Claude Cowork gets its own AI browser

A side panel opens, Claude reads a website, clicks through menus and enters data into forms. Anthropic is giving Claude Cowork its own browser, which handles tasks visibly in the background while users continue working in their browser. The feature is coming to the desktop app for macOS, Windows and Linux.

The new browser does not necessarily handle tasks that were previously technically impossible for Claude. The difference is visible: users can better follow the AI’s actions instead of simply waiting for a result. That is a concrete advantage for research, collecting invoices from unconnected portals or transferring figures from dashboards.

Until now, Claude controlled the user’s browser through the “Claude in Chrome” extension. According to Anthropic, the dedicated browser more cleanly separates the two spheres of activity: it has no access to tabs, bookmarks and passwords. Anyone who wants Claude to work on already open, authenticated pages—such as email inboxes, documents or CRM systems, software for managing customer relationships—therefore continues to use the user’s browser. The extension remains the default if it is installed; the dedicated browser must be selected under “Cowork/Preferred Browser”.

Access is not completely isolated. Individual logins from Chrome, Edge and Firefox may be transferred, while banking sites, email accounts and single sign-on services—logins using a central account—are generally excluded unless users explicitly authorize them. Websites can also contain hidden instructions intended to make an AI agent misbehave. Anthropic is therefore deploying safeguards that compare Claude’s actions with the original request and recommends starting with trusted websites.

What changes in practice: Pro, Max and Team users can run web research and data-collection tasks in the background from the desktop app without giving it access to their personal browser. Enterprise customers already have the feature; administrators can manage it centrally. Anyone using Claude only through the web interface or on mobile will still need an open, online-connected desktop app for this web access.