What actually happened on October 6
Here’s the short version: on October 6, 2026, Anthropic moved new Claude Cowork tasks on Pro and Max plans to run on its cloud servers instead of on your computer. You didn’t have to do anything — your tasks just stopped being tethered to your machine.
The “Only on your computer” toggle that lived in Settings → General is gone for new tasks on these plans. Your work now runs on Anthropic’s infrastructure — and it keeps running when you close your laptop, walk away, and check in later from your phone.
Anthropic explained the move in its Cowork announcement: the cloud session is the default now for Pro and Max task runs.
This isn’t the first time Cowork has moved this year — Mac-only preview in January, Windows in February, web/iOS/Android in July, September’s “one Claude” interface merge. October 6 is simply the moment the cloud became the default.
What changed vs. what stayed the same
New tasks now run in the cloud
Every Cowork task you start today on Pro or Max runs on Anthropic’s servers — there’s no local-only option for new tasks. If a task must stay on your machine (sensitive client data, proprietary files, anything under NDA), Anthropic’s answer is Claude Code through the Claude Desktop app, which still runs locally.
Tasks started before October 6 are grandfathered: they finish on your computer, with a banner in the session noting the task runs only on this computer.
Local files still work — with a catch
Cloud Cowork doesn’t cut you off from your machine’s files. The Claude Desktop app must stay open while the task runs; when Cowork needs a local file, it fetches a copy of just that file, and the copy is deleted when the session is deleted.
The catch: close the desktop app, and the cloud task keeps running but loses access to your local files. The laptop-closed dream is real for research and writing that doesn’t touch your local drive — but file-dependent tasks still need the app open somewhere.
The wins that actually matter
Work continues with your laptop closed. Start a long research task at 9 PM, shut your laptop, and it’s still crunching at 9 AM. That’s the headline upgrade, full stop.
Sessions follow your account across devices. Start a task on desktop, check it from the web, glance at it on your phone. The session is tied to your account now, not the machine that spawned it.
Mobile notifications. Your phone pings when a task finishes or needs your input — a clarification on scope, a yes/no on a direction. No more chained-to-the-screen progress-watching.
Scheduled tasks run with nothing online. Cowork’s in-app scheduling (which landed back in February) just got a lot more useful. Recurring research briefings, weekly competitor sweeps, Monday-morning report generation — they now fire and complete even when no device of yours is awake. Set it, forget it, check the results over coffee.
Team and Enterprise: the admin controls
If you’re on a Team or Enterprise plan rather than individual Pro/Max, there’s an admin-level setting called “Run Cowork in the cloud.” Per reporting from digitalmatters.me, it defaults to on for Team workspaces and off for Enterprise — where security teams want to review first. If your sessions seem stuck on local, check with your workspace admin before assuming anything’s broken.
What to check in your Settings this week
Don’t take any of this on faith — verification takes three minutes and saves you from assuming the cloud switch applied when it hasn’t (or assuming it didn’t when it has).
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Open Settings → General in the Claude app. If the “Only on your computer” toggle is gone, your account has the cloud default. If it’s still there, you’re still on the staged rollout — more on that below.
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Start a test task. Pick something disposable: “Research the top five project management tools for freelancers and summarize pricing.” Watch where it runs and confirm it survives you minimizing the app.
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Check your plan tier. Cowork is a paid-plan feature, and cloud tasks draw from your plan’s usage allowance. Make sure your subscription is active and that you’re not hammering the rolling five-hour usage window with heavy task loads.
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Audit your scheduled tasks. If you’d paused scheduled tasks because of the old needs-a-device-awake limitation, review them — they should now run on schedule regardless. Re-enable anything worth reviving.
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Review what the desktop app exposes. Cloud Cowork fetches copies of local files while the app is open, so make sure you’re comfortable with which folders you’ve connected. Tighter permissions here is cheap insurance.
Which workflows actually get better
Scheduled research and recurring reports
This is the biggest winner, no contest. Before October, a scheduled task was a suggestion — it needed an awake device to actually run. Now it’s a promise. A weekly industry roundup that drafts itself every Sunday night and waits in your account Monday morning is the canonical example — genuinely useful for freelancers who track competitors or market news for clients.
Working from your phone
Start a deep task from your desk, then monitor from anywhere. When Claude needs input — a scope clarification, a choice between two directions — the mobile notification gets you back in the loop in seconds instead of an hour later when you open the laptop again.
