[FEATURE] Cowork Support for Intel Mac

Resolved 💬 19 comments Opened Jan 25, 2026 by AT-StephenDetomasi Closed Feb 15, 2026

Preflight Checklist

  • [x] I have searched existing requests and this feature hasn't been requested yet
  • [x] This is a single feature request (not multiple features)

Problem Statement

Hey guys. I recently heard about Cowork and REALLY wanted to give a try (this would be game-changing for my workflow), but sadly it looks like this only works on Apple Silicon chips for now, even on a MAX subscription. Can we please have x86 support? My Intel i9 iMac is still a beast and works perfectly on the latest macOS, but of course it has an Intel chip. I would much rather not have to replace a perfectly working mac that I've had for less than 5 years and was a top dollar machine at the time. Please tell me there are plans for x86 support? Thanks!

Proposed Solution

Create a version of Claude Code that supports x86 CPUs.

Alternative Solutions

Support for Windows 11 would also be OK, I'm not opposed to installing Windows on my Mac if needed.

Priority

Critical - Blocking my work

Feature Category

Other

Use Case Example

Open Claude Code on macOS on an Intel Mac, click on "Cowork" and it works as expected.

Additional Context

_No response_

View original on GitHub ↗

19 Comments

dobrinangelov · 5 months ago

Hi there,

I have MacBook Pro 2.9 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i9, MacOs: 15.7.3 (24G419), 15 inch 2018, Claude Pro and I am getting the following error when I click on "plugins":

Failed to load marketplaces
Error invoking remote method '$eipc_message$_eb000652-ae89-4ecf-b035-70e352048bca_$_claude.web_$_CustomPlugins_$_listMarketplaces': Linux VMs require Apple Silicon (arm64)
Restarting Claude or your Mac sometimes resolves this. If it persists, share your debug logs to help us improve.

Oldschool728603 · 5 months ago

I have a 13" 2019 MacBook Pro, 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, MacOS 15.7.3 and a 20X Max Claude subscription.

"Chat" works fine on the desktop app. "Cowork" shows the proper interface, allows me to choose a folder, but when I instruct it to do something, the spinner just starts spinning...endlessly.

Cowork appears to be partially but not fully implemented on intel Macs. I request that the implementation be completed.

AT-StephenDetomasi · 5 months ago

Surprised it even tried to do something - unless I missed something, there is still no x86 support whatsoever.

glangford · 5 months ago
I have a 13" 2019 MacBook Pro, 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, MacOS 15.7.3 and a 20X Max Claude subscription. "Chat" works fine on the desktop app. "Cowork" shows the proper interface, allows me to choose a folder, but when I instruct it to do something, the spinner just starts spinning...endlessly.

I have the same behavior (2018 MacBook Pro, Intel Core i7).

~/Library/Logs/Claude/cowork_vm_node.log says this at the end:

2026-02-07 14:20:48 [error] [VM:start] Startup failed: 'Linux VMs require Apple Silicon (arm64)'

AT-StephenDetomasi · 5 months ago

Yeah there's still no x86 support. I wonder if Anthropic could dedicate one of their Mac Minis to compiling a working x86 version :)

Edit: We now have an x86 version for Windows 11 - so it looks like I'll be switching to Windows on the weekend.

bryanmcguire · 5 months ago

IT WORKS!

Running macOS Tahoe 26.3 on 18" 2019 MacBookPro 2.3 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9!

Oldschool728603 · 5 months ago

ASTOUNDING! It works with MacOS 15.7.3 on 13" 2019 Macbook Pro 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7.

sdipayan · 5 months ago
IT WORKS! Running macOS Tahoe 26.3 on 18" 2019 MacBookPro 2.3 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9!

Do you mean you are able to use CoWork from the Claude App?

sdipayan · 5 months ago
ASTOUNDING! It works with MacOS 15.7.3 on 13" 2019 Macbook Pro 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7.

Do you mean you are able to use CoWork from the Claude App? If so can you please tell me how?

sdipayan · 5 months ago

I am using 2019 16" 2.4 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9 with MacOS Tahoe 26.3. Claude CoWork does not work. It Says - "Apple Silicon required - Cowork requires a Mac with Apple Silicon (M1 or later). Intel-based Macs are not currently supported."

Oldschool728603 · 5 months ago

sdipayan—did you update to Version 1.1.3189 (1b7b58)? It didn't work tonight until I updated?

After that, it simply worked.

sdipayan · 5 months ago
sdipayan—did you update to Version 1.1.3189 (1b7b58)? It didn't work tonight until I updated? After that, it simply worked.

Wow thats awesome. Just updated to 1.1.3189 and it worked. Thanks a lot.

glangford · 5 months ago

Confirming that 1.1.3189 works for me as well.

Post-installation of the update, note that it may take some time for the Plugins section to populate. It was empty for me initially for a minute or two.

farouk09 · 5 months ago

The update didn't work for me : macOS update required
Cowork requires macOS 14.0 (Sonoma) or later. Update your operating system to use this feature.

AT-StephenDetomasi · 5 months ago

Yeah it looks like Sonoma is a hard floor. Thankfully most macs can run Sonoma via OCLP if you absolutely needed to.

Either way looks like x86 support is here, thanks Anthropic team, great stuff.

xdemocle · 4 months ago

Claude Code works for me on Intel based with version 1.1.3363 (ee4247) 2026-02-17
with latest mac os Tahoe 26.3 (25D125)
yuppyyyyy!!!!!

PanchPansh · 4 months ago

"Cowork is now working on Intel Mac. MacBook Pro Intel i9, macOS Sequoia 15.x, Claude Desktop 1.1.3647 (build from Feb 19, 2026). Full functionality confirmed: file reading, PDF analysis, document creation."

kalmenchia · 4 months ago

yes, it can work, but it keeps making my macbook Pro 2020, 32GB RAM, 2.3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 , unstable, crashing , and spiking the CPU. as at today, it is still not officially on their landing page, but I do see that they announced for windows support now. We may still need a few more weeks. They need to deploy more Agent teams, more co-work and plugins for these matters.

github-actions[bot] · 4 months ago

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