Google's Gemini Agent Is Here, and It Can Run on Claude Too

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Google Cloud has launched the Gemini agent, a single AI assistant for work that it says can take an objective, plan the steps and come back with finished documents, reports or code, and it can hand parts of a job to Anthropic's Claude models as well as Google's own Gemini. The company announced it on Thursday, October 8, 2026, at its Gemini at Work 2026 event. Google calls it "your new single, universal agent for work," and it is pitched at businesses that want AI to do tasks, not just answer questions.

What happened

In a Google Cloud blog post adapted from his Gemini at Work keynote, Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said the Gemini agent answers questions, handles knowledge work, creates images and media, and writes and runs code, all through one agent and one API. Google's main company blog posted a shorter version the same day. 9to5Google published its report at 5 a.m. Pacific time on Thursday, and SiliconANGLE posted its story at 8 a.m. Eastern. "You give it objectives, not instructions," Kurian wrote, adding that users can delegate an outcome and come back to finished work.

The agent can be used as a personal assistant or as a member of a team, working on behalf of a group of people or a specific role, such as an analyst in a finance department. Google says it runs in the cloud, so it keeps one set of memories and context across every device and channel, and work that takes hours or days keeps going after the user closes their laptop. Under the hood, it picks a model for each job. Google says that today this means its own Gemini family and Claude models from Anthropic, with other private and open models to follow later.

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Key details

Where you can use it

  • Devices: Google says the agent works on the web, iOS and Android phones, and Windows and Mac desktops.
  • Channels: It can be reached from the command line, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 or Slack, according to the company.
  • Inside other apps: Developers can build it into third-party software as a "headless" agent, which Google explains means it does not need its own user interface.
  • Workspace: The agent works inline in Gmail, Drive, Docs, Slides, Sheets, Chat and Calendar. 9to5Google notes that users can mention @Gemini to call it up in Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides and Chat.

Sub-agents and AI coworkers

Google says Gemini can spin up temporary, job-specific sub-agents, each with its own identity, and coordinate them on multi-step work that runs in parallel or in sequence for hours or days. It can also create longer-lived "coworker agents" with a defined role. In Workspace, Google says, a coworker agent gets its own account, including an email address, calendar, Drive and a listing in the company directory. Colleagues can add it to a Chat space or tag it in a document comment, and its edits appear under its own name in version history. Google says these agents act under their own identity rather than the user's and see only what people share with them.

Memory, skills and tools

The agent keeps four kinds of memory, according to Google: session memory for the current task, semantic memory built from documents and conversations, procedural memory for how jobs get done, and episodic memory of everything it has done before. Companies can publish reusable "skills" (stored instructions and workflows) to a shared registry. Google lists connections to tools such as Confluence, Microsoft Office, Teams, Slack, Git, Jira, Salesforce, ServiceNow, BigQuery, Databricks, Postgres, Snowflake and local desktop files, plus any Model Context Protocol (MCP) server.

Examples Google gave

  • Asking Gemini to set up a meeting with "the usual team" of regional event leads without naming anyone. Google says it works out who they are from a chat space and an old email thread, checks calendars and starts the scheduling email.
  • When a manager emails asking for a project update as a slide deck, Workspace can offer a one-click option to hand that task to Gemini.
  • Business users can ask for operational reports in plain language. Once a report's query is saved, Google says, teams can rerun it without paying token costs again.

Industry versions and cost controls

Google says specialized versions for financial services and legal teams are in preview now, with government, healthcare and retail versions "coming soon." On cost, the company says smart routing sends each workload to the cheapest model that can handle it well. Customers can also set hard spending caps per project in the Cloud Billing Console. If a cap is hit, that project's agent pauses until someone resumes it.

Why it matters

  • From chatbot to coworker: Giving an AI agent its own email address, calendar and directory listing is a big step beyond a chat window. It changes how teams might hand off routine work, and it also raises the stakes if an agent makes a mistake.
  • Google is opening the door to a rival's models: Google's post says the "best model for the task is not always the largest one," and it is building Claude into its own flagship work agent from day one. SiliconANGLE reports that simple jobs might run on the fast Gemini Flash model and harder, long-running work on Google's frontier Argon model, which we covered when Google launched Gemini 4 Argon for cyber defenders.
  • Security is front and center: Google says every agent gets a cryptographically attested identity, every action is logged to an audit trail under the agent's name, and all agent traffic goes through Agent Gateway, which it describes as an AI network firewall. One example policy it gives is that agents may not open documents classified "Need to Know."
  • Scale claims: Google says nearly 80% of Google Cloud customers use its AI products and nearly 90% of the Fortune 100 use Gemini Enterprise. It also says per-token prices have dropped 98% since 2024. These are company figures and have not been independently verified.

What's next

The biggest open question is when ordinary workers will actually get it. Google's announcement does not give a price or a general release date. According to 9to5Google, the Gemini agent is currently in private preview and will become widely available "soon" to Workspace customers on select Business and Enterprise plans. Google has not said, in the material we reviewed, how Claude usage inside the agent will be billed, or whether the agent will reach consumer Gemini accounts.

Other things to watch: when the government, healthcare and retail versions arrive, how quickly third-party apps adopt the headless API, and whether independent testers find that a model-switching agent really is cheaper and more reliable than a single model. The only early-tester example so far comes from Google's own post, which says sportswear brand On tested the model-selection feature.

FAQ

What is Google's Gemini agent?

It is a new AI agent from Google Cloud, announced on October 8, 2026, that can answer questions, do knowledge work, create media and write and run code from a single prompt box. Google says users give it goals rather than step-by-step instructions, and it plans the work, uses connected tools and returns finished results.

Can I use the Gemini agent now, and how much does it cost?

Not widely yet. 9to5Google reports it is in private preview, with wider availability coming soon for Workspace customers on select Business and Enterprise plans. Google has not announced a separate price for the agent.

Does the Gemini agent use Claude?

Yes, according to Google. The company says the agent picks a model for each job, choosing from its Gemini family and Anthropic's Claude models today, with other private and open models planned in the future.

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