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Anthropic released Claude Duet on October 21 in research preview. It is a proactive agent: it checks your connected apps on a schedule, surfaces items that need attention, and completes tasks in a cloud virtual machine while you are doing other things. No separate charge during the preview — it draws from existing Pro ($20/month) or Max plan limits.

The product competes directly with Meta Muse, OpenAI Dots, Grok Bot, and smaller entrants like Hark, Instinct, and Fo.

What it does

Duet runs on Opus 5.5 and checks connected accounts every few hours. Each morning it sends a brief with action items from the apps you have connected. You can hand it tasks of any size — scheduling meetings, building financial dashboards, drafting Canva campaigns, or prototyping web apps. It works in a cloud VM so tasks continue after you close your phone or laptop.

Before it acts on your behalf — sending a message, making a payment, signing a document, or deleting a file — it asks for approval. It will not trade securities or move money between accounts regardless of what you ask. On payments, it integrates with Stripe Link and Shopify Shop Pay.

The app connects to over 6,000 plugins and connectors via the Claude Marketplace. Interactions happen in one persistent thread rather than separate conversations. Memory, skills, and existing app connections from your Claude account carry over automatically.

Duet ships with a dedicated classifier and safety system prompt that screens every message for sensitive information. It does not see passwords or sign-in tokens directly. Health and personal financial data only passes through if you explicitly authorize it.

Availability

Claude Duet is accessible via a standalone iOS app, Android app, and the web at claude.ai. Access is US-only and gated behind a waitlist open to Pro and Max subscribers. The preview does not extend to Team or Enterprise plans. Anthropic has not announced a general availability date.

Pricing signal

Pro plan subscribers get Duet at the same $20/month rate they already pay. That is structurally different from OpenAI Dots, which requires the $100/month Pro tier. If Anthropic holds that pricing through general availability, it would give Duet a significant cost advantage for individual users and small businesses.

The catch is shared usage limits. Duet’s background checks consume the same plan allowance as regular Claude sessions. How much allowance gets burned by periodic monitoring is not specified; Anthropic says it is still calibrating frequency.

The Dots comparison

OpenAI’s Dots, announced at DevDay and built on GPT-6 Astra, also runs proactively and requires user approval before consequential actions. The differences are: Duet runs on Opus 5.5 (higher AA Intelligence Index score than Astra: 58 vs 53), Duet is available at a lower price point, and Duet’s VM runs fully in the cloud without needing a local machine active. Dots made fewer public commitments about background task architecture at launch.

Meta Muse has been available in various forms since earlier this year across the Muse product family. Duet’s 6,000-connector library would exceed Meta’s connector count if accurate — Anthropic has not published a breakdown.

What Duet does not do

Anthropic explicitly draws a line between Duet and errand-running agents like Instinct. Duet does not book restaurant reservations, handle personal logistics, or show you a live browser window while it works. The focus is professional and small-business workflows: invoices, CRM follow-ups, scheduling, financial analysis, and Shopify store management.

The background check frequency — every few hours rather than continuously — reflects that constraint directly. Continuous monitoring would deplete plan limits faster than most subscribers would accept.