Is there a free Claude Cowork alternative? The open source options

What free actually means for each option

A free alternative can mean two things: the software costs nothing, or the whole thing runs at no new cost. Claude Cowork fails the first test. Anthropic lists Cowork inside paid plans only, on Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise, with Enterprise admins opting in, and the Free plan does not include it (Claude Cowork, Claude pricing; checked October 2026). There is no free tier for Cowork.

OpenWork answers differently. Its own site says the desktop app for macOS, Windows, and Linux is free and open source, needs no account, and works with your own provider keys, while your files stay on your machine. Its cloud Team plan is free for the first five seats, then per seat after that. Its GitHub repository confirms the desktop app and core platform are open source and free to use.

Kortix is the open-source AI Operating System, and it is free to self-host. The platform is one Docker Compose stack on a Linux box you control, so the platform bill is zero and the only new cost is the hardware. On managed cloud instead: Free is $0 with 200 credits per month and 1 project. The team plan is $40 per seat per month with 2,500 credits per month per seat, pooled (Kortix, checked October 2026). Self-host stays free either way.

The two bills an open-source stack splits

A closed plan is one bill: a subscription per person or per seat, renewed monthly. Cowork is included in the Claude plan a person already holds, and heavy use can push a team up the tiers.

An open-source stack splits that into two. The platform is free when you self-host, and you pay your model provider directly. Kortix is bring-your-own-key: any model provider with your own keys, or the ChatGPT plan you already pay for, or sign in with your OpenCode Console account for OpenCode Zen and Go. You pay your provider at its published rate, and you can route cheap work to a cheaper model. If you run a local model, that bill is zero too. The third cost on Kortix is agent compute: each session runs on its own cloud computer.

The free path is three commands on a box you own:

$ curl -fsSL https://kortix.com/install | bash$ kortix self-host init --domain kortix.example.com$ kortix self-host start

What you give up at each price

Self-hosting Kortix for free means you run the box, you hold the backup copies, and you own the update policy. In exchange, nothing leaves your infrastructure except the model calls you choose. The self-hosting guide covers the host, the domain, and the keys.

The Kortix free cloud tier is a place to start rather than to run a company: 200 credits per month and 1 project, with free credits limited to sandbox compute. A team that wants pooled credits, more projects, and managed models moves to the team plan. That upgrade buys seats and pooled credits, not the software, which stays open source.

OpenWork's free desktop is free for one person or a small team on their own files, and you manage the model keys yourself. Its cloud adds per-seat pricing after the first five seats, plus single sign-on and an extension marketplace. A team that needs one shared repo, roles, and a change-request gate is past the desktop shape, which is where Kortix fits.

Claude Cowork buys convenience and nothing to run. What you give up is the source, the self-host option, and model choice: it runs on Anthropic's models inside Anthropic's cloud or your own cloud account.

How to pick

One person working on local files with no setup: OpenWork's desktop app. A team that wants the platform, the memory, and the connectors in one git repo it owns, with a change-request gate and a self-host option: Kortix. Staying inside Anthropic's cloud on Anthropic's models: Claude Cowork, on a paid plan. The Claude Cowork pricing page lays out the closed product's own numbers, and the alternatives list covers the fuller field.