Beginner

Inbuilt Skills

Beyond generating text, Claude has native capabilities that it can invoke without external setup. These are built-in tools — web search, code execution, file analysis, memory — that Claude activates automatically or when you ask. This page covers what's available natively, without any integration work.

Web Search

Claude can search the web mid-conversation to find current information. Available in Claude.ai since March 2025, and via the API since May 2025. All plan tiers including Free can use web search in Claude.ai.

The current tool version (web_search_20260209) includes dynamic filtering — Claude writes code to trim search results before they consume context window tokens, improving accuracy by ~11% and reducing token costs by ~24% compared to the previous version.

For API use, web search is priced at $10 per 1,000 searches plus standard token costs. When bundled with the code execution tool, code execution is free.

Code Execution

Claude can write and run code in a sandboxed environment, then show you the output — including rendered charts, tables, and file outputs. This powers:

Data analysis — upload a CSV and Claude will query it, summarise it, chart it
Document generation — create and download spreadsheets, PDFs, presentations
Calculations and simulations — verify math, model scenarios
Code testing — write a function and immediately run test cases

Available on all plans. Claude Sonnet 4.5 leads the OSWorld benchmark at 61.4%for real-world computer task completion.

File Analysis

Upload files and Claude reads them directly in context:

Supported file types

• PDF — research papers, contracts, manuals
• DOCX, XLSX, CSV — documents and spreadsheets
• Images — JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP
• Code files — TXT, JSON, XML, and most source formats

Size limits

• CSV/XLSX: 50 MB on Pro/Max
• CSV/XLSX: 1 GB on Enterprise
• PDFs: up to several hundred pages depending on plan

Image & Vision

Claude is natively multimodal. You can upload images and ask Claude to: describe what's in them, extract text (OCR), analyse diagrams, compare multiple images, interpret charts, or answer questions about visual content. This works across all client apps including mobile (where you can photograph directly).

Memory

Claude has two memory mechanisms in Claude.ai:

Chat auto-memory (all plans)

Claude synthesises past conversations every 24 hours into a "Memory summary" covering your role, current projects, and personal context. This persists across sessions. Available to all users including Free as of March 2026. Also supports importing memories from ChatGPT and other AI assistants.

Project memory (paid plans)

Each Project maintains its own persistent memory across sessions — custom instructions, knowledge base documents, and conversation context. Available on Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans since October 2025.

Computer Use

Claude can control a computer — clicking, typing, navigating UIs — through the computer use capability. In Claude.ai, this is surfaced through the Cowork feature in the desktop app (Pro and above). Via the API, you can build your own computer use pipelines.

See the Computer Use section for the full technical deep-dive.

Plan Summary

Skill	Free	Pro	Team/Enterprise
Web search	✓	✓	✓
Code execution	✓	✓	✓
File uploads	Limited	50 MB	1 GB
Chat auto-memory	✓	✓	✓
Project memory	✗	✓	✓
Computer use / Cowork	✗	✓	✓

Checklist: Do You Understand This?

What did the web_search_20260209 update improve?
What file size limits apply to XLSX uploads on Pro vs Enterprise?
What is the difference between chat auto-memory and project memory?
Which inbuilt skills require a paid plan?