How to Use Claude Cowork's Built-In Browser: Setup and the 10 Jobs to Hand It First
Let Claude open websites, click through them, and bring you back the answer: the one setting that turns on the built-in browser, how to keep it safe, and ten copy-and-paste jobs that replace an evening of tabs, from price checks to a table of the best-rated options near you.
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You know the evening. Twenty tabs open, comparing groomers or plans or prices, copying phone numbers into a note, losing the one that had the good reviews. Claude can do that now. Type one sentence in Cowork, and a browser opens inside Claude, searches, clicks into each site, reads it, and hands you the table. This guide is the one setting that turns it on, the two-minute safety setup, and ten jobs to hand it first, each one a real evening of tabs you don’t have to do anymore.
Claude desktop app, Settings, Cowork, Preferred browser, pick Built-in browser. Open Cowork and type the job in one sentence with what you want back: "Find three mobile dog groomers near me with at least a 4.5 rating. Put them in a table with the price and the phone number." A browser opens in the side panel, Claude works, you watch. Nothing to install. On the $20 plan.
The built-in browser is a web browser that lives inside Claude Cowork on the desktop app. When a job needs a website, it opens in the side panel and Claude navigates, reads, clicks, and types on its own, then brings the result back to you. It's Claude's own browser, separate from yours, so it never sees your tabs or passwords unless you hand over a specific login.
Claude's $20 Pro plan or higher, and the Claude desktop app on Mac, Windows, or Linux (Linux is in beta). Nothing else. No extension, no install. The desktop app has to be open and online while a job runs, and a job you start on your phone or in a web browser uses the desktop app's browser as long as the app is open.
One setting. Anthropic turns it on by default, but the other option, Claude in Chrome, is one click away in the same menu, so check it once before your first job.
- Open the Claude desktop app.
- Click Settings, then Cowork.
- Under Preferred browser, choose Built-in browser. (The other option, Chrome (Claude in Chrome), uses your own Chrome and your own logins. Part 6 explains when you’d want that instead.)
- Open Cowork and type your job.
The first time it opens you’ll see a button to import cookies, which means bringing over the logins you’re already signed into in Chrome, Edge, or Firefox. It’s site by site: you tick the ones you want Claude to be able to use. Banking, email, and single sign-on accounts are left unchecked on purpose. Leave them that way until you have a reason not to. For the jobs below you don’t need to import anything.
Three parts, same as any job you hand Claude: what to find, what counts, and what to hand back. The one from the video has all three.
Find three mobile dog groomers near me with at least a 4.5 rating. Put them in a table with the price and the phone number.“Find three mobile dog groomers near me” is what to find. (If Claude asks where “near me” is, or you’d rather not leave it to guess, say your town.) “At least a 4.5 rating” is what counts. “A table with the price and the phone number” is what comes back. Say the shape you want (a table, a list, a short brief) and Claude stops when it has it instead of reading one more site.
Add a line when the job could touch money or an account. “Don’t buy anything.” “Don’t submit the form, show it to me first.” “Stop before you sign in anywhere.” Claude already pauses on the risky steps; saying it removes any doubt.
Each one is built to finish in one run and to come back as something you can use. Anything in [square brackets] is a blank: type your real detail and delete the brackets.
