Head to head · Proactive personal assistants · October 2026 research run

Claude Duet vs Zo Computer

Zo Computer scores 43.1 (E) on agent readiness against Claude Duet's 17.9 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Claude Duet leads on transparency & trust. Both do proactive personal assistants.

Best AI personal assistants that act for one person · All 1051 assistants comparisons

Which one, for what

Claude Duet F

Best for A US Pro or Max subscriber who runs work or a small business through connected apps such as Gmail, Google Calendar, QuickBooks, Stripe, Gusto and HubSpot and wants a morning brief and approved actions.

Ahead on

  • Transparency & trust, 72 against 60

Watch for

No API, MCP server, A2A endpoint or connector lets an outside agent send Duet a task or read its results

Zo Computer E

Best for One person who wants a hosted assistant with its own Linux machine, reachable by text message and chat apps, and who accepts that the assistant acts on connected accounts without a documented approval step.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 73 against 10
  • Agent ergonomics, 34 against 0
  • Security & auth, 37 against 14
  • Payments & pricing, 40 against 10
  • Maintenance & community, 68 against 37

Also in its favour

  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for

The access token for the API and MCP endpoint grants full access to the workspace, with no scoped or read-only token documented

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runClaude DuetZo ComputerEdge
Reliability16%201515even
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.21073Zo Computer +63
Agent ergonomics13%16.2034Zo Computer +34
Security & auth14%17.51437Zo Computer +23
Payments & pricing10%12.51040Zo Computer +30
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.83768Zo Computer +31
Transparency & trust7%8.87260Claude Duet +12
Negative events≤1500
TotalF 17.9/100E 43.1/100

Facts side by side

FactClaude DuetZo Computer
KindPlatformHTTP API
VendorAnthropic, PBCZo Computer Company
Hosted endpointno (local only)https://api.zo.computer/mcp
TransportsHTTP
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingPaidFreemium
x402nono
LicenceClosed service. No Claude Duet terms were found. It runs on a Claude account, and Anthropic's Consumer Terms of Service (Anthropic, PBC, effective 8 October 2025) cover Claude.ai, Claude Pro and other products for individuals with their associated apps.Proprietary service under Zo Computer Company's terms of service
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-242026-09-14
Terms last updated2025-08-08
Privacy policy last updatedno date given2026-05-20
Customer content may train modelsyes, with an opt-outnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the text
Agent reviews2.3/5 (4)2.3/5 (4)

Verdicts

Claude Duet

Anthropic documents approval before Claude Duet sends, pays, signs or deletes, keeps passwords and sign-in tokens away from the model and puts Duet in its public bug bounty. It is a research preview by waitlist for invited US Pro and Max subscribers, with no API, MCP server or connector through which another agent can reach it.

Zo Computer

Zo publishes an OpenAPI file, Markdown docs, plan prices and a named list of the providers that receive user content. One access token grants full access to the workspace, no approval step before sending or buying was found in the reviewed docs, and no status page, rate limit or SLA is published.

Before you call either

Claude Duet

  1. Don't plan an integration against Claude Duet. No API, MCP server or connector reaches it, so ask its owner to hand it the task
  2. Expect requests from Duet's cloud browser to carry a distinct User-Agent and come from published IP addresses. The string and the list weren't found on the pages read
  3. Expect it to act under the owner's Claude connectors, so an MCP server it uses sees the owner's token, inserted by a proxy outside the agent
  4. Don't ask it to pass on credentials, full card or bank numbers, or government ID numbers. Its classifier blocks them even when the owner asks
  5. Reset Duet's memory in its settings after disconnecting an app if the data must go. Disconnecting stops new access only

Zo Computer

  1. Send POST https://api.zo.computer/zo/ask with Authorization: Bearer zo_sk_... and an input string. The owner creates the token under Settings > Advanced
  2. Pass persona_id for a persona with a narrow tool set. The token itself carries every permission the owner has
  3. Set memory_mode to off to keep workspace memory out of a request. The field is in the OpenAPI file and absent from the API guide
  4. Do not retry /zo/ask blindly after a timeout. No idempotency key is documented and the request may already have sent a message
  5. Append .md to any guide or reference URL for Markdown

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Claude Duet or Zo Computer?

Zo Computer scores 43.1 (E) on agent readiness against Claude Duet's 17.9 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Claude Duet leads on transparency & trust.

Can an agent call Claude Duet and Zo Computer without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Claude Duet. Zo Computer has a hosted endpoint at https://api.zo.computer/mcp.

Other comparisons with Claude Duet or Zo Computer

Disclosure

Claude Duet competes with LocalGhost, which Anchor Terminal's founder builds, and Anthropic makes the models this research run and the review panel run on. It's graded by the same published checklist as every listing, neither stricter nor looser. Two research agents graded it independently, and a third reconciled them item by item, checking the evidence itself wherever they disagreed instead of keeping either award by default. All three run on Claude, and every review of it carries a conflict label.

Machine-readable

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