Release notes · Agent Cowork

Agent Cowork for Chrome 3.0

October 12, 2026

Chrome updates installed copies automatically once Google approves the new version.

Works without the desktop app. Click the toolbar icon to open a side panel and sign in with your Agent Cowork account.
Chat with the page. The agent reads the page you are on, clicks, types and opens pages, and asks before buying, paying, sending, posting, deleting or submitting. Password, one-time code and card fields are never filled.
Screen recording. Record the whole screen, a window or a tab, with your microphone if you choose. Recordings save to Downloads/Agent Cowork/recordings.
The desktop app and the CLI connect to it as before.

Version 2.0

October 11, 2026

Web, desktop 2.0.91 for Windows and Mac, and the CLI. Update as described below.

It finishes the whole job

A checklist for every request. The agent lists everything you asked for, ticks items off as they are delivered and keeps going until every one is done. You no longer need to type “continue”.
Short notes while it works, so you can follow what it is doing, and one short answer at the end.
Only your deliveries stay in the chat. The progress card goes away once the work is done; it stays only if something stopped.

Your files

Delivered files appear as cards wherever they were saved. Websites open as running pages, videos play, and documents, spreadsheets and presentations preview.
On the web, a website always opens as the page, never as its code.
Where should this chat work? A new chat in the desktop app can get its own folder inside your project, the project folder itself, or another folder. Change the default in Settings, Privacy and safety, New chats.
Revisions update the same file instead of creating copies, and working files go in a work subfolder.

Video

Animated videos from an idea in the desktop app: promos, explainers, reels and animated charts, planned as scenes, with a preview to approve before the final render.
The video tools install with the app. Videos play in the chat and in the side panel.
When several connected services could make an image, video or music, Agent Cowork asks which one to use.

Control

Approvals are now Read only, Default and Full access. Default edits files and runs commands in your project without asking; risky commands and paid generation still ask.
Approval requests appear above the message box. A connected service set to Always ask asks once per chat.
Team of agents waits for its helpers and delivers their files in your chat.

Web: nothing to do. Windows: Settings, Updates, Check for updates. Mac: the app updates itself from your Applications folder. CLI: run agent update.

Version 1.8.26 (hotfix)

September 16, 2026

Windows desktop 1.8.26 and Cowork Code 1.8.27, built from the same tag. Recommended for everyone on 1.8.25. Mac follows from the same release.

Sessions that would not start after a skill update. On Windows, updating a bundled skill could leave a stuck folder that stopped every new session with a start-up error. Nothing temporary is written inside the skills folder any more, deletes are only believed once the name is gone, every launch sweeps leftovers, and if an entry still cannot be removed the agent starts from a clean copy of your skills. agent doctor names anything stuck. Your own skills are untouched.
Cowork Ultra. A fourth model, our most capable, available on the Pro plan. Everyone sees it in the picker; on other plans it is locked with an upgrade link and is never sent by accident. Automatic mode never selects it.
Cowork Boost moved to a faster and more economical engine.

Update from the desktop app or the download page; for the terminal, run agent update (or cowork-code update once).

Version 1.8.25

September 16, 2026

Windows desktop and Cowork Code 1.8.26. Mac follows from the same release, built from the same tag.

Installing and updating

Windows first run now completes. On a clean, non-administrator account the first launch could get stuck downloading the coding engine again and again. Downloading and unpacking are now separate steps with separate remedies: a partly unpacked engine is checked and finished in place instead of being thrown away, a completed download is kept between attempts, and a genuinely missing file is named instead of looping. A first run interrupted half-way is finished on the next launch.
Update failures say what went wrong. A full disk, a denied permission, an antivirus quarantine and a damaged download each have their own message and their own retry behaviour, instead of one sentence about your connection.
There is a way back. If the app fails to start three times after an update, the update notice offers the previous version’s installer. More past installers are kept available, so a rollback always has somewhere to go.

Your data on this machine

Provider and account keys stored on your computer are encrypted at rest using your operating system’s own key protection. Existing plaintext keys are converted the first time they are read. Diagnostic logs redact a wider range of key formats, so a log you send to support cannot carry a key.
Your settings file records its own version and is migrated forward on read, with a dated backup taken first.

