Are Claude Artifacts Public? Who Can See Them in 2026
Updated
No, Claude artifacts are not public by default. Every artifact starts private to the person who made it, and nobody else can open it until you share it. What happens after that depends on which kind of artifact you have. Anthropic now runs three sharing systems side by side, and they disagree on the question most people are actually asking: can someone without a Claude account open the link?
The short version, as of November 2026:
- Legacy chat artifacts (made in a chat before 16 September 2026, the ones with a Publish button) become fully public when published. Anyone with the link can open them, no account needed. You can't create new ones.
- Newer claude.ai artifacts (the ones with a Share menu) can be shared with "Anyone with the link", but Anthropic's help center says those viewers must be signed in to Claude.
- Claude Code artifacts (links at
claude.ai/code/artifact/...) can be shared to a public link that opens without signing in.
On Team and Enterprise plans, any link meant for people outside the organization stays off until an Owner turns on External sharing.
What is an artifact in Claude?
An artifact is a piece of standalone content Claude produces next to the conversation instead of inside it: a document, a code file, an HTML page, a chart, a small React app. It opens in its own pane, you can iterate on it, and you can share it on its own without sharing the chat that made it.
Since mid-2026 artifacts also come out of Claude Code. Ask Claude Code for a dashboard or a walkthrough of a pull request and it publishes a page to claude.ai/code/artifact/<id>, which updates in place each time Claude republishes it.
The three kinds of Claude artifact, and who can open each
The confusing part of "are Claude artifacts public" is that the answer changed for new artifacts while old ones kept the old rules. The Publish and share artifacts help article now carries both.
| Legacy chat artifact | claude.ai artifact (Share menu) | Claude Code artifact | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starts as | Private to you | Private to you | Private to you |
| How you open it up | Publish button | Share menu | Share control in the page header |
| Most open setting | Public link | Anyone with the link | Public link |
| Viewer needs a Claude account | No | Yes | No |
| Plans | Free, Pro, Max, Ultra | Pro, Max, Ultra, Team, Enterprise | Pro, Max, Ultra, Team, Enterprise |
| Embed code | Yes | No | No |
For the newer claude.ai artifacts, the help center is direct about the account requirement: "Anyone signed in to Claude who has the link can open it," and "People without one can't open a shared artifact, even with the link." It names the old Publish flow as the exception: "The only exception is a legacy artifact published from a chat." Artifacts that connect to your apps or use Claude can't be shared with "Anyone with the link" at all.
The Claude Code artifacts documentation describes its public option differently: "share a link that anyone on the internet can open, with no claude.ai sign-in required." A visitor who opens it signed out sees the label "Content is user-generated and unverified." where your name would otherwise be.
So if a client tells you your Claude link asked them to log in, the likely reason is that you shared a newer claude.ai artifact, not a published legacy one or a Claude Code page. The other reasons a link fails are in Claude artifact link not working, and sharing from Claude Code has its own guide.
Claude artifact sharing by plan
Plan decides which of those settings you can reach.
| Plan | Share inside an org | Invite people by email | Link for people outside |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | No | No | Publish legacy artifacts only |
| Pro, Max, Ultra | No org | Yes (beta, up to 50 per artifact) | Yes |
| Team | Specific people, or everyone in the org | Yes, on by default | Only if an Owner enables External sharing |
| Enterprise | Specific people, groups, or everyone | Off by default | Only if an Owner enables External sharing |
Sources: Publish and share artifacts, Artifacts admin guide for Team and Enterprise, Claude Code artifacts.
Two things in that table catch people out. The first is that a Free user can still make a legacy chat artifact public, while a Team member paying per seat cannot share outside the company until an Owner flips a switch. The second is that an Owner can also let one artifact out while External sharing stays off for everyone else, so "ask your admin" doesn't always mean changing the whole workspace. Our Team plan guide walks through what Team members can do on their own and what needs an Owner.
What does "Publish artifact" mean in Claude?
Publish is the older of the two sharing buttons, and you will only see it on legacy artifacts, which Anthropic defines as artifacts made in a chat before 16 September 2026. They keep working, but you can't make new ones. Publishing does two things. It makes the artifact viewable by anyone with the link, without a Claude account, and it adds the artifact to Artifacts in your sidebar so you can find it outside the original chat.
A viewer of a published artifact can use it straight away. They are only asked to sign up for features that call Claude, such as an artifact with an AI-powered button. People signed in on Free, Pro, Max or Ultra can also copy the artifact into their own account. Published chat artifacts can also be embedded in another website with "Get embed code", restricted to the domains you list.
Unpublishing is the step to think about before you publish. Anthropic is explicit: "You can't publish an artifact again after you unpublish it." Unpublishing also permanently deletes any storage data the artifact used. Turning a published link off is easy, but you can't turn the same artifact back on.
If the Publish button is greyed out or missing, you are almost certainly looking at a newer artifact, which uses the Share menu instead, or you are on a Team or Enterprise account, where legacy artifacts are shared inside the organization rather than published.
Do Claude artifacts expire?
Not on their own. A published or shared artifact stays reachable until someone changes it. A few things can still make a link stop working without you touching it:
- On Team and Enterprise, an Owner turning off External sharing stops every existing public link at once. They start working again if it's turned back on.
- Turning off email invitations locks out people you invited until the setting returns.
- An Enterprise retention policy can permanently delete artifacts nobody has opened for the set period.
- Deleting a Claude Code artifact, or unpublishing a legacy one, ends the link for good.
