Claude Duet

Status: Research preview, waitlist only, opened October 21, 2026. US Pro and Max accounts.

Claude that keeps going after you close the app

The defining feature of Claude Duet is not that it is autonomous. Plenty of tools can run a multi-step task. What is different is where it runs. Duet works on its own virtual machine in Anthropic’s cloud, with its own browser, so it can continue a task, check your inbox at its next scheduled interval, or finish a document while your laptop is shut and your phone is in a drawer.

That makes it a different product from the regular Claude app. In a normal Claude chat, you start the work and you wait for it. Duet is built to start some of the work itself: a short morning brief, periodic checks of the accounts you connect, and a message only when something needs you. Anthropic describes the target user as professionals and small business owners with more going on than they can track.

Duet lives in its own app on iPhone and Android and on claude.ai in a browser. There is no Mac app. It runs on Claude Opus 5.5, and you cannot pick a different model; Duet decides how much effort a job needs.

What carries over from your Claude account

Duet starts with the memory, skills, and connectors you already set up in Claude. If you have built agent skills or connected Google Drive in the main app, Duet can use them from its first message. It can also search your past Claude chats outside projects, which you can turn off with the “Search and reference chats” setting.

Anthropic says Duet has access to more than 6,000 connectors and plugins in the Claude Marketplace. The help center names Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Slack, QuickBooks, HubSpot, Docusign, and Calendly as working connections. Slack support is limited and Microsoft 365 is not available yet. For sites without a connector, Duet uses its cloud browser.

One detail is easy to miss: if you disconnect an app, Duet stops accessing it, but it keeps what it already read in memory. That is the same pattern we describe in Disconnecting AI Does Not Delete Data.

Checks happen on a schedule, not continuously

Duet checks your connected accounts every few hours, and you can tune what it reports and how often. It does not watch your inbox in real time. Anthropic is explicit that something urgent can arrive between checks, so Duet is a poor fit for time-critical alerts. Think of it as an assistant who looks in several times a day rather than one who sits next to your phone.

Work shows up in a single ongoing thread, a Tasks tab for things in progress or waiting on you, and a Make tab for finished files. Only you can mark a task complete.

Approvals, payments, and the hard limits

Duet reads and drafts on its own. Before it sends a message, makes a payment, signs a document, or deletes anything, it shows you the action and waits. If you are not around to approve, it moves on to other work and brings the request back later. Anthropic also screens actions with its auto mode classifier. This is a straightforward authorization gate, and it is the main reason Duet is usable for real accounts at all.

Purchases go through Link (Stripe’s wallet) or Shop Pay (Shopify’s wallet), set up inside Duet. Each purchase uses a one-time card, and Duet sees only the card type and last four digits. Link needs a US payment method and does not support recurring payments.

Some actions are refused even when you approve them: trading securities, moving money between accounts, and accessing someone else’s account. Anthropic draws that line outside your settings, which is the right place for an action boundary on high-risk operations.

Credentials and sensitive data

When a website asks for a password, you type it into a separate form on your own device, which sends it straight to Duet’s browser. Anthropic says Duet never directly sees passwords or sign-in tokens. Sign-in through 1Password for Agents is announced but not yet available.

A dedicated classifier blocks requests to share the most sensitive category of information, such as credit card numbers and government ID. Health and personal finance details are shared only when you explicitly instruct it. Duet is designed to treat email and web content as information rather than instructions, but Anthropic’s own help page acknowledges that prompt injection remains a risk with no perfect defense. Duet is covered by Anthropic’s public bug bounty, and Anthropic says red teams and an outside firm tested it before launch.

Usage limits: the real cost

There is no separate charge during the preview, but Duet is not free to run. It uses your plan’s five-hour and weekly limits at the same rate as chat, and background work counts. A morning brief plus checks every few hours adds up, and bigger jobs like a financial model or a slide deck use many more model turns. If you rely on Claude for other work during the day, watch how much Duet consumes in its first week. Anthropic grants one full limit reset when you are admitted, usable until November 30, 2026.

Known gaps in the preview

You cannot watch or take over Duet’s browser, choose the model, or give it access to files on your computer or all of your projects. It can read work in Claude but not change it. It does not make phone calls or send texts to other people, though it can send emails from connected accounts with approval. Anthropic also says personal errands like booking tickets are weaker than inbox and document work, and that it may misread a thread or misjudge what is urgent.

Alternatives

• OpenAI Dots, always-on agents inside ChatGPT with a watchable cloud computer
• Meta Muse, Meta’s personal agent with a free tier and a separate security agent
• OpenClaw, an open-source agent you host yourself
• Claude Code, if the work you want delegated is software rather than inbox and admin
• Hermes Agent, an open-source personal agent focused on long-term memory

Related reading: proactive agents, persistent agent state, scheduled AI tasks, AI data retention, and How to Use AI as a Personal Assistant.

Compare: OpenAI Dots vs Claude Duet, Claude Duet vs Meta Muse, and the three-way Dots vs Duet vs Muse guide.