Four models, and the choice explained before you make it

Cowork Flash, Cowork Pro and Cowork Boost on every paid plan, and Cowork Ultra: our most capable model for the hardest work, on the Pro plan. Ultra is shown to every paid account with what it needs, so you can see it before you decide.
Neither the desktop app nor the terminal decides that list any more: both show exactly what your account offers, with its names and descriptions, so a change reaches you without an app update. A retired name is no longer offered, but a conversation already using one keeps it.
Switching up is advised before it takes effect. Moving to a more capable model spends your allowance faster, so the app says so first and offers “Switch now” or “New conversation with”. In the terminal the same question appears as [s]witch / [n]ew / [c]ancel; /model <id> --yes answers it without hiding the advice.
Automatic mode is the default on paid plans. The agent picks the model for each step and tells you when it moves up, as its own line in your usage. Automatic mode chooses between Flash, Pro and Boost; Cowork Ultra is only ever selected by hand.

Usage you can actually read

Usage is reported in percentages only. No amounts of money appear in the app or the terminal.
Your top-up balance is its own balance, in its own card, separate from the monthly allowance. Previously a purchased balance was folded into the monthly scale, which is how one screen could show “53% available” beside a meter reading 8.8% left.
Threshold notices at 50%, 80% and 90% of the monthly allowance, with the renewal date and what happens at 100%, now reach the desktop Usage page and the terminal’s /usage.
AI Images has its own counter: how many you have generated this month, your limit, what remains and when it resets. Searching for existing licensed photographs is included and is not metered.

Images: find one first, generate only when you must

The agent searches for an existing, licensed photograph first and generates a new image only when a real photograph cannot do the job. Generation draws on your monthly AI Images allowance; search does not.
Where a photograph requires attribution, the attribution comes with it. When the monthly image allowance is spent, the refusal says so plainly.
Photo search now works in the terminal as well as the desktop app; it previously did nothing there.

Cowork Code 1.8.26

The command is agent. Every message, help screen and document says agent. The earlier names, cowork-code, agent-cowork-code, agent-cowork and cowork, are still installed as aliases, so existing scripts need no changes.
A real typing box. Rewritten from scratch: the cursor is the terminal’s own and sits in your text, including on wrapped lines; editing works on the mid-turn note line, which previously could not be edited at all. It repaints only the rows that changed, so typing while the agent works no longer floods the terminal, and Enter sends in about two milliseconds instead of fifty.
It starts in under a second. A small background process keeps engines warm, and that warm engine now serves automatic mode as well, which previously forced a cold start on every command. agent daemon status shows what is warm; agent daemon stop shuts it down.
No black console window on Windows when the background engine starts.
Skills your machine can actually use. Instead of installing all 93 bundled skills everywhere, the terminal installs the set that fits your machine and your projects, the same way the desktop app decides it. Nothing is deleted: a skill the rule turns off is parked and returns when it applies again, and a skill you edited or added yourself is left alone.

Chrome extension

Agent Cowork’s Chrome extension 2.0 has been submitted and is awaiting review in the Chrome Web Store. Version 1.2.x keeps working with this release in both directions.

Update from the desktop app or the download page; for the terminal, run agent update.

Version 1.8.24

September 15, 2026

Windows desktop and Cowork Code 1.8.25. Mac follows from the same release.

Automatic model selection

Hard tasks get a stronger model on their own. On paid plans, automatic mode is now the default: a task starts on the model you chose and moves to Cowork Boost, then Cowork Premium, only when it hits real trouble, such as repeated failing steps or a plan that had to be thrown away, and only while your monthly allowance can cover it. Premium still asks for your approval once per task. Choose a model by hand at any time to stay on it.
You see when it happens: the terminal prints “Escalated to Cowork Boost after repeated tool failures”, and the desktop turn chip shows the tier.
Existing desktop installs rebuild their engine once, in the background, before automatic mode turns on.
Terminal: the warm engine now also serves automatic mode, so later commands keep starting in about a second.

Update from the desktop app or the download page; for the terminal, run cowork-code update.

Version 1.8.23

September 15, 2026

Windows desktop and Cowork Code 1.8.24. Mac follows from the same release.

See your whole month

One usage bar for the whole allowance. Settings → Usage, the website dashboard and /usage in the terminal show where the month went: Cowork Flash / Plus / Pro, Cowork Boost, Cowork Premium, requests in flight, and what is left, each with the amount and percentage. Boost is no longer shown as a separate credit.
Warnings before you run out. At 50 %, 80 %, 90 % and 100 % of the monthly allowance you get a notice in the app, in the dashboard and in the terminal, once per threshold and period, with the renewal date and any top-up balance you still have.
Cowork Pro now runs on the same latest-generation engine as Flash and Plus, with its larger context and output limits and image understanding.

