Claude Duet can prepare payroll on a US Pro or Max plan

On October 21, Anthropic opened a research preview of Claude Duet, a proactive agent for professionals and small-business owners. It is a separate app on iOS, Android, and claude.ai, built around Claude Opus 5.5. It sends a morning brief, keeps working after the person closes the app, and waits before it sends a message, makes a payment, signs a document, or deletes anything. Anthropic’s help center says the preview is on Pro and Max plans in the United States, through a waitlist. Team and Enterprise plans do not have it yet.

What it does before it asks

Anthropic says Duet checks connected accounts every few hours, because checking nonstop would use the plan’s limits faster. The help center says those checks run on a set interval, so something urgent can arrive between them. Duet has a virtual machine with its own browser, so the laptop or phone does not have to stay on. It runs on Claude Opus 5.5, and the person cannot choose a different model.

Duet can check Intuit QuickBooks or Stripe for unpaid invoices and draft reminders. It can prepare and run payroll in Gusto, with hours, bonuses, and reimbursements filled in. It can draft a job posting and, after the person edits and approves, post it to LinkedIn. It can help prepare agreements for review and signature in Docusign, and draft follow-ups from HubSpot. Anthropic’s company-reported count is over 6,000 connectors and plugins in the Claude Marketplace.

The launch post says the preview “might misread a thread or miscalibrate what’s urgent.” The person cannot watch the browser or take it over. Duet does not make phone calls or send text messages to other people. With approval, it can send email from a connected account. Only that person can mark a task complete.

Where a person still has to say yes

Duet reads, drafts, and prepares on its own. Before a send, a payment, a signature, or a delete, Anthropic says it shows what it is about to do and waits. If the person cannot approve right away, the help center says Duet finishes the rest of the task and brings the approval back later.

Some actions stay off-limits even with approval. The launch post names trading securities and moving money between accounts. The help center names those two and adds accessing someone else’s account.

Anthropic says a classifier is designed to reject requests to share credit card numbers and government identification. Health information and personal finances are let through only when the person has explicitly told Duet to send them. Anthropic says Duet never directly sees passwords or sign-in tokens. When a site asks for a password, the person types it on their own device.

Which plan can hold the login

Anthropic says the preview is included with Pro and Max at no extra cost and shares that plan’s usage limits. The help center names the five-hour session limit and the weekly limit, at the same rate as chats in Claude. The morning brief and the check-ins count, so the limit can arrive sooner. A person who is admitted gets one full reset of both limits. That reset is available until November 30, 2026.

Invitations go out in waves, and joining does not come with a date. The account has to be in the United States. The waitlist email has to match the Claude account and the Apple or Google account on the phone. The help center says Duet is not on Team or Enterprise yet. Anthropic says it plans to bring Duet to those plans later. Until then, a login that can hold Gusto, QuickBooks, or Stripe is a Pro or Max account on the waitlist.

Microsoft 365 is not available yet. Slack works with limits. Disconnecting an app stops new access. Memory from earlier conversations is kept.

Four lines before anyone connects an app

Write four lines from the launch post and the help center. The page is a record of whose login would hold which system.

1. Account. Pro or Max, in the United States, on the waitlist. If the company plan is Team or Enterprise, write that Duet is not on this plan yet.

2. Approver. The person who sees the screen before a message is sent, a payment is made, a document is signed, or anything is deleted. If that person is away, Anthropic says the rest of the task can finish and the approval can wait.

3. Still off-limits after a yes. Trading securities. Moving money between accounts. Accessing someone else’s account.

4. Missing or limited connectors. Microsoft 365 is not in this preview. Slack works with limits. If no connector is listed, write that down. The help center says Duet can still open that site in its own browser.

Payroll is the worked example. Duet can prepare and run payroll in Gusto, with hours, bonuses, and reimbursements filled in. The payment still waits for the approver. Moving money between accounts stays off-limits even when that person says yes. Keep both sentences on the page.

Invoices split the same way. Duet can check QuickBooks or Stripe for unpaid invoices and draft reminders. Sending the reminder is a message, so it waits. The draft and the send are different lines.

What to do this week

• Fill in the four lines for Gusto, QuickBooks, Stripe, Gmail, Slack, Docusign, HubSpot, and LinkedIn.
• Where the account is Team or Enterprise, write that Duet is not on this plan yet. Next to Microsoft 365, write that the connector is not available yet.
• Write November 30, 2026 beside the one-time limit reset. The morning brief counts against the five-hour and weekly limits.
• Leave a connector unconnected until the account line names the plan and the approver line names a person.