Claude Duet is a separate app from Anthropic in which Claude works as a proactive agent: it regularly checks your connected accounts such as email, calendar or Slack, sends you a short brief in the morning and does tasks on its own computer in the cloud, even when your phone is off. As of October 26, 2026, Duet has been available since October 21, 2026 as a research preview, only by waitlist and only for Pro and Max subscribers in the US. Team and Enterprise are not included yet, and outside the US, including in Germany where I work, you cannot use Duet at the moment. According to Anthropic, Duet runs on Opus 5.5 and costs nothing extra during the preview, but it draws on your normal plan limits.
I have not tested Duet, because it is not available here. Everything in this article comes from Anthropic's own pages; the comparison with OpenAI comes from press reports, marked as such.
What Claude Duet is
The difference from the normal Claude app is who makes the first move. Anthropic puts it like this: the Claude app waits for you to open a chat, and you work on something alongside Claude. Duet, by contrast, reaches out on its own. You message it like a colleague, by text or voice, and hand work over instead of doing it with Claude in the chat.
Technically, Duet has its own virtual machine with its own browser. That is why it keeps working after you close the app. You cannot choose a model; according to the help center, Duet decides itself how much effort a job needs.
What Duet does for you
According to Anthropic, a day with Duet looks roughly like this:
- A morning brief: Duet looks across your email and calendar and picks what most needs your attention.
- Through the day: it checks your connected accounts every few hours, only messages you when something needs you, and follows up on threads that have gone quiet.
- On request: you send a message and Duet sets up a meeting, builds a dashboard or a short deck, and lets you know when it is done.
Anthropic's examples include finding missed messages in Gmail and Slack and helping you reply, and checking QuickBooks or Stripe for unpaid invoices and drafting reminders. The help center lists Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Slack, QuickBooks, HubSpot, Docusign and Calendly as connections. According to the help center, some connectors, such as Slack, work with limits in Duet. Microsoft 365 is not available yet, which would matter for many small businesses in Germany.
Where Duet asks and what it may not do
Before Duet sends a message, makes a payment, signs a document or deletes anything, it shows you exactly what it is about to do and waits for your approval. Some things are off-limits even with approval, such as trading securities or moving money between accounts. According to Anthropic, Duet never directly sees your passwords or sign-in tokens.
Anthropic names the limits itself: Duet can misread a thread or misjudge what is urgent, and it can miss something that arrives between two check-ins. Personal errands such as booking tickets are not as strong yet. You cannot watch Duet work in its browser or take over, and it does not call anyone or send text messages to other people.
Is Claude Duet available outside the US?
No, not as of October 26, 2026. Anthropic's product page explicitly says “Available in Pro and Max plans in the US”. I did not find a date for other countries or for Team and Enterprise in Anthropic's sources; the help center only says that Team and Enterprise are planned for later. If you have a Pro or Max plan in the US, you join the waitlist on the product page with your name, email, plan and phone type (iPhone or Android). According to Anthropic, invitations go out in waves by email.
On cost: during the preview, Duet is included in Pro and Max at no extra charge. It does use the same five-hour and weekly limits as the rest of Claude, and the background checks count toward them. If you are admitted to the preview, the help center says you get one full reset of your five-hour and weekly limits, usable until November 30, 2026. How those limits work is covered in Claude Pro or Max: Limits Explained.
Duet and OpenAI Dots
Just over three weeks earlier, OpenAI introduced something similar called “Dots”. For that I rely on press reports, not on OpenAI's own pages. According to TechCrunch (secondary source), Dots launched on September 29, 2026 for ChatGPT Pro and Business Premium customers, described as always-on agents that pursue goals in the background. According to 9to5Google (secondary source), each Dot has its own cloud computer that you can watch while it works; that is exactly what Duet, according to Anthropic, cannot do yet. Whether and when Dots is available in the EU is not covered by the press reports.
The basic idea is the same for both: an agent that does not wait but reaches out, with its own computer in the cloud.
What this means for AI employees
For me, Duet is above all a confirmation of the principle my team works by: the AI prepares, I approve before anything leaves the house. In my setup, Sonja puts reply drafts into the mailbox; nothing is sent until I approve it. How that is set up is described in Set Up a Claude MCP Server. Duet builds the same approval step right into the product.
The difference: Duet is a single generalist for your personal inbox and calendar. A team of AI employees consists of roles with their own rules, their own knowledge and clearly separated access. Until Duet is available to you, I recommend rebuilding the idea on a small scale with tools you can use today: tasks you hand to Cowork, described in Claude Cowork: What It Does, Who It's For, or an inbox agent as in AI Email Triage: Agent or Tool?. How Duet fits into Anthropic's other agent offerings, from the Agent SDK to Managed Agents, is covered in Claude Agents: SDK, Managed Agents, Duet.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Claude Duet cost?
Nothing extra during the research preview. Duet is included in Pro and Max but draws on your normal limits, including through its background checks. What Pro and Max cost is covered in Claude Pricing and Plans Explained.
How do I join the Claude Duet waitlist?
Through “Join the waitlist” on Anthropic's Duet product page. You need a Pro or Max plan in the US. From outside the US you cannot get in at the moment.
Which model does Claude Duet use?
According to Anthropic, Opus 5.5. You cannot choose the model in Duet.
Is Claude Duet the same as Cowork?
No. With Cowork you hand over a task in the normal Claude app when you start it. Duet is a separate app that checks in regularly on its own and reaches out to you, and it works on its own computer in the cloud.
Where to go from here
If you want to know how far you can get today without Duet: start with a single AI employee for your inbox that prepares drafts and sends nothing on its own. How other business owners build that is what we discuss in my German-speaking community Claude Practitioners.
