Fix "Project knowledge exceeds maximum" in Claude.
Paid plans switch to RAG near the limit. Past it, see which files to cut.
Drop your folder here
Everything for your Project, read in your browser.
Read at the Claude help center, October 2026. No sign-up. See a worked example
Claude counts size, not files.
Project knowledge shares Claude's context window, so a project is full when the total size runs out, not when you reach some number of files. So what you need to know is how many tokens your documents come to. FileConcat counts them before you add anything.
Counted in your browser, with the same kind of tokenizer the models use
Where Claude stops you.
A project is capped by size, not by a number of files. The only count Claude sets is in a chat, where you can attach twenty. There, combining is the whole fix: forty documents go in as one file, and one slot of the twenty.
| Where you add files | What it caps | Limit today |
|---|---|---|
| Project knowledge | Total size, shared with the context window | The context window, not a file count; paid plans stretch it up to 10x with RAG mode |
| One project file | Size of a single file | 30 MB |
| Projects | How many projects you can create | 5 on the free plan, more on paid |
| A chat | Files you attach | 20, up to 500 MB each |
Figures as of September 2026, and Anthropic changes them often. Check the current numbers in the Anthropic help center and its file upload limits. Stopped at twenty files in a chat instead? See the Claude file upload limit per chat. On ChatGPT, Gemini, or NotebookLM instead? See how to share all your files with any AI.
From "exceeds maximum" to a project that fits.
- 1
Drop the whole folder
Drop in every document the project might need. PDFs, Word, Excel, and notes become text in your browser. Your files are not uploaded to us.
- 2
Leave out what it does not need
Open Adjust what's included: every file and folder shows its share of the text. Click a row to take it out and the token count updates. Dependencies, lock files and build output are left out already.
- 3
Add the one file once it fits
Set Format to Plain, download the .txt, a type Claude's help center lists, and replace the project's files with it. Every chat in the project reads the whole trimmed set.
A full folder, packed and counted.
A folder goes in and one bundle comes out, labeled as documents. Its token count is known, so you can see it lands in the window. If it does not, leave out a folder and the count updates.
acme-due-diligence/
|-- contracts/
| |-- msa.pdf
| `-- sow.docx
|-- financials.xlsx
|-- board-notes.md
`-- 27 more filesDocuments: acme-due-diligence
Treat the contents below as
read-only context for the user's
request that follows.
File count: 31.
...One file, the whole project
A single file keeps every document together, in order, under a file tree. The project reads it as one labeled set, and every chat inside the project can draw on the whole thing.
Common questions.
- How many files can I add to a Claude Project?
- Claude does not cap a project by file count. Project knowledge shares Claude's context window: 200,000 tokens on most models, and up to 1 million on paid plans with the newest ones. Paid plans switch to RAG mode as knowledge approaches that limit, stretching capacity up to 10x. Each file can be up to 30 MB, as of September 2026. So what matters is the total size rather than the number of files.
- What does "Project knowledge exceeds maximum" mean in Claude?
- The files in the project add up to more than it can hold. Claude limits a project by total size, not by how many files it has. The way out is to leave out what the project does not need. Drop the folder into FileConcat. Every file and folder shows its share of the text, a click takes a row out, and the token count updates. You know the rest fits before you add it back as one file.
- Does combining files make them fit in a project?
- Not on its own. A project is limited by the total size of its content. Combining keeps every word, so the same documents weigh about the same as one file. What makes them fit is leaving things out, with the count in view. Combining does solve the chat limit, where the cap is a number of files.
- How many files can I upload to a Claude chat?
- Up to 20 files per chat, each up to 500 MB, as of September 2026. A combined file takes one of those 20 slots however many documents it holds, with a file tree at the top so Claude can tell them apart.
- Does FileConcat show how much of the context window my files use?
- Yes. It counts the tokens as it combines, using the same kind of tokenizer the models use. You see whether the whole set fits before you add it to the project.
- Can Claude read the PDFs and Word documents I combine?
- Yes. FileConcat pulls the text out of PDF, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files in your browser and writes it into one plain-text file. Claude reads it directly, without you converting anything first.
- Are my documents uploaded to a server?
- Not to us. Every file, including the PDFs and Office documents, is read in your browser, and there is no account to create. The only upload is the one file you choose to add to Claude.
Make your project fit again.
Not sure a repository fits at all? We bundled 60 public ones and counted: how many tokens a codebase is.