What Is Claude Duet? Anthropic's AI Agent in Plain English

Claude Duet is Anthropic’s new proactive AI agent. It opened as a research preview on October 21, 2026. This guide explains what it is, how it works and who it’s for, in plain English. If you just want to know whether you can get it, jump to how to get Claude Duet.

What is Claude Duet?

Claude Duet is a separate app where Claude acts as a proactive agent. That means it doesn’t wait for you to ask. It looks at the apps you connect, brings you what needs your attention, and offers to do the work.

Anthropic describes four things it does:

• Brings you what matters. It sends a short morning brief and flags things during the day.
• Does tasks you give it. These range from scheduling a meeting to building a dashboard or forecast.
• Keeps working when you step away. It runs on its own cloud computer, so your phone or laptop can be off.
• Checks with you first. It asks before it sends messages, pays, signs documents or deletes anything.

How does Claude Duet work?

Claude Duet connects to the apps you already use, then watches them for you. A connector is simply a link between Duet and another app, like Gmail, Google Calendar, Slack or QuickBooks. Anthropic says Duet can use more than 6,000 connectors and plugins.

Here’s a typical day:

1. Morning brief. Duet sends a short list of the most important items across your apps.
2. Check-ins. It checks your connected accounts every few hours. It only messages you when something needs you.
3. Tasks. You ask for something by typing or by voice. Duet works on it in the background and tells you when it’s done or needs a review.
4. Approvals. Before any sensitive step, it shows you what it plans to do and waits for your OK.

Everything happens in one ongoing message thread. Bigger jobs come back as files you can edit. See the full list in our guide to Claude Duet features.

Who is Claude Duet for?

Claude Duet is built for professionals and small business owners who have more to track than they can keep up with. Think invoices, payroll, client emails, calendars and contracts.

Anthropic is open that personal errands, like booking tickets, aren’t as strong yet. If you run a business, our guide to Claude Duet for small business shows real examples.

Is Claude Duet the same as Claude?

No. Claude Duet is a separate app, but it runs on your Claude account. Your Claude memory, skills and connected apps carry over to Duet. It can also search your past Claude chats.

The main Claude app is where you chat and ask questions. Duet is where Claude works for you in the background. Anthropic says what it learns from Duet will shape how the two apps work together. To see how Duet fits with Anthropic’s other tools, read Claude Duet vs Cowork.

What model does Claude Duet use?

Claude Duet runs on Claude Opus 5.5. You can’t choose a different model. Duet decides how much effort each job needs on its own.

How to get Claude Duet

Right now, you need a Claude Pro or Max plan, a US account and a waitlist invite. Invites go out in waves. Our guide on how to get Claude Duet walks through every step, and our Claude Duet pricing guide explains what it costs.

Join the waitlist on Anthropic's Claude Duet pageOfficial page · claude.com