All comparisonsChecked November 13, 2026
Brigade vs Claude Cowork
Cowork made Claude an agent for everyday work, for one person and their own tasks. Brigade makes Claude Code and Codex a team for your company: several teammates at once, each with its own job, Apps, memory and rules, triggers that start them on their own, your colleagues in the same threads, and every decision that needs you in one shared list. It runs on the same Claude plan, adds your ChatGPT plan beside it, and is open source.
Side by side
| Feature | Brigade | Claude Cowork |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | An open-source app that gives your company a team of AI teammates, each one the official Claude Code or Codex with a job, its own computer, the Apps you give it and a shared memory. | Claude as an agent across your files and tools, now part of the Claude app. |
| Who pays for AI | Your own Claude or ChatGPT plan. Brigade never bills you for AI usage. | Included in Claude’s paid plans; it uses their limits faster than chat. |
| AI models | Claude through Claude Code and GPT through Codex, side by side; a model per teammate. | Claude only. |
| Your team | Several teammates, each with one job, and your colleagues in the same threads, lists and files. | One person’s sessions; on Team and Enterprise, admins manage access and connectors, and finished work can be shared. |
| Starts on its own | Yes: triggers (an email, a webhook, a failed payment) and schedules. | Scheduled tasks, such as a weekly report. |
| How you stay in control | For each teammate, you choose whether its writes to Apps (an email through Gmail, a change in Stripe, a merge on GitHub) go on their own or wait for your yes, and each mailbox can be set to approve every email. Every request lands in one Needs you list, also on your phone. Commands and files on its own computer don’t ask. | Asks before acting by default, inside each session; you can let it carry on and check in when needed. |
| Code | Each teammate is Claude Code or Codex: it writes, tests and ships code, with pull requests and previews. | Runs code in its sandbox to make files; Claude Code is Anthropic’s separate product for software. |
| Open source | Yes, MIT. You can read every line and host it yourself. | No. |
Which one is for you
Pick Brigade if
- You want a team for your company, several teammates with their own jobs, not one assistant per person.
- You want ChatGPT beside Claude, with a model per teammate.
- You want teammates to start on their own when an email, a webhook or a failed payment arrives.
- You want your colleagues and every decision in one place, and to read the code.
Pick Claude Cowork if
- You work alone and want Claude to handle your own documents, research and files.
What Claude Cowork is
Claude Cowork is Anthropic’s agent for work beyond code, launched in January 2026 as “Claude Code for the rest of your work”. Since September 2026 it is part of the Claude app itself (“Claude Cowork is now just Claude”): Claude works across your files and tools toward a goal, in cloud sessions that carry on after you close your laptop, runs scheduled tasks, and asks before acting by default. It comes with Claude’s paid plans (Pro, Max, Ultra, Team and Enterprise) and draws on their usage limits.
Meet your AI teammates
Start free on your own computer. Brigade runs on the Claude or ChatGPT plan you already pay for.
Sources, checked on November 13, 2026
What this page says about Claude Cowork comes from these pages. Products change: if something here is out of date, open an issue on GitHub.