A guide for businesses

Claude Cowork for business: what to hand it, and how to keep it in check

Claude Cowork is Claude's agent mode for office work: you describe a result, Claude plans, works on your files and connected tools, then delivers a document, a spreadsheet or a presentation. Included in paid plans, including Team and Enterprise. In a company, three decisions matter: what it reads, what it does, who approves.

Book 20 minutes with us See the rollout rules

In brief

Who it's for
executives, managers and IT leaders.
Available on
paid Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans.
Sources
Anthropic's help center and pricing page, read on October 11, 2026.

01Definition

What Claude Cowork does, and what it doesn't

Claude Cowork reuses the agentic architecture of Claude Code, without the terminal: Claude carries a multi-step task through to the deliverable.

It plans

It breaks the request into subtasks and shows its plan. You can take back control at any time.

It works on your files

It reads and writes in connected folders: spreadsheets with formulas, presentations, documents.

It comes back on its own

A scheduled task runs in the cloud, even with your computer off. Useful for a report, risky for sending anything.

What it doesn't do: decide for you. It can make mistakes, and booby-trapped content (prompt injection) can hijack its actions, a risk that is "not zero" according to Anthropic.

02Comparison

Claude Cowork, Claude Code, Claude chat: what's the difference?

Same models, three uses: an answer, a finished deliverable or a code change.

CriterionClaude chatClaude CoworkClaude Code
Who it's foreveryonebusiness teamsdevelopers
You ask foran answer, a drafta finished resulta code change
Whereweb, desktop, mobileClaude Desktop, web, mobileterminal, code editor
Autonomyone exchange at a timeplan, subtasks, scheduled taskscommands in the repository
Controlreviewing the answerapproval modes, deletion always confirmedapproval, code review

Checked October 11, 2026 on Anthropic's help center. Chat and Cowork have been merged on Pro and Max since September 16, 2026, not yet on Team and Enterprise.

Your teams write code? See Claude Code for developers. Versus the agents in ChatGPT and Copilot: our Claude, ChatGPT and Copilot comparison.

03Uses

What to hand to Claude Cowork? Six tasks, department by department

Hand Cowork the repetitive, multi-step tasks whose output is quick to review. Keep what commits the company: sending, paying, deciding.

Examples of tasks we work on with you. These are not client cases.

Leadership

the Monday report, flagged variances, committee slides. You approve.

Sales

meeting brief and proposal from your templates. Sending stays with you.

Finance

reconcile two exports, list the anomalies. A human checks.

HR

update the onboarding handbook and job descriptions. The team reviews.

Customer service

sort requests, draft replies. Nothing goes out without review.

Legal and purchasing

compare two versions of a contract. The analysis stays with the lawyer.

04Connectors and plugins

Connectors and plugins: what to connect

Connectors link Cowork to your tools (email, documents, CRM); plugins bundle Skills, connectors and subagents by job function. They determine what Claude can read and do.

  • Connectors: the admin enables them for the whole organization, each user links their own account. No per-group settings.
  • Read or write: tools that act (send, create, delete) carry the risk. Start read-only.
  • Plugins: on Team and Enterprise, an internal catalog makes them installed by default, optional, required or hidden.

Our rule: a connector is only opened if a written task needs it.

05Pricing and plans

Claude Cowork: free or paid? Pricing and plans

It's not free. Claude Cowork is included in Anthropic's paid plans (Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise), not in the free plan.

  • Pro: $17 per month billed annually, $20 billed monthly.
  • Team, from 2 to 150 people: $20 per seat per month billed annually, $25 billed monthly; Premium $100.
  • Enterprise: $20 per seat per month, plus usage at API rates.

A Cowork task uses more quota than a question. Prices excl. tax, taken from Anthropic's pricing page on October 11, 2026. Next step: choose between Claude Team and Enterprise.

06Before you turn it on

Rolling out Claude Cowork in a company: four rules first

Cowork is enabled by default on Team and Enterprise. Before opening it to everyone, write four rules into your AI usage policy.

Who has access

The owner can switch it off. On Enterprise, roles open it team by team: start with a pilot group.

What it can read

A dedicated working folder, no sensitive financial or personal documents, trusted websites.

What it does on its own

Manual approval for anything that sends, buys or modifies. The admin can remove the automatic mode.

What you keep

Activity flows to your security tools (OpenTelemetry); Enterprise retrieves sessions through the Compliance API.

This content does not constitute legal advice.

Opening Cowork to your teams? We set these rules with you.

Book 20 minutes

07Training

Training your teams on Claude Cowork

Cowork calls for a different habit from chat: describe a result, provide the right folder, review the deliverable.

Our Claude Cowork training is module 4 of the Claude training: each person hands Cowork a task from their week and writes the rule that governs it. [fixed duration to be confirmed with Morgan: hours and days], in-house or multi-company.

Train your teams on Cowork

Cowork changes fast: this page is reviewed every month.

Written by Rémi Carbonnefounder and CTO of Kailli

Frequently asked questions about Claude Cowork for business.

What is the difference between Claude Code and Claude Cowork?

Claude Code works on a code repository, from the terminal or the editor. Claude Cowork applies the same architecture to office work: documents, spreadsheets, presentations.

What can you do with Claude Cowork?

Hand off a multi-step task and get a deliverable back: a report, a spreadsheet, a presentation, sorted files. A task can recur every week.

Is Claude Cowork free?

No. It is limited to paid plans: Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise. As of October 11, 2026, Team costs $20 excl. tax per seat per month billed annually.

Which connectors should you use with Claude Cowork?

The ones your teams already work in: Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, Slack, your CRM. Start with one or two, read-only.

Is Claude Cowork suitable for sensitive data?

With caution. Anthropic advises against giving it access to sensitive files; in a cloud session, the files it reads are processed on Anthropic's servers. On Team and Enterprise, your content is not used to train the models by default.

How do you train a team on Claude Cowork?

On its real tasks: each person hands Cowork a repetitive job, reviews the result and writes the rule. This is module 4 of our Claude training.

Twenty minutes. And you'll know whether we can help.

No sales pitch. You tell us where you stand with AI, we tell you how far you can go.

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