Long-running analysis
Large-document analysis, multi-step research, building a presentation draft from a pile of sources — anything once limited by your laptop’s uptime is now unconstrained. Close the lid. Go live your life. The task finishes without you.
These workflows pair well with the September updates — Claude Docs and Claude Slides in beta on paid plans, exportable to Word, PowerPoint, and PDF, with Claude Design now built into every conversation. The Cowork cloud switch is the infrastructure underneath; those features are the surface you actually touch.
Multi-device sessions
Web in the morning, desktop at noon, phone at night — the session state follows your account. For creators and freelancers bouncing between a home office machine, a laptop, and a phone, this removes the “which device started that task” friction entirely.
What to keep local — the honest caveats
Now the part the hype skips. Cloud-by-default is a tradeoff, and you should know exactly where the edges are.
Sensitive client files should stay local. Client financials, unreleased product data, legal documents, anything under NDA — cloud Cowork means task data touches Anthropic’s servers. For that work, use Claude Code in the desktop app, which still runs on your machine. That’s Anthropic’s own recommendation, not paranoia.
There’s no local-only opt-back on Pro/Max. This changes how you organize work: cloud Cowork for general research and writing, local Claude Code for anything sensitive. Set up both and stop trying to make one tool do both jobs.
Local file access needs the desktop app open. The cloud task doesn’t freeze when the app closes — but its access to your local files does. If your task touches local documents, keep the app running on at least one machine. Don’t discover this the hard way with a task that needed a spreadsheet at hour three.
The rollout is staged. Anthropic rolls changes out over days or weeks, not all at once. If your account doesn’t show the cloud behavior yet, or your Settings still have the old toggle, you’re likely waiting on your turn — the same staged pattern they used for the September “one Claude” merge. Enterprise admins were promised at least 30 days’ notice on the interface changes, which tells you something about the pace.
It draws from your subscription pool. Cloud tasks aren’t free compute — they’re part of your plan’s usage allowance, governed by the same rolling five-hour windows and weekly limits as everything else on Pro and Max. If you’re also leaning on the new monthly API credits and the halved Sonnet 5.5 cache-read prices from the October 7 Haiku 5.5 launch, keep an eye on where your heaviest usage lands. For a broader look at building a small-business AI stack around these tools, our AI tools for small business owners guide is worth a read.
The one-week setup checklist
By the end of this week, you should have:
- [ ] Confirmed your account has the cloud default (Settings → General, no “Only on your computer” toggle)
- [ ] Started and completed one real cloud task — something useful, not a toy
- [ ] Set up at least one scheduled recurring task, now that scheduling actually works unattended
- [ ] Tightened your desktop app’s connected folders to only what cloud tasks need
- [ ] Set up Claude Code locally for the sensitive work that no longer belongs in cloud Cowork
- [ ] Enabled mobile notifications so tasks can reach you when they need input
The whole point of the switch is that the tooling got quieter — less device management, more results waiting for you. But quiet infrastructure still deserves a conscious look before you hand it your client files.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Claude Cowork free?
Cowork is a paid-plan feature — Pro at $20/month or Max starting at $100/month. Team and Enterprise seats include it too. The free plan gets chat but not Cowork’s agentic task running.
Can I make new Cowork tasks run only on my computer?
Not on Pro or Max. Anthropic removed the local-only option for new tasks with the October 6, 2026 switch and there is no opt-back setting. For work that must stay on your machine, Anthropic points users to Claude Code in the desktop app. On Team and Enterprise, admins control cloud Cowork via the “Run Cowork in the cloud” workspace setting.
What happens to tasks I started before October 6?
They stay local until they finish. You’ll see a banner in those sessions noting the task runs only on this computer. Nothing interrupts them — the cloud default applies only to tasks started after the switch.
Do cloud Cowork tasks use my subscription limits?
Yes. They draw from your plan’s allowance under the same rolling five-hour session windows and weekly limits as chat. Heavy cloud task use eats the same pool as everything else.
What if I don’t see the cloud change on my account yet?
You’re probably still in the staged rollout queue. Anthropic deploys features over days or weeks — Pro and Max accounts get them first, followed by Team, Free, and Enterprise with notice periods. If the “Only on your computer” toggle is still in your Settings, your account hasn’t been switched yet. Give it time rather than troubleshooting something that isn’t broken.