The Claude Interface

Everything in the Claude.ai UI and what each part does.

Overview of the claude.ai layout

The Claude.ai interface has evolved significantly since 2024. Here are the main areas:

• Left sidebar — Projects, recent conversations, new chat button
• Model selector (top of chat) — choose which Claude model to use
• Chat input — your messages, with file/image upload
• Artifacts panel — appears on the right when Claude generates a file, code, or document
• Settings (profile icon) — account, memory, preferences, integrations

The model selector

Click the model name at the top of any chat to switch models:

You can change the model mid-conversation — Claude maintains context across model switches within the same chat.

New chat vs Continue vs Project

There are three ways to start a conversation:

• New Chat — fresh context, no history. Use for one-off questions.
• Continue a chat — scroll up in an existing conversation. Claude remembers everything said in that session.
• Project — a persistent workspace with a system prompt and shared files. Claude maintains context across all conversations within a Project. This is the most powerful mode.

File and image uploads

Attach files to any message by clicking the paperclip icon or dragging files into the chat. Supported:

• Images — Claude can analyze, describe, and extract text from images (PNG, JPG, WebP, GIF)
• PDFs — full text extraction, analysis, Q&A over document content
• Text files — .txt, .md, .csv, .json, .xml and many code formats
• Spreadsheets — Excel and CSV files

File size limit: 10MB per file, up to 5 files per message. For larger files, split them or use the API with streaming.

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