Claude Cowork setup and pricing: 2026 guide

Most people open Claude, type a question into the chat box, copy the answer somewhere else and close the tab. Claude Cowork is the mode where Claude takes a task, works through the files in a folder you choose and saves the finished documents back into it, which is where the hours actually come back.¹ Since 16 September 2026 Anthropic has folded Cowork into the normal Claude app, starting with Pro and Max and reaching Team soon after.²

The merge changes the menus more than the method, so this guide covers what Cowork does now, what it costs in 2026 and a setup that takes about thirty minutes. Everything below still works whether your screen shows the Cowork label or the new single Claude window.

What is Claude Cowork after the September 2026 merge?

Anthropic stopped asking users to choose between chat and Cowork, and Claude now works out by itself whether a request needs a quick answer or a longer task.² Your chats, projects, artifacts, connectors and skills stay where they were, and Anthropic says the Cowork name will fade out during the transition.

Local files are the part that still needs the desktop app, because Claude can only read a folder on your computer when the Claude Desktop app is open and connected.¹ Claude Code stays a separate product for developers, since it runs in a terminal and works on code rather than on everyday documents.

What does Claude Cowork cost?

Cowork needs a paid plan, and the desktop app itself is a free download from claude.com/download. Anthropic lists every plan in US dollars with tax on top, and the euro figures below are rough conversions at about 0.85 euros to the dollar.³

Pro covers most individual users, and Max 5x becomes the next step once long tasks start hitting the usage cap more than three times a week. Multi-step tasks use more of the allowance than single questions, so Anthropic advises grouping related work into one request instead of five small ones.¹ The full plan comparison sits in our guide to how much Claude costs.

How do you set up Claude Cowork in thirty minutes?

Six steps of about five minutes each take you from a fresh download to a first finished document, and each step leaves something on your disk.

1. Download the app: Install Claude Desktop from claude.com/download and sign in with a Pro, Max or Team account.
2. Write an about-me file: Open any text editor and write three things, namely what you work on, how you write and one example of a text you are proud of, then save it as about-me.md in a new folder.
3. Point Claude at the folder: Choose that folder when you start a task, so Claude reads the file before it answers.
4. Set global instructions: Standing guidance such as your language and house style goes under Settings and Cowork, while folder instructions add context for one project.¹
5. Run a real task: Ask for a task you had planned for this week anyway, and read the plan Claude proposes before it starts.
6. Save the result: Let Claude write the finished document back into the folder, and open it to check what it changed.

Context files: stop explaining who you are

Chat tools trained people to write longer and longer prompts, while Cowork rewards a folder of plain text files instead. Put your writing style, your customer examples, your prices and your processes into .md or .txt files. Claude reads them before it answers, so a first draft sounds like your company from the first run. The files still need a person who updates them, because a price list from last spring produces last spring's quotes.

The starter prompt

Paste this at the start of any larger task: "I want to [task] so that [what success looks like]. Read the files carefully. Do not start yet. Ask me clarifying questions so we plan the right approach, and start only when we agree." Claude then asks about the reader, the tone and the limits you forgot to mention, and the result lands closer on the first attempt.

How do you schedule tasks in Claude Cowork?

Scheduled tasks turn Cowork from a helper into an assistant, since Claude runs the same prompt every morning, every Monday or every hour without you opening the app. Every paid plan includes them, and the setup follows Anthropic's own steps.⁴

1. Click Scheduled in the left sidebar.
2. Choose New task, then Set up manually.
3. Enter a name, the prompt, an approval mode and a frequency of hourly, daily, weekly, weekdays or manual.
4. Pick a model and a working folder if the task needs one, then click Save.

Each task runs remotely, so it keeps their schedule even when your computer is asleep or the desktop app is closed.⁴ A Monday task that reads last week's project folder and writes a status note works well as a first test, although someone still reads the note before it goes to a client.

Does Claude Cowork work with Outlook and Gmail?

Connectors link Claude to your inbox and calendar, and the two most European offices ask about both exist. The Microsoft 365 connector searches Outlook, SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams in a work account tied to a Microsoft Entra tenant, meaning a company directory, while a personal @outlook.com address cannot connect.⁵ Gmail works through its own connector, which can send, reply and forward, and by default it asks for your approval before each of those actions.⁶

A daily task at 07:30 with the prompt "read yesterday's email and list what needs a reply today, sorted by urgency" gives you a ranked list before you sit down. The list saves the first twenty minutes of the morning, although the replies are still yours to write or approve.

