What Claude cannot do, honestly

Six other things people swear it cannot do are only switched off, so here is where each switch lives, plus a prompt that tells you which route your job needs.

The two real walls

Neither has a workaround inside Claude, so knowing them saves you hunting for a setting that does not exist.

1. No model makes video or images. Anthropic's model overview lists what every current model handles: text and image in, text out. Its support page says Claude "doesn't generate photos or illustrations the way image-generation tools do", so no prompt, plan or setting produces one. Voice mode only reads answers aloud, so music or a voiceover file is out too.
2. You cannot upload video or audio in chat. The accepted uploads are documents and images: PDF, Word, CSV, text, HTML, spreadsheets, and JPEG, PNG, GIF or WebP. No audio or video format is on it, so "summarise this meeting recording" fails before it starts. A media file already on your own machine is a different case, covered further down.

One nuance changes what you ask for: a PDF is capped at 1,000 pages, and only the first 100 pages get their pictures and layout read as well as their words. Past that it is text only, so a long scanned textbook quietly loses its diagrams.

The six people give up on too early

Three of these are toggles you flip in under a minute; the other three need a different Claude app or a paid plan, and each one below says which.

1. It does remember you. Memory is on by default for Free, Pro and Max on web, desktop and mobile, and lives under Settings, then Memory. Each project keeps its own memory, so work context does not bleed into personal chats. On Team and Enterprise it is off until an owner switches it on, so office users often assume it cannot.
2. It does search the live web, once you ask it to. Web search is off by default in chat and you turn it on with the plus button at the bottom left of the chat window. That default is why so many people conclude Claude is stuck in the past.
3. It does run code and make files. Under Settings, then Capabilities, "Code execution and file creation" lets it build real spreadsheets, Word documents, slide decks and PDFs rather than describing them. This is also the switch Skills need, so if a skill refuses to run, start here.
4. It does speak. Voice mode is a beta feature on every plan, on mobile, desktop and web, so full spoken conversations work. It does not work in Cowork or Claude Code, which is worth knowing before you go hunting for the button in the wrong app.
5. It does work on your own files. Cowork on the desktop reads and writes your local files with no uploading or downloading, and Claude Code does the same in a terminal. The browser chat cannot, which is the distinction people miss when they say Claude cannot touch their computer.
6. It does act on a schedule. Scheduled tasks in Cowork run hourly, daily, weekly or on weekdays, on paid plans, and they run remotely, so they still fire when your laptop is shut. That is the difference between a tool you open and one that gets on with something.

The honest bit

When you really do need a video

Claude never draws a frame, but it can drive the tools that do. The clearest working example is the Claude Code video toolkit, an open-source project under an MIT licence.

Its own description is that you tell Claude Code what video you want and "it writes the script, generates the voiceover, music, and visuals, and renders the MP4". Claude directs, and the toolkit does the filming.

The catch, before you install it: that is a developer workflow, it runs in Claude Code rather than the chat app, and several of the services it strings together need their own paid keys. If all you want is one video today, use a video tool directly and let Claude write the script.

Editing is better news, because Cowork or Claude Code can run editing tools on a file already sitting on your machine, so trimming, captioning and compressing are on the table. Almost nobody says so, because the answer depends on which Claude you are using.

Find out which route your job needs

That is the question underneath all of these, so hand it to Claude with this prompt, which makes it name the surface, refuse to invent a capability, and say plainly when the answer is another tool.

I want to know whether you can genuinely do a job for me, or whether I am about to waste an hour. Be blunt. I would much rather hear "not here, use this instead" than watch you try and fail politely.

THE JOB
- What I want to end up holding: [for example: an edited MP4, a 12-slide deck, a spreadsheet of my expenses, a summary of a two-hour recording, a website that is live]
- What I am starting from: [for example: a folder of clips on my Mac, a PDF, nothing yet, a voice memo]
- Where I am talking to you right now: [the Claude app in my browser / the Claude desktop app / Cowork / Claude Code / I do not know]
- What plan I am on, if I know it: [free / Pro / Max / work account / not sure]

FIRST, IF YOU CANNOT TELL
If which surface I am on genuinely changes the answer and I said "I do not know", ask me ONE question that settles it, in plain words, before you answer. Do not guess and do not answer for all four cases at once.

THEN ANSWER IN THIS ORDER
1. THE VERDICT, IN ONE LINE. One of exactly these four: "Yes, here, now." / "Yes, but not on this surface." / "Only partly." / "No, and here is what actually does it."

2. WHY. The specific reason, tied to what you can and cannot do, not a general disclaimer. If the blocker is a file type you cannot accept, or that you produce text rather than pictures, say that plainly.

3. THE ROUTE. If the answer is yes anywhere, give me the exact steps on the exact surface: which app, which setting to turn on and where it lives, what I upload, what I get back. If a setting has to be switched on first, name it and where it sits.

4. THE HONEST COST. How long this takes a beginner, what it needs installed, and whether any part needs a paid plan or a paid key somewhere else. If the setup outweighs the job for a one-off, say so and tell me to do it another way.

5. THE PART THAT WILL DISAPPOINT ME. Name the bit of my expectation that will not be met even if this works, before I find out myself.

NEVER INVENT
Do not tell me you can do something you cannot, and do not describe a button, menu or feature you are not sure exists right now. If you are unsure whether something is still available, say "check this in the app, it may have changed" rather than sounding confident. If the real answer is a different tool entirely, name it and say why, even if it is not one of yours.

FINISH WITH
- The single next thing I should do, in one sentence.
- One line on what I should ask you instead, if my original ask was pointed at the wrong thing.

BEFORE YOU SEND IT
Check you named a real surface rather than answering for all of them at once, and that you flagged anything you were not certain is still available today.

Check your three switches today

Open Settings and look at Memory, then Capabilities, then the plus button in a chat window. Two minutes, and you will know which of the three you have had switched off this whole time.

If what you wanted is on the other side of the wall, how to make an AI video ad shows the route people use.

One quick question

Can Claude generate images?

Not photos or illustrations. It does build diagrams, charts and visuals in code, so it covers charts well and art not at all.