Claude's publish button is greyed out or the artifact won't share

You built a game, a quiz, or a small tool in Claude and went to share it. There's no Publish button. Or Anyone with the link is grey. Or you sent the link and your friend got a Claude sign-in screen. Each of these has a cause in Anthropic's own help pages, and most aren't bugs: they're the rules for who can share what. This page matches each symptom to its cause, says what you can change inside Claude, and shows how to get a link anyone can open when you can't.

Anthropic's sharing guide and its artifacts guide were read for this page on October 22, 2026. If you read Japanese, Claude のアーティファクトが公開できない原因 covers the same symptoms for readers in Japan.

Find your symptom

Publish is missing, or there's only Share

Anthropic's artifacts guide draws the line by date: "Legacy artifacts are artifacts made in a chat before September 16, 2026. They keep working, and you can still publish and share them, but you can't make new ones." Its sharing guide adds that a legacy artifact shows Publish, or Share & copy link on Team and Enterprise, where a newer one shows Share.

So an artifact you made after that date has Share, and that's not a fault. The 2 buttons do different things:

• Publish, on a legacy artifact, on Free, Pro, and Max: "Anyone with the link can view and use it without a Claude account."
• Share, on every newer artifact: you choose who has access, and whoever opens it signs in to Claude.

If you unpublished a legacy artifact, its Publish won't come back. The sharing guide says: "You can't publish an artifact again after you unpublish it. To share it later, you'll need to create a new artifact. Unpublishing also permanently deletes any personal and shared storage data the artifact used."

A new artifact made in its place gets Share, and its link asks every viewer to sign in to Claude. For a link that opens without a login, publish the artifact's code instead.

Anyone with the link is greyed out or missing

In the plan table of Anthropic's sharing guide, "Share with anyone who has the link" is ticked for Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise. The Free column is empty. The guide's text agrees: Pro and Max choose "Only you" or "Anyone with the link", and it gives no line for Free. The only sharing row ticked for Free is "Publish a legacy artifact (made in a chat)".

Then 3 more causes:

• Team and Enterprise. Anyone with the link is there only when an Owner has turned on External sharing or allowed that one artifact. The guide's advice: "If it's grayed out, ask an Owner or Primary Owner." If an Owner later turns External sharing off, existing links stop working until it's back on.
• Artifacts that use Claude or your apps. Artifacts "that connect to your apps or use Claude" can't use Anyone with the link on any plan, and on Team and Enterprise, "docs can't use it yet either."
• Your phone. "You can't change sharing settings in Claude for iOS or Claude for Android. Use Claude on the web or Claude Desktop."

Anthropic's pages don't mention a greyed-out Publish button on a legacy artifact, so if that's what you see, none of the causes above is confirmed for it.

The link opens, but asks people to sign in to Claude

This one is by design. The sharing guide: "Everyone needs a Claude account. People without one can't open a shared artifact, even with the link. The only exception is a legacy artifact published from a chat."

Even that exception has a limit. Visitors to a published legacy artifact are "asked to sign up only for features that use Claude." So if a game asks Claude for its questions, that part still asks visitors without an account to sign up.

Claude Code's docs say otherwise for its artifacts: they can be shared "publicly", with "a link that anyone on the internet can open, with no claude.ai sign-in required", on Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise. Anthropic's help center, which says it covers artifacts made in Claude Code too, doesn't make that exception. On Team and Enterprise, Claude Code's public sharing stays off until an Owner turns it on.

Teachers run into this with a class: students under 18 can't have Claude accounts, so no Share link opens for them. How to share a Claude artifact with students covers the class link and the QR code.

"This version can't be shared publicly," or the artifact is too big

Anthropic's help for chat artifacts states no size limit for sharing. Claude Code's docs do state one for its artifacts: "The rendered page must be 16 MiB or smaller. Large embedded images are the usual cause when a publish fails for size."

The message "This version can't be shared publicly. Publish a new version or change the shared version, then try again." isn't explained in Anthropic's docs. It comes up in Claude Code's issue tracker, where people report it on pages far smaller than 16 MiB:

• Issue #79824, open since July 21, 2026: republishing and starting a new artifact didn't help. Commenters found that removing a Mermaid diagram, an SVG image embedded in the code, or an AVIF image fixed it for their pages, and one commenter later withdrew their own explanation.
• Issue #89326, closed as not planned on October 18, 2026: a 2 MB page failed while a 75 KB page from the same session shared fine. The reporter first saw "This Artifact offers file downloads, so it can't be shared publicly" until they removed the page's download feature.

These are user reports, not Anthropic's word. What they suggest trying: publish a new version without SVG or AVIF images written into the code, Mermaid diagrams, or a download button, then share that version. If it still fails, the page's code can go somewhere that doesn't run this check.

If the artifact itself shows an error, Anthropic's artifacts guide says to look for Try fixing with Claude near the message. The same guide says artifacts "require Cloud code execution and file creation to be turned on in Settings > Capabilities (Free, Pro, Max) or Organization settings > Capabilities (Team, Enterprise)."

Get a link anyone can open in 4 steps

When the people you're sending to don't have Claude accounts, or Claude won't share the artifact publicly, publish its code as an ordinary web page. Anyone opens it in a browser, with no account.

