What is Claude Cowork?

Claude Cowork is Anthropic's hosted team workspace for Claude. Teams share context, collaborate on Claude-generated artifacts, and access Claude models through a polished web UI without managing API keys or infrastructure.

How does Claude Cowork differ from the Claude API?

The Claude API is for developers building custom integrations — you call it from code, control every parameter, and build your own interface. Claude Cowork is a ready-to-use team product with a web UI, shared workspaces, and artifact management built in. Cowork's Terms of Service don't permit using it as a backend for customer-facing products; the API is required for that.

What changed with the 90-day artifact retention update?

In March 2026, Anthropic extended shared artifact retention from 30 days to 90 days. Artifacts are retained for 90 days from last modification. Business tier allows pinning artifacts for indefinite retention. Enterprise tier supports custom retention periods.

Is Claude Cowork generally available?

Yes — Claude Cowork hit general availability on April 9, 2026, alongside the Managed Agents public beta and enterprise RBAC. The free, Pro, Business, and Enterprise tiers are all live. Managed Agents is currently included on Business and Enterprise during the beta.

What is Opus 4.7 and what is the xhigh effort tier?

Opus 4.7 is Anthropic's flagship model released April 16, 2026. It introduces a new xhigh effort level that sits between high and max — accessed via /effort, --effort, or the model picker. Opus 4.7 is available across Cowork tiers (Pro and above for unlimited use; Free has limited daily access). Auto mode is now available for Max subscribers when using Opus 4.7.

What is Claude Design?

Claude Design is Anthropic Labs' text-to-prototype tool inside Claude Cowork, launched April 17, 2026. It turns prompts and codebases into design systems, websites, and slide decks. Powered by Opus 4.7. See our full Claude Design guide for setup, prompts, and pricing.

Last updated: 2026-04-19

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Claude Cowork

Anthropic's hosted team workspace — shared context, persistent artifacts, and collaborative Claude access without any infrastructure.

🟢 GA since Apr 9, 2026 Opus 4.7 + xhigh effort tier Claude Design (text-to-prototype) Managed Agents beta 4 tiers: Free → Pro → Business → Enterprise No API keys required

Claude Cowork is Anthropic's answer to the question: how does a team use Claude together? Each project gives every member shared context — the same system prompt, the same knowledge documents, the same artifact library — so conversations build on each other instead of starting from scratch. No API keys, no server, no DevOps. If your team is non-technical and needs AI-assisted collaboration today, Cowork is the fastest path.

🚀 What's new in April 2026

Apr 17 — Claude Design launched. Anthropic Labs' text-to-prototype tool inside Cowork. Turns prompts and codebases into design systems, websites, and slide decks. Powered by Opus 4.7. See our Claude Design guide.
Apr 16 — Opus 4.7 + xhigh effort. New flagship model with an xhigh effort level between high and max. Use /effort to tune speed vs intelligence. Auto mode is now available for Max subscribers using Opus 4.7.
Apr 9 — Cowork hit GA. General availability with Managed Agents public beta and enterprise RBAC. Business and Enterprise tiers stabilized; SOC 2 Type II current.
March — 90-day artifact retention. Shared artifacts persist for 90 days from last modification (was 30). Business: pin for indefinite. Enterprise: custom retention periods.

Guides

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Team Setup Guide

Create a workspace, invite members, configure roles (Owner/Admin/Member/Viewer), set up SSO with SAML, enable SCIM provisioning on Enterprise. Covers bulk CSV invite and recommended project structure.

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Projects & Artifacts

How Projects provide persistent shared context — system prompts, knowledge documents, and artifact libraries. Artifact types (Document, Code, Data table, SVG), 90-day retention mechanics, version history, sharing access levels, and collaborative editing.

Live

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System Prompts & Personas

Write effective project system prompts: role definitions, communication rules, hard constraints, and uncertainty handling. Includes four ready-to-use templates for Engineering, Marketing, Customer Support, and Leadership teams.

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Pricing & Tiers

Full Free/Pro/Business/Enterprise comparison table — usage limits, model access, integrations, SSO, SCIM, audit logs, and data residency. Includes a worked cost example for a 10-person marketing team and upgrade decision criteria per tier.

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Cowork vs Claude API vs OpenClaw

Three-way comparison of when to use each option. Includes migration guides in both directions — Cowork to OpenClaw (system prompt → SOUL.md, knowledge docs → workspace files) and API integration to Cowork.

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Skills Guide: Build Workflows

How to build reusable team workflows directly in Cowork — prompt templates for meeting notes, code review, customer feedback triage, and weekly summaries. No plugins required; teach Claude your team's patterns.

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Integrations Database

Verified official Anthropic integrations only: Google Drive, GitHub, Slack, Jira, web search, and code execution. Tier requirements, what each integration does, and data handling notes.

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Claude Design — text-to-prototype

Anthropic Labs' new text-to-prototype tool inside Cowork (launched April 17, 2026). Generate design systems, websites, and slide decks from prompts or codebases. Powered by Opus 4.7. Setup, prompt patterns, pricing, and limitations.

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Claude Cowork FAQ

Top community questions from r/ClaudeAI: /effort xhigh vs high vs max, why Claude self-corrects mid-sentence, the wellness-suggestion behavior, and the most common usage-limit gotchas. Updated weekly.

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Need more than Cowork offers?

Cowork is locked to Anthropic models and a web UI. For model flexibility (swap Claude, Gemini, or local Ollama), messaging-app channels (Telegram, WhatsApp, Discord), or 50–70% lower costs at equivalent usage, see OpenClaw. For long-running autonomous tasks that run unattended, see Hermes. Many teams run Cowork for team documents and OpenClaw for personal automation simultaneously — they don't conflict.

At a Glance

Factor	Detail
What it is	Anthropic's hosted team collaboration product for Claude
Who runs the infrastructure	Anthropic — no servers, no API keys, no config files
Model access	Claude Haiku 4.5, Sonnet 4.6, Opus 4.6, and Opus 4.7 with xhigh effort tier (tier-dependent)
Effort levels	`low` · `medium` · `high` · `xhigh` · `max` — set via `/effort` or model picker (Opus 4.7)
Managed Agents	Public beta — included on Business and Enterprise during the beta window
Claude Design	Available since April 17, 2026 — text-to-prototype on Pro and above
Model locked to Anthropic	Yes
Pricing model	Per-user/month subscription (not per-token)
Tiers	Free · Pro (~$20/user/mo) · Business (~$30/user/mo) · Enterprise (custom)
Shared context	Yes — Projects with system prompts, knowledge documents, and artifact libraries
Artifact retention	90 days from last modification (updated March 2026); Business: pin for indefinite
Official integrations	Google Drive, GitHub, Slack, Jira, web search, code execution
SSO	SAML/OIDC on Business and Enterprise; SCIM on Enterprise
SOC 2 compliance	Business and Enterprise tiers
Data residency	Enterprise only (US or EU)
Time to first useful output	Minutes — create workspace, invite team, start a project
Can embed in customer-facing products	No — Cowork ToS requires internal team use only; use the Claude API for that

Cowork & Claude Code Troubleshooting

Rate limit 429 — what to do when you hit per-minute caps
MCP server not responding — diagnose .mcp.json + claude mcp logs
All troubleshooting entries →

Cowork Use Cases & Security

Code review automation — pairs naturally with Cowork's GitHub integration
Release notes generator — Projects keep audience context across runs
Social content engine — leverages the new Claude Design slide-deck mode
Don't paste secrets into Cowork chats — retention defaults make this risky
15-minute hardening checklist for any Cowork workspace