Definition
Claude Duet is a proactive agent app from Anthropic: per the official announcement, it comes to you with what needs your attention, completes tasks you ask of it, and keeps working even when you step away. Anthropic announced the product as a research preview on October 21, 2026 (see the official announcement).
How it works
Per the announcement, Duet is built around Claude Opus 5.5 and sends a short morning brief on the most important items across your connected apps; it runs on a virtual machine with its own browser, keeps working while your device is off, and notifies you when tasks finish or need review. You message it by text or voice in one ongoing thread; it carries over the memory, skills and connected apps of your Claude account and connects to more than 6,000 marketplace plugins. Sensitive actions — sending messages, payments, deletions — require approval, and credentials use the Managed Agents design so the app never directly sees your passwords.
Usage
The announcement targets professionals and small business owners who need ongoing work handled, with examples from scheduling to building dashboards, forecasts and web apps. Per the October 21, 2026 announcement, the research preview started with Pro and Max users in the US, through standalone iOS and Android apps plus claude.ai, with a waitlist at claude.com/product/claude-duet. Availability and plan requirements follow the live official pages.
Related and confusable terms
Duet differs from its Anthropic siblings Claude, Claude Code and Claude Cowork: Claude is the model and assistant family, Claude Code targets software engineering, Cowork handles folder- and file-based office work (merged into Claude since September 2026), while Duet’s differentiator is proactivity — acting across connected apps, sending reminders and continuing work while you are away.
Discussed on Next Token
In episode 007, in the chapter “Duet 与模型公司的产品选择” (Chinese transcript), 歸藏 noted “Anthropic 出了自己的 Personal Agent” and 杨攀 named it: “Duet，Duet” (episode 007 transcript, Chinese transcript); 歸藏 went on to call its interface “很明显是一个 Demo” and judged that model companies ship such apps and “出一个慢慢优化”. These are the participants’ observations and guesses about the product, not Anthropic’s official position (full chapter).
Frequently asked questions
How do I get Claude Duet?
Per the October 21, 2026 announcement, the research preview started with Pro and Max users in the US; you can join the waitlist at claude.com/product/claude-duet, and availability in other regions follows the official pages.
Which plan includes Duet?
The official announcement states the research preview is included in Pro and Max plans, sharing normal usage limits; plan and quota changes follow the official announcement and plan pages. (Editorial note: this answer summarizes the official announcement.)
How does Duet differ from a Claude chat window?
A chat window waits for your question; per the official description, Duet proactively surfaces what needs attention, completes tasks, and continues working in its cloud virtual machine while you are away (see the official announcement).