1. Get the artifact's code

For an artifact made today, ask Claude: "Give me the whole page as one HTML file, with the CSS and JavaScript inside." For a legacy artifact, use the controls at the top of the artifact panel to view the code, copy it, or download it. A design made with the Design template exports as standalone HTML from Export. How to download a Claude artifact as an HTML file covers each kind.

2. Paste it into the box

Paste the code into the upload box at the top of this page with Paste code, or drop the .html file, and click Get my preview link. You need no account. The preview shows your layout with scripts and forms off, and the link works for 3 minutes: it's for checking, not for sending.

3. Keep the page and publish it

Click Keep this page — free, no card and sign up. The page moves into your account, where its scripts run. Click Publish, choose Public under Who can open this page?, and click Next. Then pick Free ($0, with a small Convika bar at the bottom) and click Publish free.

4. Send the address

Copy the page's address, such as yourpage.convika.page, and send it. It opens on a phone, a school Chromebook, or any computer, without a Claude account. On Free, the page is Public: anyone with the link can open it, and it may show up in search results and in Convika's gallery. Private link (Pro or pass) keeps it out of both.

Free gives you 1 published page. For a signup form on the page, your own domain, or letting Claude publish and update the page through a connector, see the full guide to publishing a Claude artifact.

What keeps working outside Claude

Most of an artifact is ordinary HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and that runs on a published Convika page, including libraries loaded from an https:// CDN such as Tailwind.

• Saved data and scores. A page whose code calls Claude's window.storage or window.claude.use("db") keeps working on Convika. A personal value, such as one player's settings, stays in that visitor's browser. Shared values, such as a high-score list, are kept per page: up to 1 MB and 1,000 keys on Free. Data saved while the artifact lived in Claude doesn't come along, so the page starts empty. How Claude's storage works on a published link has the details.
• Features that ask Claude. Anthropic's guide says an artifact that calls Claude "runs on Anthropic's infrastructure" and its users "sign in with their Claude account". Those parts don't run anywhere else. Ask Claude to replace them with fixed content before you copy the code.
• Your connected apps. Anything that reads Google Calendar, Slack, or another connected app needs Claude too.
• Calls to other websites. A script on a Convika page can fetch only from the page's own address.

There are no player accounts on Convika, so a score can't follow a person from one device to another.

When Claude's own link is the better choice

Keep the artifact in Claude when everyone you're sharing with already has a Claude account, such as a team on the same plan. Claude's link keeps comments and per-person access, and Pro and higher can invite people by email (in beta). An artifact whose point is to ask Claude things also belongs in Claude, since that part won't run on another host. Publish the code instead when the people you're sending to have no account, when they're students, or when you want the page at your own address.

Frequently asked questions

Why is the publish button greyed out in Claude?

Anthropic's help doesn't describe a greyed-out Publish button. It describes Anyone with the link greyed out on Team and Enterprise: "If it's grayed out, ask an Owner or Primary Owner." The option is also missing on Claude Free, on artifacts that use Claude or connect to your apps, and in the iOS and Android apps. An artifact made since September 16, 2026 has Share, not Publish.

Why can't I share my Claude artifact publicly?

On Claude Free, new artifacts can't be shared by link at all: Anthropic's plan table ticks Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise only. On Team and Enterprise, an Owner must turn on External sharing. Artifacts that use Claude or your connected apps can't use Anyone with the link on any plan. And even where it works, Anyone with the link asks every viewer to sign in to Claude. For a link anyone can open, copy the code and publish it as a web page.

Why does my Claude artifact link ask people to log in?

It isn't a fault in your artifact or your settings. It's Claude's rule for every Share link, whichever access you choose: Anthropic's sharing guide puts it as "Everyone needs a Claude account." So a friend or a student without one meets a sign-in screen. Only a legacy artifact, made in a chat before September 16, 2026, and published, opens without one. To reach people without an account, publish the artifact's code at your own address.

Do people need a Claude account to open a shared artifact?

Yes, for any artifact shared with Share. People without an account "can't open a shared artifact, even with the link." Visitors to a published legacy artifact don't need one, though they're asked to sign up for features that use Claude. Claude Code artifacts shared publicly need no sign-in, according to Claude Code's docs, though Anthropic's help center doesn't list that exception. A Convika page needs no account of any kind.

Is there a size limit for Claude artifacts?

For artifacts made in Claude Code, yes: its docs say "The rendered page must be 16 MiB or smaller." Anthropic's help for chat artifacts states no size limit for sharing; the 20 MB it gives is for data an artifact stores. Users report "This version can't be shared publicly" on much smaller pages, and suspect SVG or AVIF images written into the code, or Mermaid diagrams.

How do I publish a Claude artifact without a Claude account?

You need Claude to make the artifact, but the people who open it don't need Claude if you publish its code. Ask Claude for the page as one HTML file, paste it into Convika's upload box, and keep the page with a free account. Click Publish, choose Public, and publish it on Free. The address opens in any browser without signing in.

Sources

• Share artifacts (Claude Help Center) (checked October 22, 2026)
• What are artifacts and how do I use them? (Claude Help Center) (checked October 22, 2026)
• Share session output as artifacts (Claude Code Docs) (checked October 22, 2026)
• Artifact sharing fails: "This version can't be shared publicly" (anthropics/claude-code #79824, GitHub) (checked October 22, 2026)
• Artifact public sharing blocked: content scan never dispatched (anthropics/claude-code #89326, GitHub) (checked October 22, 2026)