What Is Claude Duet? Anthropic's Proactive Agent for Business
Claude Duet is Anthropic's proactive agent for professionals and small business owners. What it does, who can use it, what it costs and where its limits are.
Claude Duet is a separate Claude app in which Claude works as a proactive agent: it comes to you with what needs your attention, completes tasks you hand it, keeps working when you step away, and asks before it acts on your behalf. Anthropic opened it as a research preview on 21 October 2026 and says it built Duet "for professionals and small business owners with more on their plates than they can track" (announcement).
The difference from a normal chat is who starts the conversation. In a chat, you ask and Claude answers. In Duet, Claude checks your connected apps, decides what matters, and messages you first.
How Claude Duet works
Duet runs on its own computer in the cloud, checks your connected accounts every few hours, and sends you a short morning brief on the most important items. Because it has its own virtual machine and browser, it doesn't need your laptop or phone to be on.
• One ongoing thread. You message it by typing or voice, and a quick reply and a week-long project start in the same place. You can open separate channels for different topics; they share memory.
• Your existing Claude setup. It carries over the memory, skills and connected apps from your Claude account.
• Connectors. It can use the connectors you've set up, such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Slack, QuickBooks, HubSpot, Docusign and Calendly, and its own cloud browser for sites without one.
• Finished work as files. Bigger results, such as a research brief, financial model, deck or dashboard, come back as files you can review.
Anthropic's getting-started guide lists the current connectors and limits.
What Claude Duet asks before doing
Duet reads, drafts and prepares work on its own, but before it sends a message, makes a payment, signs a document or deletes anything, it shows you exactly what it's about to do and waits for your approval. Some actions are off-limits even with approval, such as trading securities or moving money between accounts.
Anthropic also describes a classifier that rejects requests to share the most sensitive information, such as credit card numbers and government identification, and only lets other sensitive details such as health or personal finances through when you've explicitly told it to. Its safety, privacy and security page covers this in more depth. When Duet gives you a number or summary, it tells you which email, file or spreadsheet it came from, which makes checking easier.
Who can use Claude Duet, and what it costs
During the research preview, Duet is available by waitlist to Pro, Max and Ultra subscribers in the US only, and it isn't yet on Team or Enterprise plans. It's included in those plans at no extra cost, but it shares your plan's usage limits, and its background checks and morning brief count towards them.
For Singapore businesses, that means Duet isn't available here yet. It's still worth understanding now: the approval model and the connector-based way of working are where business AI tools are heading, and the same habits apply to the tools you can use today.
Current limits to know about
Anthropic is open that this is an early version: it may misread a thread or misjudge what's urgent, and something urgent can arrive between its checks. Other limits listed in the help centre during the preview:
• You can't choose the model. Duet runs on Claude Opus 5.5 and decides how much effort a job needs.
• You can't watch or take over its browser.
• It can't see files on your computer, and it can read your work in Claude but not change it.
• It doesn't make phone calls or send text messages to other people. With approval, it can send email from accounts you've connected.
• Some connectors, such as Slack, work with limits, and Microsoft 365 isn't available yet.
Our view for small businesses
Duet is aimed squarely at the owner who is the bottleneck: the one who has to notice the overdue invoice, prepare for the 2pm meeting and reply to the email that's been sitting for three days. The judgement it's designed around (what needs you, what can wait) is the hard part of that job.
The safe way to use any agent like this is the same: connect only what it needs, keep the approval step for anything that leaves your business, and check numbers against their sources. If you want to set up repeatable work on your own machine today, our Get Seen, Get Sales, Get Paid guide shows how we do it with Claude Code.
Come and talk it through in person. Our year-end OTG Christmas Gathering is on Monday 28 December in Singapore: an evening of networking, dinner and a gift exchange with the people we've worked, learnt and built with this year. Bring the one job you'd most like to hand to an agent, and we'll talk through which tool fits. Register on Luma.
Related guides in this series
This is the first guide in our series on proactive AI agents for business. Facts are checked against each company's own announcement and help pages as of 3 November 2026; these products are changing quickly.
• 10 ways a small business could use Claude Duet: morning briefs, invoice reminders, meeting prep and more, with the approvals that stay with you.
• Claude Duet vs Claude Code vs Claude chat: which Claude to use for which kind of business work.
• Personal AI agents compared: Claude Duet, ChatGPT Dots, Meta Muse and Gemini Spark side by side.
• Personal AI agents in Singapore: what's available here now, and a safe way for a small business to start.
Frequently asked questions
What is Claude Duet?
Claude Duet is Anthropic's proactive AI agent, released as a research preview in October 2026. It runs in its own app and its own cloud computer, checks your connected apps every few hours, sends a morning brief, completes tasks in the background, and asks for approval before sending, paying, signing or deleting anything.
Is Claude Duet available in Singapore?
Not yet. During the research preview, Claude Duet is available by waitlist to Pro, Max and Ultra subscribers in the US only. Team and Enterprise plans aren't included yet. Anthropic hasn't announced dates for other countries, so check its help centre for updates before planning around it.
How much does Claude Duet cost?
During the research preview, Claude Duet is included with Claude Pro, Max and Ultra plans at no extra cost. It shares your plan's usage limits, and its background work, such as the morning brief and regular check-ins, counts towards them, so heavy use can reach your limits sooner than chat alone.
Can Claude Duet send emails or make payments on its own?
No. Claude Duet drafts and prepares work by itself, but it shows you exactly what it's about to do and waits for approval before it sends a message, makes a payment, signs a document or deletes anything. Some actions, such as trading securities or moving money between accounts, are blocked even with approval.
