I tested the 5 best Claude Cowork alternatives

There’s a lot of buzz around Anthropic's new agentic features like Claude Cowork, and it’s easy to see why. It feels like a genuine step toward AI agents that act like digital colleagues. The promise is tempting: give it access to your files, and it can automate complex, multi-step tasks like organizing a messy desktop or prepping all your documents for an audit.

But once you start digging, you hit the "but..." that has people searching for Claude Cowork alternatives. It isn't a standalone product you can purchase. It's a feature baked into Claude's paid "Team" and "Enterprise" plans, and its main job is working with files. What if your work doesn't just live in a single folder?

That's exactly why we put this guide together. We've spent time testing the top 5 alternatives out there. Whether you're a developer needing a coding sidekick or a business team looking to automate real workflows, we’ve got something for you.

What is an AI coworker, really?

Let's get one thing straight: an "AI coworker" or "agentic AI" is fundamentally different from a chatbot like ChatGPT. A chatbot answers questions. An AI coworker takes action.

The whole idea is that you can give it a high-level goal, like "Summarize these support tickets and find the top three feature requests," and it can figure out the steps to get it done on its own. It's the difference between asking an assistant for information and actually delegating a task to them.

So, what makes an AI coworker tick?

• Tool Use: It can connect to and use other software, APIs, or websites to get the job done.
• File System Access: It can read, write, and organize files, whether they're on your computer or in the cloud.
• Long-Running Tasks: You can give it a project, and it'll work on it over time without you needing to constantly check in.

Basically, an AI coworker does the work for you, not just gives you the information to do it yourself.

How we picked the best Claude Cowork alternatives

Our goal was to find tools that capture the spirit of Cowork, which is automating real work, but also bring different strengths to the table, whether that’s being more accessible, more focused, or safer to use.

Here’s what we looked for:

• Real Agentic Capabilities: How well does it actually handle multi-step tasks? Can it use other tools or just shuffle files around?
• Target Audience & Usability: Is this built for experienced developers, or can a non-technical team get it running without requiring support from the engineering department?
• Safety and Control: This is a big one. What guardrails are in place? Can you check its work before it goes live? We looked for platforms with solid security compliance like SOC 2 and GDPR.
• Primary Use Case: Is it a general-purpose tool for tidying up your desktop, a framework for developers, or a specialized tool for automating business processes?

Claude Cowork alternatives at a glance

Tool	Best For	Ease of Use	Key Feature	Starting Price
eesel AI	Customer-facing & internal business automation	Non-technical teams	The AI Teammate Model	$239/mo (annual)
GitHub Copilot	Developers & software engineering	Technical	AI pair programmer in the IDE	Free tier available
Microsoft 365 Copilot	General productivity & Office tasks	Non-technical users	Deep OS & Office Integration	Included with eligible M365 plans
Moveworks	Enterprise IT & HR automation	Enterprise teams	Pre-built internal support workflows	Custom (enterprise)
ChatGPT Agent	Web-based task automation	Non-technical users	Autonomous web browsing (agent mode)	Included in Business/Enterprise plans

Top 5 Claude Cowork alternatives for real workflows

1. eesel AI

Claude Cowork focuses on file organization, while eesel AI is a specialized AI teammate you "hire" to automate work where it actually happens: inside your help desk and internal chat tools. Instead of pointing it at a folder, you connect it to business apps like Zendesk, Freshdesk, Intercom, and Slack. From there, it instantly learns your business processes from your past conversations and data. Then it starts working right alongside your human team to resolve up to 81% of customer conversations on its own.

A key feature is the "teammate model." The process is designed for more control than a simple on/off switch. You onboard it, just like a new hire. You can start it in a supervised "Copilot" mode where it just drafts replies for your human agents to review and send. Once you see it's getting things right, you can "level it up" to a fully autonomous "AI Agent". This controlled rollout gives you the safety and trust you need when an AI is talking to your actual customers. You can even run simulations on thousands of your past tickets to see exactly how it would perform before it ever touches a live conversation.

