Can Claude read PDFs, Excel files and images?
Short answer
Yes. Anthropic lists PDF, Word (DOCX), Excel (XLSX), CSV, TXT, HTML, ODT, RTF, EPUB and JSON documents plus JPEG, PNG, GIF and WebP images. Excel files need code execution and file creation turned on in settings. A chat takes up to 20 files of up to 500 MB each. PDFs can be up to 1,000 pages, but Claude only looks at charts and pictures in PDFs of 100 pages or fewer. ZIP files, video and audio aren't on Anthropic's list.
Which products can do it?
- Anthropic ClaudeYes
Claude reads PDFs of up to 1,000 pages and analyzes their charts and images when a PDF has 100 pages or fewer.
Good to know: PDFs of 101 to 1,000 pages are read as text only.
Why it matters
People want to drop a report, spreadsheet or screenshot into a chat and ask questions about it, without converting it first.
Not proven yet
How accurately Claude reads handwriting, scanned PDFs or complex spreadsheets; we found no independent test. Whether ZIP, HEIC or video files work some other way; the upload help article doesn't list them.
How we know (1 source)
"Uploading files to Claude" help article (dated Jul 23, 2026; read Nov 1, 2026): Claude accepts PDF, DOCX, CSV, TXT, HTML, ODT, RTF, EPUB, JSON and XLSX documents and JPEG, PNG, GIF and WebP images. Excel (XLSX) uploads need code execution and file creation turned on. In a chat: up to 500 MB per file and 20 files; in projects: 30 MB per file. PDFs can run to 1,000 pages, but Claude only analyzes charts and images in PDFs of 100 pages or fewer; longer ones are read as text only. The article doesn't list ZIP archives, video or audio.
Read the source
Status timeline
No status has changed since we started tracking. Every entry is dated and backed by the sources on this page.
- First recorded: In storesAnthropic Claude
Claude accepts PDF, DOCX, XLSX, CSV, TXT, HTML, ODT, RTF, EPUB and JSON files and JPEG, PNG, GIF and WebP images.