Anthropic opened a waitlist for Claude Duet on 21 October 2026, a research preview of Claude working as a proactive agent. It is limited to Pro and Max subscribers with a US account, on iOS, Android and claude.ai. Duet costs nothing extra but draws on those plans’ existing usage limits.
What Claude Duet Does
Duet watches your connected accounts and messages you first, rather than waiting to be asked. Anthropic, the San Francisco company behind the Claude models, describes it as “a new app where Claude works as a proactive agent” aimed at professionals and small business owners.
In practice it runs on two rhythms. Each morning it sends a short brief on the items it judges most important across the apps you have connected, and during the day it checks those accounts at set intervals — every few hours — and messages you only when it decides something needs you.
You can also hand it work directly, by typing or by voice, in one continuing thread: Anthropic lists scheduling, dashboards, financial and sales forecasts, prototypes and web apps as examples. The work runs on a virtual machine with its own browser, so it continues after you close the app and does not need your laptop or phone to be switched on.
Who Can Get Claude Duet, and Who Cannot
Access is by waitlist only, and the preview is narrower than Claude itself.
| Condition | Status during the research preview |
|---|---|
| Pro and Max plans, US Claude account | Eligible; invitations go out in waves |
| Team and Enterprise plans | Not available yet |
| Platforms | Standalone iOS and Android apps, plus claude.ai |
| Model choice | None — Duet runs on Claude Opus 5.5 |
| Extra subscription cost | None; included in Pro and Max |
Anthropic’s setup guide adds a practical catch for anyone joining: the email on your waitlist entry has to match your Claude account or the Apple or Google account on your phone, or the invitation will not line up.
What It Costs and How It Spends Your Usage Limits
There is no separate price, but Duet is not free of consequence. It draws on the same five-hour and weekly usage limits as the rest of your plan, and the work it does unprompted is included. “Work it does in the background, like the morning brief and check-ins, also counts,” Anthropic’s own setup guide states.
That is the detail most worth understanding before you join. An agent that checks your accounts every few hours is consuming your quota while you are not using it, which is why Anthropic spaces the check-ins out rather than running them continuously. Larger jobs — a financial model, a deck — take more model turns than a chat reply.
Anthropic offsets this once. Everyone admitted to the preview gets a single usage-limit reset, covering both the five-hour and the weekly limit, available until 30 November 2026. After that, a heavy Duet user on Pro shares one pool with their ordinary Claude chats.
What Duet Asks Before Acting, and What It Will Not Do at All
Duet drafts and prepares freely but stops before anything irreversible. It is designed to show you what it intends to do and wait for approval before it:
- Sends a message: Including email from a connected account.
- Makes a payment: Each purchase runs through a one-time card rather than your real card number.
- Signs a document: Through a connected signing service such as Docusign.
- Deletes anything: In any connected app.
A second list is closed even if you approve it. Anthropic says trading securities, moving money between accounts and accessing someone else’s account are off-limits outright. Duet also does not place phone calls or send text messages to other people, cannot see the files on your computer, and can read but not alter your existing work in Claude.
On credentials, Anthropic says Duet never directly sees your passwords or sign-in tokens; passwords are entered in a separate form rather than in the chat. A dedicated classifier blocks it from sharing the most sensitive categories, such as credit card numbers and government identification, and health or personal finance details are shared only on an explicit instruction. The company says the system went through red teaming, an external penetration test and a public bug bounty. The caution has a context: lenders and banks have spent this year blocking agents from account access altogether.
Which Apps It Connects To
Duet inherits the connectors already set up on your Claude account and can reach over 6,000 connectors and plugins in the Claude Marketplace, by Anthropic’s count. The integrations Anthropic actually names are a far smaller set, and all of them are business tools: Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Slack, QuickBooks, HubSpot, Docusign, Calendly, Stripe, Gusto, LinkedIn, Canva and Shopify. The technology site TECHi counted 13 named in the announcement and noted that no consumer apps appear among them.
Two gaps are stated plainly in the documentation. Slack works “with limits”, and Microsoft 365 is not available yet — a notable absence for anyone whose working day runs through Outlook and Teams rather than Gmail. Purchases go through Link, Stripe’s digital wallet, or Shopify’s Shop Pay; 1Password sign-in support is listed as coming. Any app can be disconnected at any time. Anthropic has shipped narrow previews like this before, including the Claude for Google Workspace beta and its six-minute cap.
What Anthropic Says It Cannot Do Yet
Anthropic published the preview’s weak points alongside it. The company says Duet may misread a thread or misjudge how urgent something is, that personal errands such as booking tickets are weaker than work tasks, and that you cannot yet watch or take over its browser while it works. It currently lives in its own app, separate from the main Claude app.
As of 23 October 2026, Duet remains a waitlisted research preview for US Pro and Max accounts, and Anthropic has not announced a general availability date, pricing after the preview, or expansion to other countries or to Team and Enterprise plans. Anthropic said it will keep tuning the product on early users’ feedback.
The launch lands in a crowded field. Engadget and VentureBeat both framed Duet as Anthropic’s answer to Meta’s Muse and OpenAI’s Dots, the two other always-on agents released earlier this year; Meta’s entry drew its own questions about what an agent can access and how to revoke it. Direct comparisons of the three are so far drawn by trade publications rather than by the companies, and the prices and capability claims in those comparisons are not confirmed by Anthropic, OpenAI or Meta.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Claude Duet Free?
It carries no separate charge during the research preview and is included in Pro and Max. It does consume your plan’s usage limits, so it is not free of cost in that sense.
Can I Use Claude Duet Outside the United States?
Not during this preview. Anthropic restricts it to Pro and Max users with a US Claude account and has not said when other countries will follow.
Does Claude Duet Work When My Phone Is Off?
Yes. It runs on a virtual machine with its own browser in the cloud, so tasks continue after you close the app or switch your devices off.
Which Model Does Claude Duet Use?
Claude Opus 5.5. You cannot select a different model, and Anthropic says Duet decides for itself how much effort a job needs.
Can Claude Duet Spend My Money?
Only with your approval on each purchase, and through a one-time card rather than your real card number. Trading securities and moving money between your accounts are blocked outright, even if you approve them.
Is Claude Duet Available on Team or Enterprise Plans?
No. Anthropic’s documentation says it is not available on Team or Enterprise plans yet and gives no date for adding them.