Update from the desktop app or the download page; for the terminal, run cowork-code update.

Version 1.8.22

September 15, 2026

Windows and Mac desktop, and Cowork Code 1.8.23.

Desktop

The remaining allowance percentage is correct on every model, including Boost and Premium, and never shows more than the meter holds when you have top-ups.
The Usage page in Settings shows your monthly allowance again, with Boost and Premium drawing from the same pool.
Ready for Agent Cowork for Chrome 2.0: the browser tools are offered to the model as typed tools, and the new extension works in its own Chrome window so your tabs stay untouched. Until the 2.0 extension is approved in the Chrome Web Store, the 1.2 extension keeps working as before.

Cowork Code 1.8.23

Same browser tools as the desktop: ac-browser gains hover, drag, upload, select, batched run, smart waits, network and console logs, per-site rules, and background screenshots with the 2.0 extension.

Update from the desktop app or the download page; for the terminal, run cowork-code update.

Cowork Code 1.8.22

September 14, 2026

Terminal only. Run cowork-code update.

Much faster starts. A background helper keeps the coding engine warm per project, so the second and later commands attach in milliseconds instead of booting the engine for ~10 seconds. cowork-code daemon status shows what is warm; engines are released after 15 minutes idle.
A clear input box. The typing area sits between two rules with a footer showing the model, workspace, approval mode and queued notes, in the idle prompt and while a turn runs.
Your messages stand out. What you send, and side notes typed during a turn, are highlighted in the feed.
Multi-line messages. \+Enter, Ctrl+J or Alt+Enter add a line; Enter sends. ↑ recalls the last side note.
Signing in is read once per command instead of before every turn.

Version 1.8.20

September 14, 2026

Available for Windows and Cowork Code. Mac received these changes in 1.8.21.

Desktop

Files the agent produces appear as cards in the conversation, with Preview, Show in folder, Open and Download.
Approval prompts stay inside the chat. Choose Allow always to grant full access for the rest of the session, after a confirmation.
One Settings surface for the whole app.
Tighter chat spacing when reasoning is hidden.
Dragging and dropping large documents no longer freezes the app.
Cowork Premium is selectable in the model picker on all paid plans. It offers the strongest reasoning for complex work and draws from the same monthly allowance faster. Cowork Boost is enabled on paid plans.

Cowork Code

Live streaming of the answer as it is written, with tool activity and end-of-turn summaries in the terminal.
Questions and approvals are answered directly in the terminal.
The input stays open during a turn: anything you type is passed along as a side note. /btw does the same explicitly.
--continue reopens your most recent conversation; /summary recaps the current one.
--verbose and --show-thinking reveal more of what the engine is doing.
Cowork Premium is selectable with /model premium.
Multi-line paste is handled correctly.

Update from the desktop app or the download page; for the terminal, run /update or cowork-code update.

Version 1.8.14

September 12, 2026

One clear monthly usage allowance per paid period, with optional top-ups and a one-time free trial for eligible new accounts.
Support tickets in your account, with replies and conversation history.
Faster local transcription on Apple Silicon, with Arabic, English and French sample checks.
A more compact homepage with visible typing and a polished, responsive documentation layout.
Account menu items open the matching settings page.
Cowork Boost appears in the model picker for complex work on paid plans. It shares the monthly allowance with the core models, and top-ups extend that shared allowance. Its current availability is shown in your account.
Package changes take effect at the next renewal. Your account shows the scheduled package and date.
Agent Cowork branding throughout startup, a smaller founder portrait, and dated account announcements.
Administrator controls for plan prices, monthly allowances, top-ups, customer usage inspection and ticket handling.

Desktop, Mac and terminal installation instructions are in the getting started guide. Voice models may take longer to initialize on first use.

Version 1.8.13

September 11, 2026

Signed and notarized installers for Apple Silicon and Intel Macs, alongside Windows and CLI downloads.
A new teal identity and a redesigned download page.
Arabic storytelling, right-to-left documents and interfaces, and selective tashkeel support.
Document and image attachments in the composer, plus a stronger multilingual voice model.
Browser interaction and screenshots in Cowork Code.
Closing a Mac window keeps Cowork running in the Dock.
Quota percentages and spending safeguards for paid plans.

How to update

Check for updates in the desktop app or install the latest version from the download page. Your saved app data and skills are preserved.

For terminal installation and update commands, see the Cowork Code guide.

Chrome extension updates are reviewed separately by Google and reach installed copies automatically once approved.