For most businesses, eesel offers a fast path to automating real workflows, learning from your existing data in minutes without any code. It is not a generalist tool for organizing your personal desktop; it’s focused on solving specific business problems, like managing your support ticket queue or giving instant answers to your employees.

Pricing:

• Team: Starts at $299/month ($239/mo if billed annually) for 1,000 AI interactions and up to 3 bots.
• Business: Starts at $799/month ($639/mo if billed annually) for 3,000 interactions, unlimited bots, and advanced features like training on past tickets.
• Custom: Custom pricing for unlimited interactions and enterprise needs.

Why we picked it: For teams looking for a Claude Cowork alternative to solve business challenges, eesel AI is a practical choice. It focuses on deep integrations into the tools where your team lives instead of general-purpose file access, giving you a safe, measurable, and fast way to automate.

2. GitHub Copilot

For developers, a powerful Claude Cowork alternative is GitHub Copilot. It's billed as an "AI pair programmer," and it lives right inside your code editor (like VS Code, JetBrains, or Neovim) to help speed up many aspects of the coding process. Instead of just organizing your project files, it actively helps you write, debug, and understand code. Copilot's strength is its deep understanding of your project's context. It gives you real-time code completions, suggests entire functions, and can answer questions about your codebase through a chat window right in your editor. With features like "Copilot Autofix", it can even spot vulnerabilities found by GitHub's security tools and suggest a fix. It’s less of an assistant and more of an active collaborator in the coding process.

The upside is that it integrates seamlessly into a developer's workflow and can provide a productivity boost. The main drawback is its narrow focus. It is highly effective for code-related tasks, but it's not built for general business tasks, summarizing documents, or anything outside of the development world.

Pricing:

• Free: Includes up to 2,000 completions and 50 chat requests per month.
• Pro: $10/month for unlimited completions and chats, plus access to the Copilot coding agent.
• Business & Enterprise: Starts at $21/user/month, adding organizational policy management and enhanced security.

Why we picked it: GitHub Copilot is a leading AI coworker for software development. It goes beyond simple task automation to become a core part of the coding process, offering a clear and immediate productivity win for any technical team.

3. Microsoft 365 Copilot

Microsoft's strategy is to integrate an AI "Copilot" across its ecosystem, which makes Microsoft 365 Copilot one of the most accessible AI coworkers for millions of people. It’s an AI assistant that’s built right into Windows and the Microsoft 365 apps you may use every day, like Teams, Outlook, and Excel.

Its biggest strength is that deep integration and its ability to reason across all your work data. It can do OS-level tasks like "turn on dark mode," summarize a meeting you missed in Teams, draft an email in Outlook based on a Word doc, or analyze data in Excel using plain English. For any tasks that live inside the Microsoft bubble, it can be a productivity booster.

The benefits are clear: it's user-friendly and already in the tools you use daily. The main catch, though, is that its primary strength is within the Microsoft suite, with more limited autonomy for tasks outside this ecosystem. Copilot functions more as an assistant within applications than a fully independent agent; it's not going to manage a complex project that spans multiple non-Microsoft apps from start to finish.

Pricing:

• Copilot Chat: Included at no additional cost for eligible Microsoft 365 subscribers.
• Microsoft 365 Copilot Business: An add-on starting from $18/user/month (paid yearly) for full integration into M365 apps and access to your work data.

Why we picked it: Microsoft 365 Copilot is on this list because its widespread availability makes it a significant tool. While it may not be as autonomous as some of the other systems, it introduces the concept of an AI coworker to millions of people and is useful for automating simple, daily tasks on a PC.

4. Moveworks

Moveworks is an enterprise-grade "AI Assistant platform" that focuses on automating internal support tasks, especially for the IT and HR teams at large companies. It works inside chat platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams, so employees can just ask for help in plain English. The AI then resolves the issue on its own by talking to backend systems like ServiceNow, Workday, and Jira.

Trusted by over 350 organizations, Moveworks shines in corporate environments with clear, defined internal processes. It can handle common tasks like password resets, getting access to software, or answering questions about company policies, which frees up human support teams from doing repetitive tasks. Its value comes from deep, pre-built integrations and a marketplace of over 1,000 AI agents designed for specific corporate jobs.

