How to Set Up Claude Cowork
A getting-started walkthrough for enabling Claude Cowork and starting your first cross-device session.
Claude Cowork is Anthropic's collaborative AI feature for running agentic tasks — complex, ongoing operations — across desktop, web, and mobile, with sessions and files following you between devices (Anthropic announced the web and mobile expansion on July 7, 2026).
Our Claude Cowork web & mobile guide covers how the feature works once it is running. This guide covers the part that guide does not: the actual setup steps to get from a Claude account to a working Cowork session.
Anthropic continues to adjust plan requirements and rollout availability, so confirm current access on claude.ai before you start — treat the steps below as the working shape of setup rather than a permanent, unchanging flow.
Step 1: Confirm your Claude plan supports Cowork
Cowork rolled out first to desktop and has since expanded to web and mobile, but availability has depended on your Claude plan and account type as Anthropic staged the rollout. Before troubleshooting anything else, confirm your plan actually includes Cowork by checking your account settings on claude.ai or Anthropic's current documentation.
If you are on a team or enterprise Claude plan, an admin may need to enable Cowork at the workspace level before individual members see it.
Need Claude Cowork rolled out across a whole team, with the right workspace settings from day one? We can plan and run that setup for you.
Book a ConsultationStep 2: Enable Cowork and start a session
From claude.ai in a web browser, or from the sidebar in the official Claude mobile app, open a document or workflow you want AI-supported help with and start it as a Cowork session rather than a plain chat.
The desktop app remains the option built for the most complex, longest-running workflows, so if your first task is a heavy multi-step job, starting it there and continuing on web or mobile afterward is a reasonable default.
- Web: start a session directly from claude.ai in any browser.
- Mobile: access Cowork from the sidebar in Claude's official iOS/Android app.
- Desktop: still the primary surface for the most complex, longest-running agentic workflows.
Step 3: Move between devices without losing progress
Once a session is running, it persists in your account rather than on the device that started it. Files and context uploaded to the session sync automatically, so you can close a laptop mid-task, pick up the same session on your phone, and continue without re-uploading anything.
Background agentic tasks keep processing even while you are not actively looking at the app, which is what makes the cross-device handoff useful rather than just a sync feature — see our full functionality guide for how session and file persistence works under the hood.
Step 4: If Cowork does not appear
If you do not see a Cowork option after checking your plan, the most common causes are a staged rollout that has not reached your account yet, a workspace admin setting that needs enabling for team/enterprise accounts, or an outdated mobile app version.
Update the app, confirm your plan on claude.ai, and check Anthropic's current help documentation for the latest rollout status before assuming something is broken on your end.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Confirm your Claude plan includes Cowork access, then start a session from claude.ai in a browser or from the sidebar in the official mobile app rather than a plain chat. Desktop remains the default surface for the most complex, longest-running tasks.
- Cowork availability has depended on your plan and account type as Anthropic staged its rollout to web and mobile. Check your account settings on claude.ai or Anthropic's current documentation to confirm your plan includes it.
- The most common causes are a staged rollout that has not reached your account, a workspace admin setting not yet enabled for team/enterprise plans, or an outdated mobile app. Update the app and check your plan before assuming a fault.
- The core session and file persistence is the same across devices — a session started on one continues on another. Desktop is still positioned as the surface built for the most complex, longest-running agentic workflows.
- Yes. Sessions and files follow your account rather than staying tied to one device, and background agentic tasks keep running even when you switch from, say, a laptop to your phone.
Rolling Claude Cowork out across a team, not just one account?
We help regulated and non-regulated businesses alike plan Claude Cowork rollouts — access, workspace settings, and compliance considerations included.
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