I was sitting in a waiting room and kicked off an article outline from my phone. Two hours later, at my desk, I opened the same repo in Claude Code and finished it. That night a task ran in Cowork with my laptop shut. Three environments, one vendor, three different jobs. If you have to pick one to start with: Claude Code, because it is the only one of the three that sees your whole project instead of a single task.
The three in one table
| Environment | Where it runs | What you use it for | What it costs | What broke for me |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | On your own machine, inside your project folder | Work that touches several files at once: a site, a script, a repo with history | Included in Pro, 17 dollars a month on an annual plan and 20 dollars billed monthly | Two sessions in the same folder switched the branch out from under each other, and a commit landed on the wrong one |
| Claude Cowork | In the cloud, and since July 2026 it keeps going with your laptop shut | Recurring tasks with no repo: a morning briefing that is already waiting when you sit down | Also included in Pro; the heavier usage limits sit in Max, from 100 dollars a month | The five-hour limit is exactly where a productive day runs out of room |
| Dispatch | Starts a session on your own machine, driven from your phone | Getting a task moving while you’re out, then finishing it at your desk | No separate price, requires a Pro or Max plan | You start a new task rather than picking up a running session, so expect no handover of context |
What to weigh when choosing
Is your work a folder, or a single task? This is the dividing line that matters most. Claude Code reads the structure of your project and follows the conventions already in it. Cowork and Dispatch start from an instruction, not from a codebase.
Does it need to keep running while you’re away? Only Cowork runs tasks with your computer switched off. Claude Code and Dispatch both need your machine, even when you drive Dispatch from your phone.
Whose infrastructure is it, and where does your work sit? All three route through Anthropic. Dispatch runs on your machine, but the control path goes through a service you don’t own. With Cowork the work itself sits in the cloud. For a public project that hardly matters. For anything with personal data or client material it’s the first question, not the last.
Where is your ceiling on a busy day? Cowork works with a five-hour limit and a weekly one. On a day when things are flowing, that first ceiling is noticeable. Pro gets you in the door, Max gives you five or twenty times the room.
Claude Code: when your project is a folder
This is where I spend most of my time. The difference with pasting into a chat window is that it reads the folder and picks up the conventions already there. A new component in my site comes out shaped like the existing components, without me explaining that every time. I wrote earlier about what changed in a year, and that is the point: from supplying context to reading it.
What broke: I often run several sessions at once, and for a while they shared one working folder. When session A switched to a feature branch, HEAD moved out from under session B. That commit appeared to succeed but landed on the wrong branch, and the push cheerfully reported everything was up to date. The fix is boring and it works: a separate git worktree per session. It hasn’t happened since.
What I still miss: sharing results out of a session sits behind the business plans. Artifacts launched on Team and Enterprise, and for Pro and Max there is a promise but no date.
Claude Cowork: when it has to keep going
Cowork is the only one of the three that does something while you do nothing. Since July 2026 scheduled tasks also run with your computer off, and that changes what it’s good for. A morning briefing that is already there before I sit down is a different thing from a search I still have to start myself. I went into that in more depth when Cowork moved off the desk.
What chafes: the limit. Anthropic doubled it for a month, from 5 June to 5 July 2026, and that experiment is exactly what showed where the normal ceiling sits. On a day when things are flowing you will touch the five-hour limit. That is not a flaw in the product, it’s a pricing decision, but you meet it precisely when you’re in your rhythm.
Worth knowing: Cowork asks for your approval before it sends anything. That is the brake you want. A brake only works if you use it, and I come back to that below.
Dispatch: when you’re not at your desk
Dispatch starts a Claude Code session from your phone. You send an instruction, and the environment is set up on your end. The session then shows up in the Code tab of the mobile app, where you can watch or step in. I use it for the beginning of something: an outline, a rough structure, an idea that would otherwise evaporate. The full write-up is in the piece on Dispatch.
What resets your expectations: you don’t take over an existing session, you begin a new task. Anyone hoping to continue their morning session on the train will be disappointed. It is a start button, not a remote control for work already in progress.
What it doesn’t solve: with your machine off, nothing happens. Dispatch moves the controls, not the execution. That is precisely the difference with Cowork, and the reason those two don’t replace each other.
The caveat: three doors, one house
All three come from the same vendor, and that is not a detail. You build a way of working around services you don’t own, with limits and prices that change without you having a say. The temporary doubling in June was a gift, but it also showed how easily the floor moves. What sits in Pro today can be a Max feature tomorrow, and the other way round.
Set against that is a choice I made myself: my image pipeline runs locally, precisely because I wanted no meter and no subscription there. It is slower and it cost me evenings of setup. It also keeps working when the internet goes down.
The second point is subtler. Cowork asks for your approval before sending anything, and that is well designed. But the more that runs automatically, the faster that approval becomes a click instead of a judgement. The brake is in the product, the habit is on you.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use Claude Code and Cowork side by side?
Yes, and that’s the intent. Both sit in the same subscription and share your usage allowance. I use Code for work in a repo and Cowork for recurring tasks that need no codebase.
Do I need Max, or is Pro enough?
Pro gives access to Claude Code, Cowork, Design and Science, and costs 17 dollars a month on an annual plan or 20 dollars billed monthly. Max starts at 100 dollars a month and delivers five or twenty times the usage. So the question isn’t which features you want, but how often you hit a ceiling.
Does Dispatch work with my laptop switched off?
No. Dispatch starts a session on your machine, so it has to be on. If you want something to keep running while your computer is off, Cowork is the only one of the three that can.
What’s the difference between Dispatch and watching from your phone?
Watching means taking over a session that is already running. Dispatch starts something new. They sit next to each other in the same app, which is why they get confused.
Prices checked on Anthropic’s pricing page on 9 August 2026. Limits and features described as I used them myself between May and August 2026; Anthropic changes these regularly.