Tell when a job belongs in a project rather than a single chat, set one up from start to end in Claude or ChatGPT (or a notebook in Gemini) with its files and instructions, and know who can see it and what it remembers (as of Oct 2026).
Part of Hand it the workTime about 20 minutes, with the try-itChecked 16 Oct 2026Done saved in this browser
A project is a folder of files and instructions for work you come back to. Every chat inside it starts already knowing that background, so you stop pasting the same files and rules in each time.
Use a project for repeat or long-running work: a weekly report, a piece of work that runs for weeks, material your team shares. A one-off question stays in a plain chat.
Before you add files, check two things: who can see the project, and what it remembers. Claude and ChatGPT both let you keep a project's memory apart. Gemini has no "projects" by that name; its nearest thing is a notebook.
Projects sit next to three other settings. They are easy to mix up.
| Setting | Applies to | Use it for | The lesson |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your standing instructions | Every chat | Who you are, your role, how you like answers | coming |
| A project | The chats inside that project | The files and rules for one piece of work | This one |
| A skill | Any chat, when the task matches | A how-to you repeat in many places | open lesson |
| Memory | What the AI picks up from your chats | Check it, and keep it apart for sensitive work | coming |
| The job | Where it goes |
|---|---|
| One question, one answer | A plain chat |
| The same report every week, from the same template | A project |
| A piece of work over several weeks, with many files | A project |
| Material your whole team works from | A shared project |
| A how-to you use in many different projects | A skill |
| Answers drawn only from a pile of your own documents | A project, or a Gemini notebook |
Menus move often. If something here is missing, the usual reasons are a rollout still in progress, your plan, your country or an admin setting.
What a project holds: its own chats, its own files (Claude calls them knowledge) and its own instructions. On Free you can make up to five projects. Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise can hold much more material.
Set one up, start to end
Sharing: on Team and Enterprise plans you can share a project with colleagues, with "Can view" or "Can edit".
On the desktop app: a Cowork project can also hold folders from your computer, links and its own memory. It lives on your computer only, and you can link a claude.ai project to it.
Coming: a new beta version of projects, where "a project is one conversation", is rolling out in stages to some Pro and Max users, starting with Claude Code. Existing projects stay as they are for now.
Set one up, start to end
Two rules about memory that catch people out: shared projects always use project-only memory, and Work is not available in project-only projects. So if you want to hand over tasks with Work inside a project, keep it on Default memory and do not share it. For team material, share the project and use Chat inside it.
Limits by plan (files, and people you can share with): Free, 5 and 5. Plus and Go, 25 and 10. Pro, 40 and 100. Sharing works on every plan.
Not the same thing: Space (on Pro, Business and Enterprise) gathers Pages and files to share. Projects stay separate from it.
This project is for: our weekly team update.
Who reads it: my team and my manager.
Always: use only the files in this project and the notes I paste in.
Always: one page, plain words, the three headings in the template.
Never: add numbers that are not in my notes. Never send or share anything.
If something is missing: ask me. Do not guess.Use made-up or public material. Nothing private goes in.
1You write the same weekly update every Friday, from the same template. Where should it live?
2In ChatGPT, you share a project with two colleagues, then try to hand over a task with Work inside it. What happens?
3Where do you find "Projects" in Gemini?
Picture the weekly team update. Every Friday you open a new chat, paste in the template, paste in last week's update as an example, explain who reads it, and only then paste this week's notes. Five minutes of setup before any work happens, every week.
A project keeps all of that for you. You put the template, a good example and your rules in once. From then on, every chat you start inside the project already has them. You paste in this week's notes and ask.
It also keeps the work together. All the chats about one piece of work sit in one place, next to the files they used.
As of: product steps as they were on the vendors' own pages on 16 Oct 2026.
Every product line in this lesson comes from Neosaipien's platform reference (checked on the vendors' own pages, 16 Oct 2026).1, 3.2, 3.3 and 6.2. Its sources were each read on 16 Oct 2026. The vendor pages behind this lesson:
Explain what a skill is, add one to Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini, and turn one task you repeat into a skill that works in all three (as of Oct 2026).
Open the next lessonThe 2026 AI Starter (free). Day 2 of its first week is "make one project".
AI implementation. I can help set up your team's shared projects, with the right files, instructions and access.
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