At a glance
| Linda | Claude Cowork | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the AI runs | On your Mac (MLX, Ollama, LM Studio) or a provider you choose | Anthropic's cloud; tasks run on your computer and in the cloud |
| Price | Free; online assistants pay as you go with your key | Claude Pro $20/month; Max $100–$200 for daily use |
| Models | Local open models, or Claude, GPT, Gemini, DeepSeek and more | Claude models |
| Account | None | Anthropic account |
| Browser | Its own browser profile, or your Chrome in its own tabs | Browser and computer use through Claude |
| Approvals | Send, buy, delete, post and personal data always ask, in code | Permission prompts and modes |
| Memory | On your Mac or your Qdrant server, editable | In your Claude account |
| Platforms | macOS 26, Apple silicon | Claude desktop apps |
Based on public pricing pages and coverage as of September 2026. Plans change; check the sources below.
Choose Linda if
- You want your files, passwords and memory to stay on your Mac, with the option to run the AI itself locally.
- You don't want another subscription: Linda is free, and online assistants are pay as you go with your own key.
- You want hard guarantees: send, buy, delete, post and personal data always ask, enforced in code.
- You live in Finder folders and want results as real files: spreadsheets, PDFs, Word and slides.
Choose Claude Cowork if
- You already pay for Claude and want everything in one Anthropic app.
- You need the strongest Claude models on every task and don't mind the cloud.
- You work across Mac and Windows.