Anthropic Opens a Waitlist for Claude Duet, an Always-On Agent for US Pro and Max Subscribers
Duet runs on Opus 5.5 in its own cloud computer, checks your inbox and calendar every few hours, and asks before it sends, pays, signs or deletes anything. Background checks count against your existing plan limits.
TL;DR
Anthropic announced Claude Duet on 21 October 2026 as a research preview with a waitlist, open only to Claude Pro and Max subscribers in the US. Duet is an always-on agent powered by Claude Opus 5.5 that works in its own cloud computer with a browser, connects to more than 6,000 apps such as Gmail, Slack, Google Calendar, Stripe and HubSpot, sends a morning brief and then checks in every few hours. It must ask before sending messages, making payments, signing documents or deleting anything, it cannot trade securities or move money between accounts, and its background work counts against the subscriber's normal usage limits. Team and Enterprise plans are not included.
Anthropic now has its own answer to Meta Muse and OpenAI Dots. Claude Duet is an agent that keeps working when you are not in a chat: it watches the apps you connect, tells you what needs attention, and drafts or does the follow-up work. It is a research preview, so the first question is who can get it.
Who can use it, and what it costs
- Plans: Claude Pro and Max subscribers in the US. Team and Enterprise accounts are not part of the preview.
- Access: a waitlist. Anthropic is letting people in gradually rather than turning it on for every eligible account.
- Price: no separate fee. Duet uses your existing plan limits, and Anthropic says its background checks count toward them, so a busy Duet can eat into the usage you would otherwise spend in chat.
- Model: Claude Opus 5.5.
- Apps: a standalone mobile app plus claude.ai on the web. Anthropic's page and TestingCatalog list iOS and Android; MacRumors mentions only web and iOS, so check the store in your region before assuming Android access.
What a day with Duet looks like
Duet starts the day with a morning brief, then checks your connected apps every few hours. It has its own cloud computer with a browser, so it can open websites and complete multi-step tasks rather than only reading your data. Anthropic says it can reach more than 6,000 connectors, naming Gmail, Slack, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Stripe, QuickBooks, Docusign, HubSpot and Notion among them.
The control boundary
| Action | What Duet does |
|---|---|
| Reading email, calendar, docs and connected apps | Does it on its own schedule |
| Drafting replies, summaries and plans | Does it on its own |
| Sending a message | Asks first |
| Making a payment or purchase | Asks first; purchases go through Stripe Link or Shopify Shop Pay |
| Signing a document | Asks first |
| Deleting anything | Asks first |
| Trading securities or moving money between accounts | Not allowed |
- Passwords: Anthropic says Duet does not see them. 1Password sign-in support is planned but not live.
- Sensitive numbers: a classifier blocks card numbers and government ID numbers from being handled.
- Known limits: Anthropic warns that Duet can misread a thread or misjudge how urgent something is, and you cannot yet watch its browser as it works.
How it compares with OpenAI Dots
The two launches share the same shape: an agent that runs in the background, connects to your accounts and stops for approval on anything that leaves your control. The difference that matters most for buyers today is access. Duet is US-only, Pro and Max only, and behind a waitlist, and it draws from the same usage pool as normal Claude chats. Anthropic's Mike Krieger also posted about the launch on X.
What this means if you want to try it
- Join the waitlist only if you are on Pro or Max in the US. Team and Enterprise admins have nothing to switch on yet.
- Watch your usage in the first week. If you are a heavy Claude user on Pro, background checks may push you into limits sooner than before.
- Start with read-only connectors such as calendar and email before you connect payment or signing tools.
- Treat it as a preview. Anthropic itself says it can misjudge urgency, so keep checking important threads yourself.
Sources
AI Industry Reporter
Priya covers model releases, industry announcements, and the gap between what labs claim and what independent evaluators actually find. She reads the primary source - the paper, the system card, the benchmark org's own statement - before writing a word.
More on AI Chatbots & Assistants
Microsoft Starts Capping Free Copilot Chat for Companies With 2,000+ Seats, and Won't Say Where the Cap Is
Priya Nair · 4 min
Thinking Machines' Inkling 2 Small: Scores 31 on Artificial Analysis, Ships Closed, Promises Apache 2.0 Weights Next Week
Priya Nair · 5 min
Anthropic's Amended IPO Filing: $16.96 Billion in Q3 Revenue, a $567 Million Operating Loss and $5 Billion of Short-Term Compute
Priya Nair · 5 min