Definition
What are Claude artifacts?
In plain terms
Anthropic defines an artifact as “anything Claude makes for you that you’d put in front of someone.” When you ask for something substantial (a proposal, a calculator, a report), Claude opens an artifact instead of dumping code into the conversation. You edit it by talking to Claude or, for template artifacts (Docs, Slides, Design, and in beta Dashboards and Motion), directly on the page, and it is saved to the Artifacts tab.
As of October 2026, artifacts made in a chat before September 16, 2026 are “legacy artifacts”: they keep working and can still be published and shared, but you can’t make new ones. Cowork artifacts made before August 19, 2026 are “live artifacts”. The next question is always the same: how do you get one in front of someone who doesn’t use Claude? This guide covers what artifacts are, what people build with them, and how to publish one as a real link.
Examples
Examples of artifacts
Client proposals
A scrolling, interactive proposal with live pricing tables, built from a plain-language brief.
Calculators & tools
ROI calculators, quote builders, and small single-purpose apps that run right in the browser.
Dashboards & reports
Charts, tables, and status views Claude assembles from the numbers you paste in.
Pitch decks
Web-native slides with animation and responsive layout, no PowerPoint export step.
Product demos
Clickable mockups and walkthroughs you can put in front of a client the same day.
Documents & one-pagers
Formatted briefs, spec sheets, and summaries that look designed, not typed.
The difference
Artifacts vs. normal Claude responses
Inside Claude vs. online
An artifact vs. a hosted page
Artifact in Claude
The artifact lives inside your Claude chat, perfect for building and iterating, but your client can’t see your chat.
Published as a link
Publishing the HTML turns the artifact into a real hosted page with its own URL: say “publish this” in Claude, or upload the HTML file.
Opens for anyone
Your recipient opens it in any browser: no Claude account, no app, no login (on Solo and Team you can add a password).
One thing worth knowing before you publish: the easy free ways to put an AI-built page online usually make it a public web page that search engines can index. If the artifact is client work, a noindex link is the safer default. That’s the way Pagelive publishes, on every plan.
Publishing
How to share or publish an artifact
There are three honest routes: Claude’s own Share menu (viewers sign in to Claude; only legacy artifacts get a public Publish link), publishing straight from the chat with the Pagelive connector (just say “publish this”), or exporting the artifact’s HTML and uploading the file yourself.
Whichever route you take, it helps to preview the HTML first so you know it renders outside Claude.
Frequently asked
Not by default: Anthropic says artifacts start private to you. As of October 2026, a shared artifact opens only for people signed in to Claude. The exception is a legacy artifact (made in a chat before September 16, 2026) published with the Publish button, which anyone with the link can open. For client or confidential work, publish the HTML as a Pagelive link: noindex by default, and password-protected on Solo and Team.
Through Claude, only if it is a published legacy artifact. Anthropic’s sharing article says: “Everyone needs a Claude account. People without one can’t open a shared artifact, even with the link.” Publish the artifact’s HTML as a Pagelive link and it opens in any browser with no Claude account or login.
Yes. Anthropic says everything you make is saved to the Artifacts tab in your Claude sidebar, so you can find it from any conversation. For a stable copy that lives outside Claude (one you can send, track, and update), export the HTML and publish it as a hosted link.
In Claude, you keep editing by talking to Claude or directly in the artifact, and it updates. If you published it as a Pagelive link, republish the new version and the link stays the same; Solo and Team keep the version history.
More guides: Claude artifacts: what they are, how to share and publish them · how to use Claude artifacts · Claude live artifacts. Building client work with them? See AI proposal software.