Files and uploads

Drag any file onto a canvas and it becomes a card. Images (camera raws and Photoshop documents included), video, audio and PDFs get real players and viewers; documents (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) show their first page, design files (Sketch, Figma, Procreate) the picture saved inside and zips what's inside them; anything else becomes a file card with a download. There is no per-file size limit on any plan: the free plan has a 5GB drive and Creator a 1TB one, and the drive is the only limit.

Updated October 27, 2026

Drag a file onto the canvas. The type is detected and the right kind of card is created — you never pick "upload as image" from a menu.

What each type becomes

Double-click a file card to open it full screen, with Download and Share there.

A document's card shows its first page, at the page's own shape, as a PDF's does — a spreadsheet's shows its first sheet — and counts its pages. It opens on its pages, which page through as a PDF's do. They are made once, in the background, so a new document's card takes a few seconds to show its page: the first 200 pages of a document up to 256 MB. A document with a password, or one that's damaged, stays a file card, with the download.

A text file opens as its page, with line numbers, up to its first 2 MB; past that, the page says so, and Download all of it saves the whole file. A .csv or .tsv opens as a table under its header row, up to 5,000 rows. Subtitles open as their cues, and Markdown as a document whose links open in a new tab.

A font opens as a page to try it on: type your own words and change the size, with the font set at five sizes and its letters and numbers below, and its style, format and licence as the font itself states them. A font over 16 MB, or one that won't load, keeps its icon.

An email opens as it was sent, with its attachments below it, to download one by one or put on the board together. Pictures from the web stay hidden until you choose Show pictures, and nothing in an email can run. An email over 50 MB doesn't open there (download it to read it), and an Outlook .msg over 4 MB keeps its icon on the board.

A design file's card shows the picture the file keeps of itself — a Sketch, Figma, XD, Procreate, Krita or OpenRaster file's own preview, an Affinity file's, an InDesign file's thumbnail, an Illustrator file's first page, an EPS's preview — at the picture's shape, and opens on it, to zoom as a photo's does. It's made once, in the background: of a Sketch, Figma, XD, Procreate, Krita or OpenRaster file of any size, and of the others up to 1 GB. A file with no picture inside it (a Figma file from before 2023, an EPS saved without a preview) stays a file card, with the download.

A zip's card is a contact sheet of what's inside it — its folders first, with how much each holds, then its pictures, then its other files — and counts its files. It opens as a folder to walk through, reading only the part it shows, so a big zip opens at once: open its folders, see its pictures large, download any file inside it, or, on a board you can edit, choose Unpack into clusters to bring it in as clusters, as importing a zip does (zips up to 1 GB). Any other archive — a .7z, .rar, .tar or compressed file — shows the names inside it, for archives up to 1 GB. A file inside that's locked with a password is listed, and says so, but doesn't open.

Limits

File type and size. Any, on every plan. .psd, .fig, .zip, project files, archives, a 4K clip, a WAV stem — each lands as its own card, at any size. There is no per-file limit on any plan.

Storage. The only limit is the drive: 5GB on the free plan, 1TB on Creator. A drop that would not fit is caught before anything uploads, and you can add the part that fits; the rest waits in the tab and goes on by itself when you upgrade or add storage (Hitting a limit). Inviting someone new adds 0.5GB to your drive once they get started, and to theirs when they join (Referrals).

The drive and the card cap are the real, enforced differences between free and paid — a free account stops at whichever it reaches first. Clusters and editing are not limited on any plan, and up to 10 people can edit on Free and Creator alike.

Large uploads

Files beyond roughly a gigabyte upload in parts automatically, so a big video or a project archive is not one fragile request. If an upload is interrupted it can resume rather than starting over.

Batches upload a few at a time so one huge file does not block eleven small ones behind it.

Storage

Uploads count against your account's storage quota: 5GB on the free plan, 1TB on Creator. The meter is in Settings → Plan & billing. When it is full, new uploads stop until you delete files or upgrade — nothing already there is touched. Files you drop in the meantime wait in the tab: they go on by themselves when you upgrade or add storage, or when you press Upload now after deleting. On Creator you can also add more storage, 1TB at a time.

Storage is counted against the owner of the cluster, not the person who uploaded. If you are an editor on someone else's board, your uploads use their quota — which is the same rule that governs the card cap.

What counts

• A file counts while a cluster uses it. Delete its card and the file stops counting within a few minutes — unless another cluster still uses the same file, as a copy does.
• Clusters in the trash still count until the trash is emptied. Emptying it frees their space at once.
• A deleted version counts until it leaves Recently deleted.
• A file that is uploaded but not placed yet counts, however long ago it was uploaded — a file sent through the API that no card uses yet, for example.
• Previews and thumbnails never count. They are copies Clusters makes for itself, not your files.

How files are stored

Files go directly from your browser into private object storage, and are served back through signed URLs that expire. Nothing is in a public bucket and nothing is reachable by guessing a path.

Files referenced by a board are protected from cleanup for as long as the board references them. Removing the last card that uses a file stops it counting toward your storage within a few minutes; the file itself becomes eligible for deletion later, not immediately, so undo and version history can still bring it back.

On a phone or tablet

With a finger, a tap on a file in Files opens it in Quick look, and touching and holding it opens its menu, whose Select lets each tap pick another file for the selection bar: put them on the board, move, copy or delete them. See Files with a finger.

Versions

A file can have versions. Drop a new file onto a file of the same kind — on the board or in Files — and it becomes that file's next version: the card shows the new one, and the old one is kept. The card lights up and says Drop to add as v2 before you let go. A toast confirms it with Undo, and with Keep as separate file for when you meant it as a file of its own. Hold ⌥ while you drop to skip all of that and add it as a separate file straight away.

Upload new version… in the right-click menu does the same with a file picker — for images it's under Edit. Images, videos, audio, PDFs and other files all take versions; the new one has to be the same kind as the old.

Once a file has more than one, a small v2 chip on the card (and beside its name in Files) says which version is on show; it opens Info, whose Versions section lists every version, newest first, with who uploaded it, when, and its size. From each version's menu:

A deleted version waits under Recently deleted for 30 days, where Restore brings it back; after that it's gone. A file keeps up to 50 versions, and the one on show can't be deleted while it's the only one left — deleting the card is how you delete the file. Every change is one step of ⌘Z.

Every version is a stored file, so every version counts toward your storage. Copying or moving a card brings its versions with it.

Downloading

Every file card has a download. Images additionally offer a version with adjustments applied. PDFs can be downloaded from the viewer.

To send someone one file on its own — a page with just that file, its player and its comments, and nothing else from the cluster — use Share file… (Sharing a single file), or Share wherever the file is open full screen: the player, the image and PDF viewers, and Quick look from the sidebar or the file list.

Machine-readable: /docs/files.md · /llms.txt
What changed and when: /changelog