Search and Memory

Both features are under your control:

Disable search past chats: Settings > Memory (or Settings > Capabilities on the legacy experience) — toggle “Search and reference chats” off.
Pause or reset memory: Same settings panel — pause keeps existing memory but stops using/updating it; reset permanently deletes all memory (this can’t be undone).
Keep a specific chat out of search/memory entirely: Start an incognito chat (the ghost icon when starting a new chat outside a project). Incognito chats aren’t saved to your history and Claude won’t pull from them later — this is a useful option if you’re also thinking about chat privacy in general, alongside the account- and device-level steps covered in how to keep Claude chats private.

FAQ

Does Claude automatically remember everything from my past chats? No. Search and reference chats only runs when you explicitly ask Claude about past conversations — it’s not an always-on background profile. Memory, separately, does retain durable facts automatically, but focuses on stable context (role, preferences, ongoing projects) rather than full transcripts.

Can I reference a chat from inside a Project in a chat outside that Project? Search scope is limited to non-project chats or to conversations within the specific project you’re in — it doesn’t cross project boundaries.

Is there a way to permanently exclude one sensitive chat from ever being searched? Yes — use an incognito chat for that conversation, or delete the chat afterward so it’s no longer available to search or reference. See also our guide on protecting sensitive Claude conversations for more on this.

Do incognito chats count toward memory or search? No, with one exception: on Enterprise/Team plans, incognito chats are still included in standard data exports and subject to your organization’s retention policies, even though they’re excluded from search and memory.

Is this feature available on the free plan? Search and reference chats is currently limited to paid plans (Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise) — see Claude’s pricing for the current plan breakdown, which is also relevant if you’re a student checking what’s free. Memory is available on free, Pro, and Max plans. Incognito chats are available to everyone.

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