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.

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Claude Cowork

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

4 tiers: Free → Pro → Business → Enterprise 90-day artifact retention 7 official integrations 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.

March 2026: artifact retention extended to 90 days

Shared artifacts now persist for 90 days from last modification, up from the previous 30-day limit. Business tier can pin artifacts for indefinite retention. Enterprise tier supports custom retention periods. Export important documents externally — Cowork should not be your only storage layer.

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.

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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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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, Sonnet 4.6, and Opus 4.6 (tier-dependent)
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