Claude Cowork now runs in a Chrome side panel — with full session sync
Anthropic has brought Claude Cowork into the Chrome browser's side panel, and this time it's a full session — not a stripped-down offshoot. Conversations sync to your account history, connected services stay active, and anything you start in the Chrome extension can continue in the desktop or mobile app without losing context. Max and Team plan subscribers get access immediately; Pro users follow within the coming weeks.
The gap it closes
Until now, Claude's Chrome side panel ran sessions in isolation. What you did in the browser stayed in the browser — it didn't appear in your account history and didn't carry over to other devices. That made browser-based AI assistance feel second-class compared to the standalone app. This update removes that split. The side panel is now just another entry point into the same Claude session, with the same connector access and the same conversation thread.
Claude Cowork is aimed at everyday productivity tasks — think drafting, summarising, and working through browser-based tools. It's distinct from Claude Code, which targets developers and already had Chrome extension support. Anthropic also recently added smartphone controls to the mix, rounding out the cross-device picture.
The Chrome extension itself only opened to all users in late 2025, so this Cowork integration arrives less than a year after the initial rollout — a meaningful capability jump in a short window.
What it means day-to-day
For anyone already using Claude at work, the practical upside is straightforward. Start a research task in the Chrome side panel during a meeting, then pick it up in the full app later with everything intact — no copy-pasting, no lost thread. Chrome is the dominant browser in enterprise environments across the US and UK, so the side-panel placement puts Claude where most office work already happens.
Anthropic faces stiff competition here. OpenAI's GPT is baked into Microsoft Edge, and Google's Gemini runs natively inside Chrome itself. Anthropic's extension-based approach doesn't go as deep as those native integrations, but it works across any Chrome install without depending on a platform deal. Whether that trade-off suits your workflow depends on how much you already rely on Claude versus those alternatives.
Max and Team subscribers can use Cowork in the Chrome side panel starting now. Pro access is rolling out over the next few weeks, per Engadget.