If a link has to keep working for a client for the next year, those admin controls are worth knowing about before you send it.
When a claude.ai link is the wrong way to share
For a teammate who already uses Claude, the native link is the simplest option and you don't need anything else. It stops fitting in a few situations:
- The reader has no Claude account and the artifact is a newer one, so the link asks them to sign in.
- You're on Team or Enterprise and External sharing is off, so nothing you make can leave the org.
- The deliverable is client-facing and you don't want it on a claude.ai page labelled "Content is user-generated and unverified."
- It isn't a web page. Claude Code artifacts must be a single HTML or Markdown page under 16 MiB, with no external images. A CSV, a PDF or a folder of files doesn't fit.
- You want a password, or comments from people outside your org. Public Claude Code links can't take comments, and none of the three kinds supports a password.
How to share a Claude artifact at a public URL you control
Copy the artifact out of Claude, save it as a file, and publish the file. The link then follows your rules rather than your plan's.
Step 1: Copy the artifact. Use the copy icon in the artifact pane. Markdown copies as markdown, HTML as HTML, code as code. For a Claude Code artifact, Claude already wrote the page to a file, so ask it for the path.
Step 2: Save it to a file. The extension decides how it renders:
pbpaste > report.md # markdown document
pbpaste > dashboard.html # HTML or self-contained React artifact
pbpaste > analysis.py # code artifact
Step 3: Publish it.
anchorify report.md
# → https://anchorify.io/your-org/your-project/report
Anyone with the link can open it with no account, and it stays out of search unless you choose otherwise. Re-run the same command after an edit and the URL stays the same while the content updates. If the reader should only get in with a password, publish with anchorify report.md --password 'your-password'. If you want feedback from people who don't use Claude, --access comment lets anyone with the link leave comments. The Claude Code guide shows how to let Claude run this for you, and the cookbook for each artifact type covers React, CSV and code artifacts.
Claude's sharing options compared with publishing the file yourself
| Legacy Publish | claude.ai Share | Claude Code public link | Publish the file yourself | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reader needs a Claude account | No | Yes | No | No |
| Works on Team without an Owner | No | Inside the org only | Inside the org only | Yes |
| Same URL after edits | Not documented | Not documented | Yes, each publish is a version | Yes |
| Password | No | No | No | Yes |
| Comments from outside readers | No | Invitees only | No | Yes |
| File types | Artifact | Artifact | One HTML or Markdown page | Markdown, HTML, code, CSV, PDF, images |
| Where it lives | claude.ai | claude.ai | claude.ai | anchorify.io/your-org/your-project |
Neither path is better in every case. For a quick share with someone who already has Claude, use the native link. For a client deliverable that will change over the next month, or anything leaving a Team workspace, publishing the file yourself avoids the account and admin questions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are Claude artifacts public by default?
No. Every Claude artifact, of every kind and on every plan, starts private to the person who created it. It only becomes visible to someone else after you publish it (legacy chat artifacts), share it from the Share menu (newer claude.ai artifacts) or share it from the page header (Claude Code artifacts). There is no public directory that artifacts appear in automatically.
Can people without a Claude account open my artifact?
It depends on the kind. A published legacy chat artifact opens for anyone with the link, no account needed. A Claude Code artifact shared publicly also opens without signing in. A newer claude.ai artifact shared with "Anyone with the link" requires the viewer to be signed in to Claude, per Anthropic's help center. If your recipient hit a login screen, that is why.
Why is the Publish button greyed out in Claude?
Publish only exists for legacy artifacts made in a chat, on Free, Pro, Max and Ultra plans. Newer artifacts use a Share menu instead, and Team and Enterprise accounts share legacy artifacts inside the organization rather than publishing them. If a sharing option you expect is greyed out on a Team or Enterprise account, Anthropic's advice is to ask an Owner or Primary Owner, because External sharing is controlled at the organization level.
Can I make a published Claude artifact private again?
You can unpublish it, which revokes access, but you can't publish the same artifact again afterwards, and any storage data it used is deleted. Newer claude.ai and Claude Code artifacts are easier: you change the audience in the Share menu, and the artifact and its URL stay as they are.
Do Claude artifacts expire?
No, there is no expiry date on a shared or published artifact. Links can still stop working because of admin settings: on Team and Enterprise, turning off External sharing disables existing public links, and an Enterprise retention policy can delete artifacts nobody has opened for a set period.
How do I share a Claude artifact with someone outside my Team plan?
Ask an Owner to turn on External sharing, or to allow that one artifact, and then share it with "Anyone with the link". If that isn't possible, or the recipient doesn't have a Claude account, copy the artifact into a file and publish it at your own URL. The steps for each artifact type are in the Claude Teams artifact workaround.
Sources
- Publish and share artifacts, Claude Help Center: "Anyone signed in to Claude who has the link can open it," the legacy-artifact exception, email invitations, and "You can't publish an artifact again after you unpublish it."
- Artifacts admin guide for Team and Enterprise plans, Claude Help Center: External sharing, per-artifact exceptions, email invitation settings and retention.
- Share session output as artifacts, Claude Code Docs: public links with "no claude.ai sign-in required," page constraints, and versions.
If you need a Claude artifact at a link anyone can open, with a password or comments when you want them, Anchorify publishes any file with one command and keeps the URL stable as you revise it. Free during beta, and readers never need an account. Start at anchorify.io, or read the Claude artifacts workflow.