The biggest advantage for Moveworks is its proven track record in the enterprise world, delivering measurable ROI by deflecting a large portion of internal support tickets. The main downside is that Moveworks is a comprehensive, enterprise-level platform. It’s not for individuals or small businesses, and implementation is often a significant project. It's also focused squarely on employee support, not customer-facing automation.

Pricing:

• Sold as an enterprise SaaS subscription. You'll need to get a custom quote.

Why we picked it: Moveworks is a key Claude Cowork alternative for large companies. It's a perfect example of how agentic AI can be applied in a structured corporate environment to solve high-volume internal problems, demonstrating how agentic AI can be applied within enterprise systems.

5. ChatGPT Agent

What started as a research preview called "Operator" is now a feature in ChatGPT called "agent mode." This takes ChatGPT beyond just conversation and into the world of action, letting it use a browser on your behalf to handle multi-step online tasks. For example, you could give it your grocery list, and it would go to an online store, add everything to your cart, and get the order ready for you to check out.

The agent's key strength is its ability to "see" and interact with any website just like a person would, without needing a special API. It can fill out forms, click buttons, and navigate around websites completely on its own. This makes it incredibly flexible for automating any task that happens in a browser, like booking dinner reservations or comparing products across different shopping sites.

The appeal here is its universal power for web tasks. The main limitation is that its world is currently limited to the browser. It can't touch your local files or desktop apps, which puts it in a different league from Claude Cowork's file-based approach. Access is also tied to the paid ChatGPT business plans.

Pricing:

• Included as a feature in ChatGPT Business (pricing varies by region, e.g., NOK 249/user/month) and Enterprise plans.

Why we picked it: The ChatGPT agent provides a glimpse into the future of web automation. For anyone whose repetitive work lives mainly inside a browser, it's a powerful Claude Cowork alternative that offers a different, but compelling, vision for what AI agents can be.

For those interested in seeing how open-source projects are tackling this space, tools like OpenWork are gaining traction. They aim to provide a similar agentic experience for free, often with a focus on local file interaction. This video gives a quick look at how it works.

A brief look at OpenWork, a free and open-source tool for users looking for Claude Cowork alternatives. ### Tips for choosing the right Claude Cowork alternatives

Here are a few key things to consider as you evaluate your options.

• Start with the problem, not the tool. Before you get distracted by features, figure out the exact workflow you want to automate. Is it organizing research files, triaging support tickets, or speeding up code reviews? The right tool for one job is often the wrong one for another.
• Think about your team's technical skills. Are you a developer comfortable with building custom solutions? A tool like GitHub Copilot will feel like home. Are you a non-technical manager who just needs something that works? A no-code platform is going to get you value way faster.
• Prioritize safety and control. Letting an AI loose on your files or with your customers is a big deal. Look for tools that offer a supervised or "Copilot" mode, let you run tests in a safe sandbox environment, and give you clear control over what it can and can't do.
• Decide between a generalist and a specialist. A general-purpose agent might sound great, but a specialist is often more effective for a specific task. If your goal is to automate customer service, an AI trained specifically on help desk data like eesel AI is going to be more effective than a generic file organizer.

The future of Claude Cowork alternatives is collaborative

Claude Cowork has started a new conversation, but the alternatives prove that the future of agentic AI isn't a one-size-fits-all solution. While tools that organize folders are useful, the potential of AI agents is more fully realized when they become specialized teammates that plug directly into specific business workflows.

The best approach isn't just about handing off tasks; it's about collaboration. The best tools are the ones that let you onboard an AI like a new hire, guide its work, and slowly give it more responsibility as it earns your trust. This "teammate model" is what ensures safety, gets your team on board, and delivers real, measurable results.

For business teams ready to move beyond generic chat and start automating their customer support or internal knowledge, the next step is pretty clear.

Ready to hire your first AI teammate? See how eesel AI learns your business in minutes and can start resolving up to 81% of your support tickets autonomously.