Introducing Cowork: Claude Code for the rest of your work.

Claude Cowork is an agentic AI assistant that brings Claude's capabilities to your desktop for knowledge work. Unlike traditional chat, Cowork can take on complex, multi-step tasks and execute them autonomously—organizing files, creating documents, synthesizing research, and more. You describe the outcome, step away, and come back to finished work.

Cowork is available for Pro ($20/mo), Max, Team, and Enterprise plan subscribers using the Claude Desktop app on macOS or Windows. Simply open Claude Desktop, look for the mode selector, and click the 'Cowork' tab to switch to Tasks mode. Pro users may hit usage limits earlier than Max users.

Yes! Claude Cowork launched on Windows on February 10, 2026, with full feature parity with macOS. You can download the Claude Desktop app for Windows and switch to Cowork mode to get started. All features—including plugins, file access, MCP connectors, and multi-step task execution—are available on both platforms.

Cowork is available for Pro ($20/mo), Max ($100-$200/mo), Team ($30/user/mo), and Enterprise subscribers. Pro users get access to the same features but may hit usage limits earlier. Working on tasks with Cowork consumes more usage allocation than standard chat, as complex multi-step tasks require more compute resources. You can monitor your usage in Settings > Usage.

Open Claude Desktop, switch to Cowork mode, and describe what you want to accomplish. Claude will analyze your request, create a plan, and break complex work into subtasks. You can monitor progress, provide direction mid-task, or let Claude run independently. The app must remain open while Claude is working.

Yes. Cowork runs in an isolated virtual machine (VM) on your computer with controlled file and network access. Your documents and data stay local—they never leave your machine for training or cloud storage. You control which files Claude can access and can review planned actions before proceeding.

Claude Code is a CLI-based tool designed primarily for developers, running in your terminal with full coding capabilities. Cowork brings the same agentic architecture to a graphical interface for non-technical users. Think of Cowork as 'Claude Code for the rest of your work'—same autonomous power, but accessible without command-line knowledge.

In regular Claude Desktop chat, you upload files and interact one message at a time. Cowork can directly read and write to your local folders with much more autonomy—it creates plans, executes multi-step tasks in parallel, and works independently while you step away. It's designed for complex, long-running work rather than quick Q&A.

Yes. Working on tasks with Cowork consumes more of your usage allocation because complex, multi-step tasks are compute-intensive and require more tokens to execute. Consider batching related work into single sessions and using standard chat for simpler tasks that don't require extended execution.

Claude always shows you its planned actions before executing them, especially for potentially destructive operations. You can review and approve file changes before they happen. We strongly recommend keeping backups of important files and starting with less critical folders while you learn how Cowork operates.

Cowork works primarily with local files on your computer. For cloud services, you can use Drive for Desktop to sync Google Drive locally, or use MCP connectors for services like Notion. Browser integration with Claude in Chrome can also help with web-based tasks. Direct cloud API integrations are on our roadmap.