What is Claude's "co-work" feature and how is it different from regular chat?

Co-work is a feature that lets Claude work more independently on complex, multi-step projects rather than just answering a single prompt. It maintains a working folder showing the context it's using and a progress log of what it's done. It can take control of your browser directly (without a separate plugin), work on multiple things at once, set reminders/timers for future dates, and access files on your computer if you allow it. One member used it to generate a general ledger template in seconds from a description of wanting to dump bank statements in for quick cleanup work, noting cleanups are a major bottleneck in firms. It's positioned as best suited for large, multi-step projects rather than simple one-off asks, and it shows a checklist of steps it's executing.