2 Min. Lesezeit
Product overview
2 Min. LesezeitNoch 26 Min.
Claude Cowork is the place where work gets done. It meets your work where it already lives: local files and folders, connected cloud apps like Slack and Google Drive, and the browser via Claude in Chrome. Claude can also work across Excel, PowerPoint, and Word, carrying context from one to the other so an analysis and the deck that presents it happen in a single session.
Key capabilities
- Local file access. Read from and write to files on your machine directly. No uploading, no downloading, no copying things into a chat window.
- Sub-agents (opens in new tab). Break large tasks into pieces and run them in parallel to streamline work.
- Real deliverables. Produce Excel files with working formulas, PowerPoint decks, and formatted documents you can hand off without reformatting. Spreadsheets and slides can be opened and refined further in Claude for Excel (opens in new tab) and Claude for PowerPoint (opens in new tab).
- Long-running work. Work on a task for as long as it takes. Keep the app open and come back to finished work.
- Scheduled tasks. (opens in new tab) Save a task once and run it on demand, or set it to run on a cadence—every Monday morning, every quarter close, every Friday at five.
- Projects (opens in new tab). Group related tasks into their own workspace with files, context, instructions, and memory that persist across sessions.
Claude product matrix: when to use what
| Surface | Best for | Primary users | Where it runs | Example task |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chat | Conversational drafting, research, and analysis in a chat interface | Anyone | Browser, desktop, mobile | "Summarize this report and draft a response." |
| Claude Code | Agentic coding inside a repo — building, refactoring, testing | Developers | Terminal, IDE | "Refactor this module and run the tests." |
| Claude Cowork | Cross-app knowledge work that touches files and multiple tools | Knowledge workers (analysts, PMs, operators, researchers, marketers, lawyers) | Claude desktop app | "Read the five vendor PDFs in my Downloads folder, compare them on price and SLAs, and put the result in a spreadsheet." |