Selecting the Right Claude Product Feature
Audience: professionals who use Claude at work, no coding or API knowledge needed. Verified = checked against Anthropic's documentation or help center on 2026-10-16. Design guidance = widely taught practice, not a documented rule.
The features (verified from the Claude help center and documentation)
| Feature | What it is | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Chat | A conversation with Claude | Quick questions, drafting, thinking something through |
| Projects | A self-contained workspace with its own chats, knowledge base and instructions | You work repeatedly on the same topic and want shared context (D5.2) |
| Research | Claude investigates in depth: multiple searches that build on each other across the web and connected tools | A question needing broad, multi-source investigation (D4.3) |
| Artifacts | Documents, decks, designs, dashboards, small tools that open beside the chat | Content you will edit, reuse or share (D2.5) |
| Connectors | Links to outside apps and services (calendar, files, email, issue trackers) so Claude can find information and act | The information or action lives in another tool (D5.3) |
| Chat search and memory | Claude can search past chats and carry context forward | Continuing earlier work (D3.1) |
| Skills and plugins | Skills teach Claude to do a task your way; plugins package skills, connectors and more | Repeatable team workflows |
| Other surfaces | Desktop app, mobile apps, Claude in Chrome, Cowork (an agentic workspace), Claude Code (for developers) | Match to where you work; Claude Code is for software work |
Details worth knowing (verified)
- Projects: available on all plans (Free: up to five projects); paid plans use retrieval to expand capacity up to about 10x when knowledge nears the limit; Team and Enterprise can share projects with view or edit permissions.
- Research: paid plans; needs web search on; uses connected tools such as Google Workspace; on mobile it uses the web only and does not use connectors; runs on Opus 5.5.
- Connectors: on Team and Enterprise an Owner adds a connector for the organisation, then members connect their own accounts; you choose per conversation whether Claude may use a connector.
- Skills are written instructions Claude loads when a task calls for them; connectors give access; plugins bundle both (help center).
Decision guide (design guidance)
- One-off question or draft: chat.
- Ongoing work with the same background: Project.
- Needs the latest information from many sources: Research (with web search on).
- Info is in Drive, email or a ticket tracker: connector.
- A document, deck or tool to refine and share: artifact.
- A repeatable "do it our way" task: skill.
Exam traps
- Re-pasting the same background into every chat instead of using a Project.
- Using Research for a quick factual lookup.
- Expecting connectors to work when they are not added, enabled or allowed by your organisation.
- Assuming features are identical on every plan or app.
References
- What are projects? — checked Oct 16, 2026
- Use research on Claude — checked Oct 16, 2026
- Get started with connectors — checked Oct 16, 2026
- Connectors, skills and plugins — checked Oct 16, 2026
- What are artifacts? — checked Oct 16, 2026
Check your understanding
Weekly reports using the same style guide and data dictionary. Feature?Show answerHide answer
Answer
A Project with instructions and knowledge.You need Claude to read your Drive documents. Feature?Show answerHide answer
Answer
The Google Drive connector, enabled for the conversation.What must be on for Research to work?Show answerHide answer
Answer
Web search.