On Oct. 21, Anthropic opened an early test version of Claude Duet, a separate app in which its Claude AI works as an AI agent: software that carries out tasks on its own, such as using apps and websites, instead of only answering questions. Duet is built to come to you first, with what needs your attention, rather than wait for you to open a chat. Anthropic says it built the app for professionals and small business owners with more on their plates than they can track. It arrived about three weeks after OpenAI launched dots, which OpenAI describes as always-on agents with their own cloud computer.
Each morning, Duet sends a short brief on the most important items across the apps you have connected, such as email and calendar, then checks them every few hours and messages you only when something needs you. You hand it work by typed or spoken message in one ongoing thread, from scheduling a meeting to building a dashboard, a sales forecast or a web app. It does the work on its own computer in the cloud, with its own web browser, so your phone or laptop does not need to stay on. It brings along the memory, skills and connected apps from your Claude account, and Anthropic says Duet can use more than 6,000 add-ons, for tasks such as finding unpaid invoices in QuickBooks or Stripe and drafting reminders, or preparing and running payroll in Gusto.
Anthropic says the big decisions stay with you. 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 stay off-limits even if you approve them, such as trading stocks and other securities or moving money between accounts. Each purchase is paid with a one-time card that works only for that purchase, through Stripe's Link or Shopify's Shop Pay, and you approve it first. Anthropic says that with Link, your real card number is not shared with Duet or the store. A separate check reads each message Duet drafts and is designed to refuse to share card numbers and government ID numbers, and to let health or money details out only when you have asked it to. Anthropic says the check will sometimes miss something or flag a harmless message. It also says Duet never sees your passwords or the sign-in tokens for your connected apps.
For now, Duet is open only to people in the U.S. on Claude's Pro and Max plans, who join a waitlist and get in as invitations go out in waves. Claude's Team and Enterprise plans are not included yet. It runs as its own app on iPhone and Android and on the web at claude.ai, and it costs nothing extra during the test. It does share each plan's usage limits, the cap on how much you can use Claude in a given stretch of time, with the rest of Claude, and its background checks count too, so people may hit their limits sooner. It runs on Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5 model, and users cannot pick another.
Anthropic says Duet may misread a thread or misjudge what is urgent, can miss something that arrives between its check-ins, is weaker at personal errands such as booking tickets, and cannot yet show you its browser as it works. Emails and web pages Duet reads can hide instructions meant to mislead it, and Anthropic says no defense against that is perfect, which is one reason the big steps wait for you. Anthropic has not said when everyone on the waitlist will get in, or what Duet will cost once the test ends.