Claude Cowork Pricing 2026: Enterprise & Business Plans Explained

Claude Cowork comes bundled with Claude Pro (£14/month annual), Max (£80-160/month), and Team Premium (£120/seat) plans. There's no separate fee—if you're on one of these plans, you've already got access. This guide breaks down exactly which Claude subscription gets you Cowork, what each option costs, and how to choose the right plan for your needs.

Note: Cowork is a new feature and availability may change over time. This guide reflects where things stand in January 2026.

How Much Does Claude Cowork Cost?

Claude Cowork is not sold as a standalone product. Instead, it is included in Anthropic's paid subscriptions. The minimum cost to access Cowork is £14 per month (billed annually).

Is Claude Cowork Free?

No, Claude Cowork is not available on the free tier.

Due to the significant computing power required to run autonomous agents and virtualised environments, Cowork is restricted to paid plans. Free users can access Claude 3.5 Sonnet for standard chat, but cannot use the Cowork tab or agentic features.

A Quick Bit of Backstory: How Cowork Came to Be

To understand what Cowork is and why it exists, it helps to know where it came from.

In late 2024, Anthropic launched Claude Code—a terminal-based tool designed for software developers. It was meant to help programmers automate repetitive coding tasks. Engineers loved it. But then something unexpected happened: people started using it for everything except coding.

Boris Cherny, who leads Claude Code at Anthropic, documented the phenomenon with evident surprise: users were doing vacation research, building slide decks, cleaning up emails, cancelling subscriptions, recovering wedding photos from old hard drives, and—remarkably—controlling their ovens.

Rather than steering people back to "proper" use cases, Anthropic recognised something important: the power wasn't really about coding. It was about having an AI that could actually do things on your computer, not just talk about them.

So they built Cowork: the same underlying technology, wrapped in a friendly interface that anyone can use. No terminal. No coding knowledge. Just point Claude at a folder, describe what you want done, and let it work.

Perhaps the most remarkable detail? According to Anthropic, Claude Code wrote all of Cowork's code. The team built it in about ten days, spending more time on product decisions than writing individual lines of code. We're genuinely in an era where AI tools are building their own successors.

Claude Pro: The Best Value Entry Point

For most people who want Cowork, Claude Pro is the sweet spot. It's the most affordable way to get access, and it includes a lot more besides.

What You Get With Pro

• Cowork for desktop file automation
• Claude Code for terminal-based development (if you want it)
• 5x more usage than the free tier
• Extended thinking for complex reasoning
• Memory across conversations so Claude remembers your context
• Google Workspace integration for email, calendar, and docs
• Remote MCP connectors for connecting third-party tools
• Unlimited Projects to organise your work
• Research for deep-dive investigations
• Access to all Claude models, including Opus 4.5

What Pro Costs

If you know you'll stick with Claude for a year, the annual plan is the better deal. But monthly billing gives you flexibility if you're not sure yet.

Is Pro Enough for Cowork?

For most people, yes. Pro's usage limits are generous enough for regular Cowork tasks—organising files, processing documents, compiling research. You can run multiple sessions a day without trouble.

Where you might hit limits: if you're running Cowork constantly throughout the day, processing huge batches of files, or using extended thinking heavily on complex tasks. In that case, Max might be worth considering.

Claude Max: For Power Users

If you find yourself regularly bumping against Pro's limits—or Cowork is central to your daily workflow—Max removes that friction.

Max is a significant investment—£80-160/month is real money. But if you're using Cowork professionally, the maths can work out quickly.

Say a Cowork automation saves you 3 hours of manual work each month. If your time is worth £30/hour, that's £90 of value—more than covering the Max 5x subscription. For heavy users, the productivity gains compound fast.

Team Plans: Not All Seats Include Cowork

Here's where it gets a bit more nuanced. If you're subscribing for a team, you need to know that not all Team seats include Cowork.

Team Standard (£20/seat/month)

Standard seats give your team:

• Claude chat on web, mobile, and desktop
• All Pro-level chat features
• Shared Projects, Central billing, Admin controls
• SSO, Domain capture, Enterprise search
• Integrations (Microsoft 365, Slack, etc.)

What Standard doesn't include: Cowork and Claude Code.

Team Premium (£120/seat/month)

Premium seats include everything above, plus:

• Claude Cowork for desktop automation
• Claude Code for development work
• Higher individual usage limits

How Team Plan Billing Works

Understanding exactly how you'll be billed for Team plans is crucial for budgeting. Here's the complete breakdown of pricing, proration, and billing cycles.

Team Plan Pricing

Team plans have a minimum requirement of five members. You'll be charged at the beginning of your billing cycle.

Prices shown are approximate GBP conversions. Visit claude.ai/upgrade to see current pricing for your location.

Proration Rules

Extra Usage

If extra usage is enabled on your account, your bill may include charges for usage beyond seat limits. This can be useful for teams that occasionally need burst capacity without upgrading all seats permanently.

Billing Examples

For complete details on Team Plan billing, see the official guide: How is my Team plan bill calculated?

Enterprise: For Larger Organisations

Enterprise plans include Cowork access along with custom usage quotas, enhanced context windows, advanced security (SSO, SCIM, audit logs), compliance features, and network controls. Pricing is custom—contact Anthropic's sales team.

Quick Clarification: Cowork vs Claude Code

Think of it this way: Cowork is Claude Code's capabilities made accessible to everyone. Same underlying AI agent, friendlier packaging. If you're a developer, you'll probably use both.

One Important Caveat: Mac Only (For Now)

Before you subscribe specifically for Cowork, there's something you need to know: Cowork currently only works on macOS.

• ✅ macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel Macs)
• ❌ Windows (Anthropic says it's coming, no date yet)
• ❌ Linux (no announced plans)
• ❌ Web/Mobile (requires desktop app)

If you're primarily a Windows user, you might want to wait. Pro and Max are still valuable for other features, but Cowork requires a Mac.

Comparing Your Options

Cowork Pricing vs Competitors

Frequently Asked Questions