Key takeaways: If you are here, you probably hit one of two walls with Claude Cowork. You handed it a job, closed the laptop, and came back to find it had stopped. Or you got it doing something useful and wanted the rest of the team to have it too, and found it lives in your account. Anthropic has fixed part of the first one, so we will tell you exactly what its pages say. Then we will show you how Bob is different: he works in the cloud, the whole team uses him in Slack, and he does the work that wastes your day. Keep Claude for thinking. Hire Bob for doing.

"It stops when my laptop goes to sleep"

This one has changed recently, and the details matter.

Cowork started as a desktop app, and Anthropic's architecture page says local sessions, still available for existing desktop setups, run on the member's own computer. Now Anthropic runs Cowork sessions in the cloud too. Its help center says that in a cloud session, Claude keeps working when you close your laptop, and that scheduled tasks run with no device online. Cloud sessions are marked beta.

There are three catches, all on Anthropic's own pages:

  • Anything on your computer still needs your computer. Local files, your browser, and computer use go through the Claude Desktop app. If the app is closed, Anthropic says the session keeps running but cannot reach your local files. A scheduled task that needs local files or apps only runs locally.
  • Your company may not have cloud sessions switched on. On Team plans they are on by default. On Enterprise plans they are off by default, until an owner turns them on and grants them to a group.
  • It is beta. Anthropic's surfaces page says some features are not available in the cloud yet.

So if Cowork stopped when your laptop closed, the likely reason is that the job touched something on your computer, or your organization is still running Cowork on the desktop.

"I can't share it with my team"

Anthropic's pages describe Cowork sessions and files as saved to each member's own Claude account, and every person needs a paid Claude plan to use it. You can see your own scheduled tasks from the Scheduled page in the sidebar.

What Anthropic does offer: on Team and Enterprise plans, you can share a Cowork project with people in your organization, with view or edit access. A project holds files, instructions, and memory for related work. The pages we checked do not describe one shared Cowork that anyone on the team hands work to and everyone sees the results of, so we do not assume one.

Anthropic's own agent for team work in Slack is a different product, Claude Tag. It is in public beta on Team and Enterprise plans, a thread is one shared session anyone in the channel can steer, and the connections an owner sets up are shared by everyone in that scope. We compared it with Bob line by line on our Bob vs Claude Tag page.

Your Monday, two ways

Say the weekly pipeline numbers go to the team every Monday. Here is how that morning goes.

With Cowork

  1. You set a scheduled task: every Monday at 9, pull the numbers and write the summary.
  2. It runs in Anthropic's cloud, as long as your company has cloud sessions on and nothing in the job lives on your laptop. If the numbers sit in a spreadsheet on your desktop, it waits for your laptop and the app.
  3. The summary lands in your Claude account.
  4. You copy it into the team channel.
  5. A teammate wants the same cut of their own accounts. That is a task in their own account, on their own paid plan.
  6. Two deals need a follow-up email. You start another task for that.

Cowork did the hard middle part well. Getting it to the team was still yours.

With Bob

  1. You open Slack. The summary is already in the channel, posted at 9 whether anyone's laptop was open or not.
  2. A teammate replies in the thread: "same for my accounts." Bob runs it again under her access, not yours.
  3. Two deals need a follow-up email. He drafted both, and each one waits on a single Approve tap in the thread.
  4. Under each post sits a receipt: what it cost, how long it took, what he touched, and who approved what.

You told him once, "post the pipeline summary every Monday at 9." That is the whole setup.

What is different about Bob

He does not live on anyone's laptop. Every run gets its own computer in the cloud, spun up for that job. Schedules, webhooks, and inbox triggers fire on their own, so he keeps going after everyone shuts their laptops, and the finished work lands in the channel.

The whole team uses him in Slack. Bob is one hire for the workspace. Anyone can @mention him in a channel or DM him, everyone sees the finished work where they already are, and you can add the whole team without per-seat fees.

He works as each person, not a shared login. Personal apps like Gmail, Google Calendar, and HubSpot connect per person. When you ask in a channel, he opens your inbox and your rows in the CRM, under your access. When your teammate asks, he uses hers.

Nothing goes out without your OK. Changes to your CRM, your books, or your docs pause for an Approve or Deny tap in the Slack thread by default, so the channel can see who approved what.

A receipt under every job, and a cap he will not cross. Every finished run shows what it cost, how long it took, and how many steps it took. You set a monthly spend limit for the workspace, and he warns you in the channel when he is close.

Where Cowork is the better fit

We would rather you pick the right tool. Cowork on the desktop app works directly in the folders on your own computer, can reach your desktop apps through computer use, and turns out polished spreadsheets, decks, and documents for you. If the job is yours alone and lives on your machine, that is a strong fit, and it comes with the Claude plan you may already pay for. Bob works from his own computer in the cloud, through your team's connected apps and the web.

Keep Claude for thinking. Writing, research, working a problem through, and the jobs that live in the folders on your own computer. Nothing here asks you to give it up.

Hire Bob for doing. The Monday report, the status update, the numbers copied from one app into another, for the whole team, in Slack, whether your laptop is open or not. Each person's own access, your OK before anything changes, and a receipt for every job.

Fair questions

Does Claude Cowork keep working when my laptop is closed?

Partly, and it is newer than many people realize. Anthropic's help center says Cowork sessions in the cloud, currently in beta, keep running when you close your laptop, and scheduled tasks run with no device online. The same pages say that anything using files on your computer, your browser, or computer use goes through the Claude Desktop app and needs it open. On Enterprise plans, cloud sessions are off until an owner turns them on. Bob runs every job on his own computer in the cloud, so nothing waits on anyone's laptop.

Can my whole team share one Claude Cowork?

Anthropic's pages describe Cowork sessions and files as saved to each member's own Claude account, with each person on a paid plan. On Team and Enterprise plans you can share a Cowork project with people in your organization, with view or edit access. Bob is one hire for the whole Slack workspace: anyone on the team asks him in a channel, everyone sees the finished work, and there are no per-seat fees.

Which Claude plans include Cowork?

Anthropic lists Cowork on its paid plans: Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise. It is on the desktop app for all of them, and in beta on the web and mobile for Pro, Max, and Team, and for Enterprise where an admin has turned it on.

Isn't Claude Tag Anthropic's answer for teams in Slack?

It is Anthropic's own agent inside Slack, in public beta on Claude Team and Enterprise plans. A thread is one shared session that anyone in the channel can steer, and an owner sets up the connections it uses, which everyone in that scope shares. Bob works under each person's own access instead. We compared the two in detail on our Claude Tag page.

What does Bob cost?

Plans start at $75 a month per workspace, with no per-seat fees, and you set a monthly limit he will not cross. The first $100 of work is free for 14 days, no card. If you would rather use your own OpenAI or Anthropic key, the bring-your-own-key plan is $349 a month flat and the token bill goes straight to your provider.

Sources

Every Cowork fact on this page comes from one of these Anthropic pages, checked on 2026-09-23.

Weighing Claude itself too? We compared Bob and Claude the same way.