1. The best-rated options near you (the one from the video)
Find three [mobile dog groomers / plumbers / dentists / pet sitters] near [your town] with at least a 4.5 rating. Put them in a table with the name, the rating, the price or starting price if it's listed, the phone number, and the website. Don't contact anyone.2. Price-check before you buy
Check Amazon, Walmart, and [the brand's own site] for [exact product, with size and color]. For each store, get today's price, shipping cost, delivery date, and return window. Don't add anything to a cart and don't buy anything. Show me a table and tell me which one is cheapest all-in.3. Compare three plans or services
Compare the [phone / internet / insurance / software] plans from [company 1], [company 2], and [company 3] for someone who [your situation]. Use each company's own site. Put price, what's included, contract length, and the one catch in a table. Don't sign up for anything. Then tell me which you'd pick and why in two sentences.4. Find what’s on this weekend
Find five things happening in [your town] this [Saturday and Sunday] that are free or under $20: markets, live music, kids' events, outdoor stuff. Use the city's site, local event listings, and venue pages. Give me a table with the name, day and time, address, cost, and the link. Don't register for anything.5. Size up a competitor
Visit [competitor's website]. Find what they sell, their prices or packages, what they promise on the home page, how they ask people to get in touch, and their newest post or announcement. Stay on public pages, don't fill out forms or sign up. Show me a one-page summary and three things they do that I don't.6. Build a grocery list from recipes
Find three simple weeknight dinner recipes for [four people / two people] that use [chicken / ground beef / tofu] and take under 40 minutes. Use well-known recipe sites. Give me each recipe's name and link, then one combined grocery list with quantities, grouped by aisle.7. Check a portal you’ve imported
Open [my electric company's / my water company's] account page and pull the last six monthly bills: the date, the amount, and the usage. Don't change any settings and don't make a payment. Show me a table and tell me which month was highest.Only after you’ve imported that one login in the cookie step, on purpose. Not banking.
8. Find the earliest appointment
Go to [the DMV / my county's permit office / the passport office] site for [your county or city] and find the earliest available appointment for [the service] in the next 30 days at any location within 25 miles of [your town]. Don't book it. Show me the three earliest options with the location and the link.9. Shortlist job postings
Search LinkedIn Jobs and Indeed for [job title] within 25 miles of [city], posted in the last 7 days, [remote / hybrid / in person]. Read each posting. Skip anything that requires [a degree or certification you don't have]. Don't apply and don't message anyone. Show me a table of the 10 best matches with company, title, pay if listed, top three requirements, and the link.10. Fill a form, then show me
Open [the form's link]. Fill it in with these details: [name, email, the answers]. Don't submit it. Stop when every field is filled and show me the screen so I can check it and press submit myself."Show me a table with these columns" is the finish line. Without it, Claude keeps reading one more site to be thorough. With it, Claude stops when the table is full, and you get the answer instead of a research project.
Watch the side panel the first time. The browser opens next to the chat and you see every page Claude opens and every click. After the first job you’ll know what it does and you can let it run.
Steer it mid-job. Type into the chat while it’s working: “skip that site,” “only ones open on Saturday,” “stop at five.” It folds the note in without starting over.
Stop it if something looks off. That’s Anthropic’s own instruction, and it’s good advice. A page you don’t recognize, a form it’s about to submit that you didn’t ask for, a login prompt: stop the task, read what happened, and run it again with a tighter constraint.
Stay close for anything with real consequences. Money, accounts, anything you’d hate to undo. The jobs above are built so nothing gets bought, booked, or sent. Keep that habit.
It doesn’t use your browser. The built-in browser is Claude’s own. It can’t see your tabs, your bookmarks, or your passwords, and it isn’t signed into anything until you import a login for a specific site. If you want Claude working in your own Chrome, with your accounts and the page you already have open, that’s the other option in the same setting: Claude in Chrome. Built-in is for handing off a job. Chrome is for helping on a page you’re already on.
It doesn’t run with the app closed. The browser lives in the desktop app. A job from your phone waits until the app is open and online.
It blocks the risky stuff. High-risk sites are blocked, and banking, email, and single sign-on logins stay out unless you put them in. That’s the point, not a limitation.
Not on the free plan. Cowork, and the browser inside it, are part of Pro and above.
Flip the setting to Built-in browser, open Cowork, and paste job 1 with your own town and whatever you've been meaning to find. Watch the panel. When the table lands, that's the moment it clicks: twenty tabs, one sentence. Then hand it job 2 with the last thing you bought online and see what you could have saved.
- Anthropic, “Claude Cowork gets a built-in browser: nothing to install,” August 26, 2026: what it is, plans, platforms, the cookie import, and the safeguards. claude.com/blog
- Anthropic, “Use the built-in browser in Claude Cowork”: the Settings, Cowork, Preferred browser steps, first-run import, and the safety advice. support.claude.com
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