Skills, plugins and Office add-ins

Skills are saved working methods, which Anthropic describes as folders of instructions, scripts and resources that Claude loads when a task calls for them.⁷ Build one for the report you write every Friday, and the next Friday a single request runs the whole routine. Skills, connectors and plugins now sit in one directory inside Claude, where plugins bundle several of them for a role such as sales or finance.⁸

Claude for Excel is an add-in for Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise that reads workbooks, explains formulas with cell references and builds models, and it installs from Microsoft AppSource.⁹ The add-in shares context with Claude for PowerPoint, Word and Outlook, so one conversation can read the sales figures in Excel and build the slides from the same numbers.⁹ Anthropic warns against using it on spreadsheets from outside sources, because a downloaded file can hide instructions that make Claude change or extract data.⁹

Is Claude Cowork safe for European companies?

The answer depends on the plan more than on the product. On Team and Enterprise, Anthropic does not use your inputs and outputs for training by default.¹⁰ Its data processing addendum with standard contractual clauses, meaning the EU contract terms for sending personal data outside Europe, is part of the commercial terms.¹¹

Pro and Max users make the choice personally under Settings, Privacy, with the toggle "Help improve our AI models".¹² Switch it off before any work files go in, and move the team to Team seats once more than two people handle customer data. Data from Anthropic's own apps is stored in the US, while a company that needs processing inside Europe can run Claude Desktop on Amazon Bedrock in the AWS regions it configures.¹³¹⁴ That route loses Claude Design, computer use and the skills marketplace, so it suits a regulated team more than a curious one.¹⁴

Where to get help setting it up

satori-sprint gives your team five one-hour sessions to set up Cowork on its own folders and practise on the reports already on their desks. It costs €400 per user in groups of three to eight. For the whole company, satori-claude buys and runs the Claude licences for €14 per user per month plus the licence, after a one-time €490 setup, on one invoice in euros. All satori. prices are fixed and exclude VAT.

Write your about-me.md file today in five sentences, covering what you do, who you write for, how you write, one price you quote often and one thing you never say. Put it in a new folder, point Claude at it, and within ten minutes you have a first draft that sounds more like you than anything the chat box gave you.

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Sources

Footnotes

1. Anthropic (2026). Get started with Claude Cowork. Claude Help Center. https://support.claude.com/en/articles/13345190-get-started-with-claude-cowork ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

2. Anthropic (2026). Claude Cowork and chat are now one Claude. https://claude.com/blog/cowork-is-now-claude ↩ ↩²

3. Anthropic (2026). Plans and Pricing. https://claude.com/pricing ↩

4. Anthropic (2026). Schedule recurring tasks in Cowork. Claude Help Center. https://support.claude.com/en/articles/13854387-schedule-recurring-tasks-in-cowork ↩ ↩²

5. Anthropic (2026). Set up the Microsoft 365 connector. Claude Help Center. https://support.claude.com/en/articles/12542951-set-up-the-microsoft-365-connector ↩

6. Anthropic (2026). Use Google Workspace connectors. Claude Help Center. https://support.claude.com/en/articles/10166901-use-google-workspace-connectors ↩

7. Anthropic (2025). Equipping agents for the real world with Agent Skills. https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/equipping-agents-for-the-real-world-with-agent-skills ↩

8. Anthropic (2026). Browse skills, connectors, and plugins in one directory. Claude Help Center. https://support.claude.com/en/articles/14328846-browse-skills-connectors-and-plugins-in-one-directory ↩

9. Anthropic (2026). Use Claude for Excel. https://claude.com/docs/office-agents/excel ↩ ↩² ↩³

10. Anthropic (2026). Is my data used for model training? Anthropic Privacy Center. https://privacy.claude.com/en/articles/7996868-is-my-data-used-for-model-training ↩

11. Anthropic (2026). How do I view and sign your Data Processing Addendum? Anthropic Privacy Center. https://privacy.claude.com/en/articles/7996862-how-do-i-view-and-sign-your-data-processing-addendum-dpa ↩

12. Anthropic (2026). How do I change my model improvement privacy settings? Anthropic Privacy Center. https://privacy.claude.com/en/articles/12109829-how-do-i-change-my-model-improvement-privacy-settings ↩

13. Anthropic (2026). Where are your servers located? Anthropic Privacy Center. https://privacy.claude.com/en/articles/7996890-where-are-your-servers-located-do-you-host-your-models-on-eu-servers ↩

14. Amazon Web Services (2026). From developer desks to the whole organization: running Claude Desktop on Amazon Bedrock. https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/machine-learning/from-developer-desks-to-the-whole-organization-running-claude-cowork-in-amazon-bedrock/ ↩ ↩²