Anthropic
Anthropic previews Claude Duet, an agent that works unattended
Claude Duet is a research preview app where Claude brings up what needs attention and finishes tasks, for US Pro and Max subscribers on a waitlist.
Anthropic opened a research preview of Claude Duet, a separate app where Claude acts as a proactive agent that brings up what needs attention, finishes tasks and keeps working after the user steps away. Duet draws on the same usage limits as the rest of Claude.
Anthropic announced the preview Oct. 21, 2026, in Introducing Claude Duet. It is built for professionals and small business owners.
Duet Starts With a Waitlist for US Pro and Max Subscribers
Anthropic is offering the preview by waitlist to US Pro and Max subscribers. Duet runs as an iOS and Android app and on claude.ai. It is designed around Claude Opus 5.5.
Duet sends a short morning brief on the most important items across connected apps. It messages during the day only when something needs attention. Tasks range from scheduling meetings to building dashboards, forecasts and web apps, using any of more than 6,000 connectors and plugins in the Claude Marketplace.
Duet Checks Accounts Every Few Hours From a Virtual Machine
Duet runs on a virtual machine with its own browser. The user’s laptop or phone does not need to be on. It checks connected accounts every few hours, Anthropic said, because checking nonstop would use up plan limits much faster.
Background checks count toward those limits. Larger tasks such as a financial model or a deck need more model turns and background work. Users can tell Duet what they want to hear about and how often.
Payments, Messages and Signatures Wait for Approval
Duet shows exactly what it will do and waits for approval before it sends a message, makes a payment, signs a document or deletes anything. Trading securities and moving money between accounts stay off-limits even with approval.
Anthropic’s safety page, dated Oct. 23, says a separate automated check runs outside the model doing the work. A dedicated classifier reviews each outgoing message and rejects sharing sign-in credentials, full card and bank account numbers and government ID numbers, even if the user asks. Anthropic said the safeguards will occasionally miss something or flag a harmless message.
Anthropic’s safety page says Duet never sees passwords, cookies or sign-in tokens. It says purchases use a one-time virtual card from Stripe’s Link wallet, limited to that merchant and amount.
Some Large Websites Chose to Block Duet
Duet’s browser sends a distinct User-Agent header, and Anthropic publishes the IP addresses it browses from. Before launch Anthropic gave several large websites the option to block Duet. Some chose to.
Anthropic said Duet “still might misread a thread or miscalibrate what’s urgent.” Personal errands such as booking tickets are weaker because the app is built around work.
Our View
Duet draws on the same allowance as the rest of Claude. Its background checks count toward that allowance. An agent that checks accounts on a schedule therefore spends part of it even on a day the subscriber sends it nothing. A Pro or Max subscriber who adds Duet asks the same allowance to cover more activity.
We think small business owners will feel it first. Anthropic said larger tasks such as a financial model or a deck need more model turns and background work. An owner who hands Duet several of them may reach the limit sooner in chat. Anthropic said users can tell Duet what to report and how often. The benefit holds only if Duet’s work leaves enough of the plan for chat and the rest of Claude.