ClickUp Whiteboards: Sketch, Then Assign the Work

ClickUp Whiteboards are the canvas next to the task list. Use one when a meeting is still a pile of stickies and arrows, then turn the pieces that survived into tasks. ClickUp Help describes them as a real-time surface: people see each other's edits and cursor movements. You can also create and edit tasks and Docs without leaving the board.

Free Forever includes 3 public Whiteboards. Private Whiteboards are not on that plan. If you only need a page of notes, a Doc is the lighter object. The ClickUp hub links both.

What are ClickUp Whiteboards?

A Whiteboard is not a List and not a Doc. ClickUp Help's item article says you build it from shapes, connectors, text, frames, and the other tools on the whiteboard menu, including a flowchart or a brainstorm. Tasks and Docs can sit on the same canvas. You can duplicate them, connect them, and draw on them. Tasks and Docs are left out when the Whiteboard is exported.

ClickUp also lists Mind Maps as a view in our tool data. That view is a structured map. A Whiteboard is the freeform board. Start on the Whiteboard when the shape of the work is still messy. Move to a List when you know the tasks.

You can create a board in several places, and it saves as soon as it opens. The save location follows where you created it.

• Whiteboards Hub: New Whiteboard, pick a location, name it, and create. If you do not pick a location, Help says it is created at the Workspace level.
• The plus button in the Home, Spaces, or Whiteboards sidebar.
• A Whiteboard view from the Views bar on Everything, a Space, a Folder, a Subfolder, or a List.
• Inside a task description, type /Whiteboard and create one. Help gives sprint planning as the example: the board lives on the planning task.

The create modal in Whiteboards Hub includes a Private toggle. Private boards are a plan limit, covered below. Do not assume the toggle works on Free Forever.

How do you turn a sketch into tasks?

This is the step that makes the board worth keeping. ClickUp Help documents two paths.

Convert something already on the canvas. Type text in a shape, sticky note, or text box, or select an item that already has text. Open the floating toolbar and choose Task. Pick a List. If that location has Custom Fields, you can set them from the note icon. Required fields show a red badge. Then convert.

Create a task from the tasks menu. Select the Tasks icon on the bottom menu, or use the shortcut T. Open the Tasks tab, choose Create new, pick a List, name the task, and optionally add an assignee. After it is saved in the List, you can place it on the board.

You can also search for an existing task or subtask by name, ID, or URL and drop it on the canvas. Click the title or assignee on that card to edit it. The breadcrumb opens the Space, Folder, Subfolder, or List the task lives in.

A Doc can be created from the same area and then added to the board. Help says Docs are private by default on the Business plan and up, and you can make one public. Writing that belongs in a page, not a sticky, should be a Doc. ClickUp Docs covers pages, wikis, and creating a task from selected text.

How many Whiteboards does each plan include?

ClickUp Help's limits article is specific. Prices below were checked in October 2026 and come from our tool data. Business Plus has no separate price in that data. Enterprise is custom.

Three public boards is enough for a small team that runs one working session at a time and deletes or finishes the rest. Ten is the Unlimited cap. If every client workshop must stay private, that requirement starts on Business, not on Unlimited. The same storage cap still applies on Free Forever: 60MB for the Workspace. A photo-heavy board will hit that before you hit the count of three. Link files instead of pasting large images when you can.

ClickUp templates include Whiteboards. Help also says guests with edit or full edit permission can create, apply, update, and delete Whiteboard templates. Members, admins, and owners have full edit on public boards. They can also be given view only, comment, or edit. View-only guests can open a board that was shared with them and cannot create one.

ClickUp's sharing article says you can share a Whiteboard with someone who does not have a ClickUp account. Share the one board they should see. A public client workshop and your internal pricing sketch should not be the same canvas, and on Free Forever you cannot mark the internal one private.

When should you use a Doc or another tool instead?

Notion Plus is $10 per seat/month. It is the better writing surface. ClickUp is the better fit when the sketch and the task should be the same subscription. ClickUp vs Notion goes through that trade-off. Remote teams that already keep decisions in Docs can treat the Whiteboard as the meeting, then leave the decision in the Doc. That pattern is the one in ClickUp for remote teams.

Skip a Whiteboard for the weekly status. A List filtered to this week is faster. Skip one board per task. Embed a board on the few tasks that are actually workshops, such as a kickoff or a launch map.

Start on Free Forever with one public board, convert the survivors into a List, and stop there until the three-board cap or the privacy limit is the thing blocking you.