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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Anthropic Pro and Max subscribers have access to Memory.
- The feature creates a more intuitive experience with AI that knows you.
- Memory was previously only available to enterprise customers.
AI chatbots are helpful, but are often limited to the prompts you include in the Q&A loop. As a result, personalization features, such as Memory, that allow the chatbot to get to know you, let you focus less on prompting and more on getting things done. Now, Memory is coming to more Claude users.
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In September, Anthropic initially launched its Memory feature exclusively for enterprise customers. Now, the company is also expanding access to all paid subscribers, including Pro and Max plans, which cost $20 and $100 to $200, respectively. The plans also include access to other AI features such as Web Search, Voice Mode, Research, and Claude Code.
If you have been holding out on a subscription, keep reading to find out if the Memory feature makes it worth it for you.
What Memory can do for you
The Memory feature is powered by the Claude 4 model family, including Opus 4.1, Sonnet 4.5, and Haiku 4.5, providing Claude with the context of your previous conversations with it. The goal is to avoid repeating yourself every time and get the answer you need more quickly.
For example, if in a past conversation I had mentioned that I own a 15-pound Yorkie and that is saved to memory. In a future conversation, all I would have to say is “How much playtime does my Yorkie need?” or “How many blueberries should I give my Yorkie daily?” and it would be able to pull from the information saved without me having to repeat myself about the weight.
Also: Claude Sonnet’s memory gets a big boost with 1M tokens of context
It is also helpful as it draws a throughline from different sessions you may be working on simultaneously, so that each chat’s context doesn’t stay in a silo. This means, if you choose to use Memory, you don’t have to start all over in each chat, creating more personalized interactions.
“We’re building toward Claude understanding your complete work context and adapting automatically. Memory starts with project continuity, but it’s really about creating sustained thinking partnerships that evolve over weeks and months,” said Mike Krieger, chief product officer, in the blog post.
Security precautions
With a tool that can store information about you, there are natural concerns about security and privacy. To address these concerns, Anthropic made Memory entirely optional and added granular controls that can be used to not only turn it on and off but also delete specific memories.
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Furthermore, the company said that its approach differs from those of its competitors by showing users exactly what Claude remembers, rather than just providing “vague” summaries. That is likely a nod to ChatGPT’s Memory feature, which, within the Settings of the Memory feature, only provides the gist of the memory instead of specifics.
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Then, within Claude, users can edit the memory by using natural conversation, instructing Claude to focus on a specific part of the memory or ignore a particular part altogether. Anthropic also said that it subjected the feature to extensive safety testing, particularly in cases related to well-being.
For users who use the Projects feature in Claude, which functions as hubs that hold a collection of chats, Claude creates distinct memory spaces for each Project, ensuring that information from each project does not bleed into the others. This is especially useful if you have one project related to work and another to personal.
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Lastly, users can easily import and export their memory, transferring data from ChatGPT or Gemini via copy and paste, and exporting memory from Claude at any time via instructions provided in the support center.
How to access
All Max subscribers will have Memory in Setting available starting Thursday, while Pro subscribers will have it rolled out to them within the coming days. Once the feature does become available, users will be able to choose if they want the Memory feature to work on all past conversations or only new ones.
