Image Generation

What it is

Claude doesn’t generate photos or illustrations the way a dedicated image tool does. There’s no “create an image of…” pipeline that hands back a bitmap.

What Claude can do is build diagrams, charts and interactive visuals inside the conversation, using HTML and SVG. They’re live — you can click them, adjust them and iterate in follow-up turns. That’s in beta on Claude web and desktop. See Visual and interactive content for the whole picture.

Claude can also read images you upload — see Add files or photos for the mechanics.

Where to find it

Ask for a visual in conversation. Settings → Capabilities → Inline visualizations is visible on both inspected platforms; generating or exporting one was not exercised.

On desktop

Ask in any chat.

On the web

Ask in any chat on claude.ai.

How to use it

Ask for the shape of thing you want: “draw this as a diagram”, “show me how this changes over time”, “chart this data”.
Claude builds one inline and you can interact with it — click buttons, move sliders, expand it to full screen.
Iterate in conversation: “make the chart monthly instead of yearly”, “add a third option to the comparison”.
To keep one, use Copy as image, Download (.svg or .html) or Save as artifact.

When you need a real image

If you want a photograph or an illustrated scene, use a dedicated image tool. Claude can help you write the prompt for it, but it won’t produce the pixels.

Good to know

It’s beta, and quality varies. Anthropic recommends Opus for complex visualisation work.
Web and desktop only. Custom visuals don’t render on Claude for iOS or Android.
They’re not saved for you. A custom visual lives inline in the response; keep it deliberately or it goes when the conversation moves on. If you want something persistent and shareable, ask for an artifact instead.
Uploading images works fine. Claude can read, describe and reason about pictures you give it, even though it can’t paint new ones.

What’s changed recently

2026-09-13 — Re-checked against Anthropic’s articles; the behaviour is unchanged. Clarified that there is no control for this anywhere in the interface — it’s a property of how Claude answers, not a feature you turn on.
2026-04-18 — Page created from the official help-centre article.