Anthropic Lets Claude Send Gmail and Opens Cowork on Paid Plans

Anthropic announced on 18 August 2026 that Claude can send, reply to, and forward Gmail on all paid plans, and that weekly Claude Code limits stay 50% higher through 31 August 2026.

The same day, Claude Cowork reached mobile and web on every paid account so you can watch the agent work. Native send was the missing Google Workspace piece. Connectors for Gmail, Calendar, and Drive already existed.

Free remains unpromised. Do not write a skill that assumes send on a free seat.

What Claude Gmail can do now

Claude Gmail can send new mail, reply, and forward. It can also manage files in Google Drive.

That is the product change. Reading a thread is not the news. Acting on it is.

The Google Workspace connectors were already in the product. Calendar, Drive, and Gmail ingest were not the gap. Outbound mail was. Treat this as a write-path launch, not a new connector family.

If you already drafted hard replies in chat, the next step is to keep a human on the send button until your org policy says otherwise. A reply to a difficult email with AI still needs a review pass. Native send does not replace that pass.

Approval is the default, not a footnote

Claude asks for approval before it sends, replies, or forwards. That is the default.

Team and Enterprise owners decide whether members may allow those actions without asking each time. Individual Pro and Max users should assume the prompt stays on unless they change it.

Do not bury that in a skill as “Claude will just send it.” Write the skill as if a human still clicks. If your Team owner later turns on unattended send, change the skill in one place.

Unattended send is an org policy, not a model capability. Pin the policy in the skill header so a new hire does not inherit a silent mailbox.

Cowork on mobile and web for paid accounts

Claude Cowork is now on mobile and web for all paid accounts. The stated reason is so users can watch what it is doing.

Watching is the feature. If you cannot see the steps, you cannot catch a wrong recipient or a Drive move you did not ask for. Use the live view the first week you let it touch mail.

Cowork is not a new model. It is a surface that shows the work. Pair it with a Skill prompt that names the mailbox, the allowed folders, and the stop conditions.

Agent teams that share standing goals still need a deny list. The Anthropic and EPFL mind-virus paper is the reminder: a mailbox agent that forwards a novel standing instruction is a hop. Ban that hop in the skill.

Claude Code limits stay 50% higher through 31 August

Anthropic also extended the 50% increase in weekly Claude Code limits through 31 August 2026. The previous end date was 19 August. The bump applies to Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise.

If you planned usage as if 19 August restored the old cap, you have until 31 August. Do not assume the bump continues after that unless Anthropic says so. Log weekly Code spend now.

Practical takeaways

• Pin send, reply, and forward to paid plans only.
• Keep approval-on as the skill default.
• Watch Cowork on mobile or web for the first mail jobs.
• Treat Drive file moves with the same approval habit as send.
• Revisit Claude Code budgets before 31 August 2026.

Sources

• Use Google Workspace connectors — Claude Help Center
• Claude Gmail send, Drive, and Cowork on mobile and web — The Verge, 18 August 2026