WorkBuddy

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Tencent Cloud's desktop AI agent that breaks down natural-language tasks, works on local files in folders you authorize, and delivers documents, spreadsheets and slides; supports MCP, Skills and multiple models.

  • AI Agent
  • AI Office
  • Tencent
  • Office Work
  • Free tier
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At a glance

Best for users in China who want to hand off repetitive office work—sorting files, writing reports, building spreadsheets and slides—and already live in WeCom or QQ; authorize a single work folder at first and start with tasks you can check by hand.

  • Free tierPartialThird-party reports say new users get a starter allowance; ongoing use is paid in Credits
  • Chinese supportYes
  • Works in ChinaYes
Best for
  • Non-technical roles that handle lots of documents, spreadsheets and reporting material
  • Teams already using Tencent's office ecosystem, such as WeCom, QQ and Tencent Docs
  • Users who need direct access from mainland China and want to switch between models such as Hunyuan, DeepSeek and Kimi
Pros
  • A local desktop app that only reads and writes folders you authorize
  • Delivers documents, spreadsheets and slides you can review directly, not just chat suggestions
  • Extensible with MCP and Skills, and can switch among several Chinese models
Cons
  • The official site doesn't list prices per plan and third-party figures disagree, so you'll need to estimate the real cost of credit-based billing yourself
  • It can operate directly on local files, so a broad authorization carries broad risk
  • Popularity figures come from third-party visit counts, not active users or paying customers
Pricing

Billed in Credits (token quota packs), with individual and team plans; the official site doesn't list prices per plan, and third-party reports say new users get a starter allowance. Check the official site for current plans and amounts.

Pricing changes over time; check the official site

Access from mainland China

A Tencent product for the Chinese market; workbuddy.cn can be accessed and downloaded directly in mainland China.

Alternatives

WorkBuddy is a desktop AI agent from Tencent Cloud, built by the Tencent Cloud CodeBuddy team and officially launched on March 9, 2026. It isn't positioned as a chat assistant but as something that "gets the work done for you": you describe a task in one sentence, and it breaks the work into steps, reads and writes files on your computer, calls tools, and hands back a document, spreadsheet, or slide deck you can review directly.

According to reports, it was tested inside Tencent before launch, mainly by employees in non-technical roles such as HR, administration, operations, and sales. In late May 2026, Tencent Cloud took it to overseas markets.

What It Can Do

According to Tencent Cloud's product page, WorkBuddy's core capabilities include:

  • Tasks in natural language: no special syntax to learn—describe what you need in everyday language, and it splits the work into steps, checking and correcting itself along the way.
  • Working with local files: it reads and writes files inside directories you authorize, handling things like organizing documents and batch processing.
  • Deliverables in many formats: it processes text, images, tables, and code, and outputs documents, spreadsheets, charts, slides, and more.
  • Domain experts and multiple agents: it ships with more than 100 preset professional roles (recruiting, research, front-end development, legal, marketing, and so on), and complex tasks can be handled by several agents in parallel sharing a knowledge base.
  • Keeps running in the cloud: tasks can run 24/7 in the cloud and don't stop when you close the client.

Models, Extensions, and Ecosystem

  • Model switching: according to TechNode, at launch it supported Hunyuan, DeepSeek, GLM, Kimi, MiniMax, and other models; Tencent Cloud's international docs also state that it supports switching between models.
  • MCP and Skills: it launched with more than 20 skill packages, supports MCP, and is compatible with OpenClaw skills. For more on skills as an extension mechanism, see Agent Skills.
  • Tencent's office ecosystem: the official docs mention integration with the QQ and WeCom ecosystems; third-party write-ups add that you can send instructions through IM apps such as WeCom and QQ to have your computer carry out tasks remotely.
  • Platforms: desktop apps for Windows and macOS, plus a web-based online trial.

Security and Authorization

WorkBuddy can work directly on files on your computer, so deciding what to authorize is the first thing to think through. According to the official description, it only reads and writes files inside directories you authorize; third-party reviews add that it blocks high-risk operations and asks for confirmation, and that file operations can run in a local container or a cloud isolation environment.

Our advice: at first, authorize only one dedicated work folder—not your whole user directory or folders containing contracts, financial records, or keys—and check deliverables by hand before sending them on. For more, see our computer-permissions guide and the Agent Sandbox entry.

Why It's Taken Off

WorkBuddy arrived just as desktop agents surged in China in 2026. According to Analysys figures reported by ciw.news, 17 major desktop agents drew 60.62 million total visits in June 2026, and WorkBuddy alone accounted for 20.97 million, up from 8.85 million at its March launch. Note that this counts visits, excludes mobile, and says nothing about daily active users, paying businesses, or revenue.

Around the same time, according to reports, ByteDance renamed TRAE SOLO to TRAE Work in July, shifting it from a coding tool toward an office agent, and Alibaba launched office-oriented agent tools in March.

Pricing

WorkBuddy is billed in Credits (token quota packs), with plans for individuals and teams. Tencent Cloud's official product page currently doesn't list prices per plan, only a limited-time Credits promotion; third-party reports say new users get a starter allowance on sign-up, but the plans and amounts they cite don't agree. Before paying, go by the official site and what your account shows, and use the starter allowance to estimate how many credits your typical tasks consume.

Getting Started

  1. Download the desktop app (Windows or macOS) from workbuddy.cn, or try the web version first.
  2. Authorize only one dedicated work folder and put the materials for this task in it.
  3. Start with a task whose result is easy to check, such as "summarize the weekly reports in this folder into a one-page table."
  4. Check the deliverable and which files it actually changed before deciding whether to widen access or connect more tools.

How It Compares

  • Claude Cowork: also runs multi-step tasks once you point it at a folder, but using it from mainland China needs your own network arrangements.
  • Manus: a cloud workspace oriented more toward content creation, development, and automation.
  • Trae: ByteDance's AI coding tool; according to reports, its SOLO mode was renamed TRAE Work in July 2026 and began moving toward office work.
  • Grok Bot: xAI's always-on agent running on a cloud computer, included only with paid SuperGrok and Cursor plans; using it from mainland China needs your own network arrangements.

If you work in China, already use WeCom and QQ every day, and mainly need help with documents and spreadsheets, WorkBuddy is a natural place to start. If you mostly write code, Trae or a dedicated coding agent is a better fit.

References