Anthropic Computer Use
Let Claude click the buttons for you.
Computer Use gives Claude a mouse and a keyboard. It looks at a screen, decides what to click, and does it — no API, no integration, no code. Here's the 15-minute setup, written for people who don't write software.
Anthropic labels Computer Use as experimental. Run it in the sandbox, not on your real desktop.
What it actually is
Chat tells you what to do. This does it.
Normally Claude hands you instructions and you go do the clicking. With Computer Use, Claude takes a screenshot, works out where the button is, moves the pointer, clicks, types, takes another screenshot, and repeats until the job is done. It's the difference between a recipe and a cook.
It sees
Claude takes screenshots of the desktop to figure out what's on screen.
It acts
It moves the mouse, clicks, scrolls, and types like a person at the keyboard.
It checks
After each action it looks again and corrects course if something moved.
Easiest Path — 3 Steps
Don't want to read? Let Claude do it.
Download the one-page setup file, hand it to Claude, and have it walk you through Docker, the API key, and the launch command line by line.
- 1Download Claude_Computer_Use_Setup.md
- 2Open a new Claude conversation, attach the file, type: "walk me through these instructions one step at a time"
- 3Follow along — Claude adapts every command to your Mac or Windows setup
One-Time Setup
Four steps, about 15 minutes.
Anthropic ships an official Computer Use Demo. It spins up a small virtual desktop that Claude controls, so nothing touches your real files.
Step 01
Install Docker Desktop
Computer Use runs inside a sandbox — a small throwaway Linux desktop that lives in a container. Docker Desktop is the free app that runs it. Install it, open it once, and wait for it to say it's running.
# Nothing to type — download Docker Desktop from docker.com
# Mac or Windows, install it, then open it once.Step 02
Grab an Anthropic API key
Sign in at console.anthropic.com, open API Keys, create one, and add a few dollars of credit. This is pay-per-use and separate from a Claude Pro subscription — trying this out costs cents, not dollars.
# Copy your key, it looks like this:
sk-ant-api03-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxStep 03
Run Anthropic's Computer Use demo
One command pulls Anthropic's official demo image and starts the virtual desktop. Paste it into Terminal (Mac) or PowerShell (Windows) after replacing the key.
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-your-key-here
docker run \
-e ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=$ANTHROPIC_API_KEY \
-v $HOME/.anthropic:/home/computeruse/.anthropic \
-p 5900:5900 -p 8501:8501 -p 6080:6080 -p 8080:8080 \
-it ghcr.io/anthropics/anthropic-quickstarts:computer-use-demo-latestStep 04
Open it and give Claude a task
Go to localhost:8080 in your browser. Chat on the left, a live desktop on the right. Type a plain-English task and watch Claude move the mouse, click, and type its way through it.
http://localhost:8080
# Try: "Open Firefox, look up today's weather in Dallas,
# and tell me the high."On Windows, run the same command in PowerShell using backticks instead of backslashes at the end of each line — the downloadable file has the Windows version written out.
What it's good at
Boring, repetitive, click-heavy work.
Computer Use shines when a tool has no export button, no integration, and no API — just a screen full of buttons someone has to click.
- Fill out the same web form 20 times from a spreadsheet
- Pull numbers out of an old app that has no export button
- Click through a vendor portal and screenshot each invoice
- Test a website by actually using it like a person would
- Rename and sort a folder full of downloaded files
- Copy data between two tools that refuse to talk to each other
Read this before you run it
Four rules I don't break.
- 1Run it in the Docker demo only — never point it at your real desktop while you're learning.
- 2Don't log it into banking, email, or anything with a saved credit card.
- 3Stay at the keyboard and watch. Stop the run the second it drifts.
- 4Treat web pages as untrusted — a page can try to talk Claude into doing something you never asked for.
Computer Use is slower and less reliable than a normal chat. It misreads screens, clicks the wrong thing, and occasionally gets stuck in a loop. Treat it as a very capable intern who needs supervision, not autopilot.
Which Claude do I use?
Three tools, three jobs.
Claude Desktop App
Everyday chat, files, and connected apps like Gmail and Drive. Start here.
Desktop App setupClaude Code
Building and editing real projects and files from your terminal.
Claude Code guideComputer Use
Clicking through apps and websites that have no API and no export button.
You're on this oneQuestions people actually ask.
- What is Claude Computer Use?
- It's an Anthropic feature that lets Claude operate a computer the way a person does — it takes a screenshot, decides where to click, then moves the mouse and types. Instead of giving you instructions, it does the clicking itself.
- Do I need to be a developer to use it?
- No, but you do need to paste one command into a terminal. If you can install an app and copy-paste, you can get the Computer Use demo running in about 15 minutes.
- Is Computer Use free?
- The demo software is free and open source. The Claude usage behind it is billed per token through the Anthropic API console, so you'll need a few dollars of credit. A test session usually costs cents.
- Is it safe to let Claude control my computer?
- Use the containerized demo, which gives Claude a throwaway virtual desktop instead of your real one. Anthropic labels Computer Use as experimental — don't hand it logins to banking, email, or anything with saved payment details.
- How is this different from Claude Code?
- Claude Code works in your terminal on files and projects. Computer Use works on a screen — clicking buttons in apps and websites that have no API. Use Claude Code for building things and Computer Use for clicking through things.