ClickUp Mind Maps: Tasks Mode and Blank Mode

ClickUp Mind Maps are a view for work that branches: a project broken into parts, or a pile of ideas you are not ready to file as tasks. You add the view on a Space, Folder, Subfolder, or List. Tasks mode draws the tasks that already live there. Blank mode lets you sketch nodes and turn them into tasks when the structure is real.

The view is not on the Free Forever plan. That is the fact to check before you design a workshop around it. Unlimited includes 40 uses. Business, Business Plus, and Enterprise include unlimited Mind Maps. Prices in this guide were checked in October 2026. The ClickUp hub links the other views.

What are ClickUp Mind Maps?

ClickUp Help describes a Mind Map as a free-form way to plan and organize a project, or as a map of work you have already created. You add it like any other view:

1. Click + Add in the Views Bar.
2. Optionally mark the view private, or pin it so it stays in the Views Bar. Private views are not available on Free Forever or Unlimited.
3. Select Mind Map.
4. Name it and adjust it from the Customize menu on the right.

You need Edit or Full edit permission on the List, Subfolder, Folder, or Space to create a view. Guests can create views on Lists, Subfolders, and Folders shared with them. They cannot create views at the Everything level.

Help says the color of the lines follows the List color and the status of each task. A map is readable only if those statuses already mean something. Set them before you invite people to rearrange branches. ClickUp custom statuses is the setup for that.

This is not a Whiteboard. A Whiteboard is a canvas for shapes and sticky notes, and Free Forever includes 3 of them. A Mind Map is a tree of nodes, either tied to tasks or waiting to become tasks. If you are on Free Forever, start with ClickUp Whiteboards. Come back to Mind Maps when the plan includes the view.

How do Tasks mode and Blank mode differ?

After the view exists, Help says you choose Tasks mode or Blank mode.

In Tasks mode, Help's create steps are: select a List node, click +, name the task, and press Enter. To edit, select the expand icon on the task node. To delete a node, select the node and use the trash icon. Deleting a task node is deleting a task. Do that only when you mean to.

In Blank mode, child nodes start from the + beside the root node. Name the node and press Enter. A sibling node starts from a child node, using the icon under it. When a branch is actually work, convert those nodes into tasks on a List you already use. A map that never becomes tasks is a picture. How to plan a project is the point where a picture should pick up owners and dates.

You can delete the view itself. Help is blunt: Mind Maps you delete cannot be restored from the Trash. Open the view, hover the name, open the menu, and choose Delete only when you are sure. There is no undo in that article.

Help also documents sharing. You can publicly share a Mind Map with someone outside the Workspace. Private sharing with people inside the Workspace is described as fully available during early access, with a note that future limits may apply. The two paths are sharing with specific people, or sharing with a link. Private views as a plan feature still start on Business, so an Unlimited Workspace should not count on a private Mind Map.

What are the ClickUp Mind Map plan limits?

ClickUp Help's views table and the pricing page agree on the shape of the limit, and they use different words.

Forty uses is not forty maps. Help says these actions each count as a use:

• Creating a view
• Creating a node
• Deleting a node
• Saving changes
• Loading the Mind Map

Loading counts. A team that opens the same map every morning will spend the Unlimited pool on looking, not only on editing. ClickUp's pricing FAQ says uses are cumulative across the Workspace and do not reset. At the limit you keep the data, and you cannot edit or create new items with that feature.

That is why Mind Maps are a poor reason to stay on Unlimited if the map is part of the weekly plan. The pricing page puts Mind Mapping in the Business feature list, which matches Help's "unlimited" on Business and above. Use the Unlimited trial to learn the view. Move the real planning map to Business, or keep using a Whiteboard until you are ready to pay for an unlimited tree.

Private views follow a second gate. Help says private views are off on Free Forever and Unlimited, and on from Business. Protecting a view is a further Business limit (10 uses on Business, then available on Business Plus and Enterprise). You do not need a protected view to plan. You do need to know the map is visible to people who can open that location.

When should you use a Whiteboard or a Gantt chart instead?

Mind Maps answer "what are the parts?" They do not answer "what day is it due?" and they are not a free-form sketch.

ClickUp task dependencies belong on the Gantt or the List once a node has become a task that waits on another task. The Mind Map will not replace that relationship.

A small team can plan the shape in Blank mode, convert the nodes that survived the conversation into one List, and then leave the map alone. Re-open it when the structure changes, not as a second place to update statuses. Statuses belong on the tasks. The map's line colors will follow them.

If you are on Free Forever, do not wait on Mind Maps. Use a Whiteboard or a List. If you are choosing ClickUp because the tree and the tasks should be the same objects, Mind Maps on Business do that, and the Unlimited 40-use counter is the constraint to price in first.

Add one Mind Map on a single List, in the mode that matches whether the tasks already exist. Delete it only when you have decided the tree is finished, because Help says the Trash will not bring it back.