Checked by Hanny Ramzy on 8 October 2026. Drafted with AI help from the announcement and help pages of Anthropic.
On 6 October 2026, Anthropic released Claude for Google Workspace as a public beta. Claude is the AI assistant of Anthropic. It opens in a sidebar in Google Docs, Sheets and Slides. It reads the open file and edits it in place. You can also paste a Google file link into a Claude chat. The file then opens next to the chat.
Companies on Google Workspace have three questions. Is it part of our plan? What can it see? Should we let staff install it? This post answers them.
What Claude does in each app
The add-on works in the three main Workspace editors. Anthropic says it does this work in each one.
Google Docs. Claude rewrites or restructures sections and turns text into tables. It also tidies numbering and formatting and answers questions about the document. It keeps the formatting around the text that it changes. For a contract, you can ask it to find terms that the contract uses but does not define.
Google Sheets. Claude explains and fixes formulas and cleans messy data. It builds pivot tables and charts and adds new tabs. Ask “Why does column H show #REF!?” or “Add a tab with sales by month and a chart”. Claude does the work in the sheet.
Google Slides. Claude builds new slides that follow the layouts and theme of the deck. It splits crowded slides and makes titles and styles match. It also shows text that overlaps or is hard to read.
Docs: every edit waits for your approval
In Google Docs, the sidebar starts in Ask before edits mode. Claude shows its change on a review card. The card shows the old text crossed out and the new text below it. The document does not change until you click Apply edit or Apply all. To refuse a change, click Dismiss edit.
After you apply the change, the card shows “1 of 1 applied”. The new text is then in the document.
To change the mode, click the edit-mode control at the bottom of the sidebar. It has two options: Ask before edits and Accept all edits. Select Accept all edits only when you trust the task.
In both modes, Claude always asks before these actions:
- It adds a link.
- It adds an image from the web.
- It changes who can open the file.
Claude cannot share a file or change the owner. In Docs, an applied change goes directly into the text. It is not a suggestion. To undo a change, use File > Version history.
Sheets and Slides ask for permission
Sheets and Slides do not use review cards. Before each change, Claude stops and shows a Permission required card. The card tells you what Claude wants to do, for example “Claude wants to edit cells” or “Claude wants to run a script”. It also shows a short description of the task from Claude.
For a script, a Pending edits list shows each step and a risk level, for example “Low risk”. The card has three buttons:
- Deny stops the change.
- Allow once lets Claude make this one change.
- Always allow tells Claude not to ask again.
We recommend Allow once. Then you see each change before Claude makes it. In our tests, we clicked Allow once every time.
What we saw in our tests
We tested Claude on sample files in our own Workspace test account. These are the results for Sheets and Slides.
Sheets: fix an error, then add a tab and a chart
Our sample sheet had a #REF! error in cell D14. We asked: “Fix the #REF! error, then add a tab with total sales by month and a chart”.
Claude fixed the formula in D14. It added a Monthly Sales tab with a total for each month from January to August. Each total is a SUMIF formula that reads Sheet1, so the totals update when the data changes. Claude also added a column chart. Then it told us that some product names looked one row out of step with the units. That was true of our sample data.
The task took about 6 minutes, with 4 permission prompts. The sheet had only 24 rows of sample data. One step ran for more than 5 minutes before it finished. Larger tasks can take longer.
Slides: three slides from speaker notes
Our sample deck had eight bullet points in the speaker notes of slide 2. We asked: “Make three slides from the notes on slide 2”. Claude built slides 3, 4 and 5 from all eight bullet points. It used the Arial font of the deck. Then it asked for one more permission to fix contrast and box heights. It did not change slide 2.
It is not part of your Google Workspace plan
Claude is a product of Anthropic, not Google. Each person needs a paid Claude plan: Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise. You can buy it from Anthropic, or ask us for a quotation for Claude Team in Ringgit (see Claude for teams). It is billed separately from your Google Workspace licences.
Gemini is the AI assistant of Google. It is already in Google Workspace Business plans. Gemini in Gmail and the Gemini app work on each Business plan. Gemini in Docs, Sheets and Slides needs Business Standard or higher. Before you buy another AI subscription, check what your staff already have. Our guide to Gemini at work shows what Gemini does today.
Some teams will want both. Claude can suit people who already use it for writing, analysis or spreadsheet models. Try both on a real task from your own work before you decide.
What Claude can see
Google lets the add-on open only the file in which you start it. It cannot look through the rest of your Drive or your Gmail by itself.
Claude can reach more files only through connectors, such as Google Drive or a CRM. A person turns on a connector. A Team or Enterprise admin must allow it first. The Google connectors follow your existing Google sharing permissions. Claude cannot open a file that the person cannot open.
The account your staff use matters
Anthropic says it does not use content from the add-on to train its models. It deletes the content within 30 days. The terms depend on the Claude plan:
- Team and Enterprise: the commercial agreement of your company with Anthropic applies. An admin controls who has access.
- Pro and Max: these are individual plans under the consumer terms of Anthropic.
A staff member can install Claude with a personal Pro account and open a company tender or price list. That file then goes to Anthropic under the terms of that person, not the terms of your company. Decide which Claude accounts staff can use on company files. Tell your staff. Anthropic also says not to use the beta for patient health information.
How admins control it
The add-on comes from the Google Workspace Marketplace. The normal Marketplace settings in the Google Admin console apply. A super admin can do these 3 things:
- Install Claude for all staff, or for some groups or departments. Then staff do not need to install it.
- Allow Claude on the list of approved apps. Do this when staff can install only approved apps.
- Block Claude. To do this, do not allow Marketplace installs, or do not put Claude on the approved list.
Staff who try to install a blocked app see “This application is not allowed by your administrator”. Our help centre has the full steps for staff and admins: use Claude in Google Docs, Sheets and Slides.
Limits of the beta
This is a first release. Anthropic lists these limits:
- It works on one open file at a time.
- One task can run for up to six minutes.
- It needs Chrome, Edge or Safari.
- In Docs, it cannot read or reply to comments.
- In Slides, charts go in as pictures that do not update with the data.
These limits will probably change as the beta continues. Treat what Claude writes as a first draft. Check names, amounts and dates before a document goes to a customer.
Next steps
Your company can be on Google Workspace through Office Niaga. If so, we can help you set the Marketplace controls in the Admin console. Send a WhatsApp message to our support team at +60 16-916 3324. If you are not on Google Workspace yet, request a quote. We will size a plan for your team.
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Hanny Ramzy runs Office Niaga at Web Impian Sdn. Bhd. (SSM 920163-H) in Kota Bharu, Malaysia, helping businesses and agencies move to Google Workspace and business email with Ringgit billing and local support.