Agentforce Coworker Setup Guide for Admins: Access, Billing, and Opt-Out (2026)

One morning your users notice a new Ask button next to global search. They type a question about an account, get back a written answer with citations to the underlying records, and ask a follow-up. Nobody on your team turned this on. That's Agentforce Coworker, and if your org has the right AI seats, Salesforce has likely switched it on for you.

This Agentforce Coworker setup guide is for the admin who now owns it and has to decide, probably this week, whether to keep it on, narrow it down, or switch it off.

What Is Agentforce Coworker?

Agentforce Coworker is an AI assistant built into the Salesforce search experience. Instead of returning a list of matching records, it reads across the data a user can see and writes an answer, with inline citations that link back to the source records. Users can ask follow-up questions in the same conversation, ask for results as a table, or ask it to do something.

Salesforce announced it at Dreamforce 2026 as part of its AIforce launch and lists it as generally available. Not everything has caught up with that label: some developer docs pages and the end-user experience toggle in Setup still say "(Beta)," and Salesforce says final limits will come later. Treat numbers like the record limit below as current, not permanent.

Three things separate Coworker from the agents you may already have built:

• Scope. A typical employee agent you build in Agentforce Builder is designed around a set of topics and actions. Coworker is a general front door across your CRM data and any connected sources.
• Routing. When a request matches work another agent is built to do, Coworker can hand off to that agent (the same multi-agent orchestration pattern Salesforce uses elsewhere) and return the result in the same conversation. It sits in front of your agents, flows, and reports rather than replacing them.
• Surface. It lives in the global search bar, not a utility bar panel or a record page component.

If you've already deployed the default Agentforce employee agent, think of Coworker as the broader, search-first entry point and your existing agents as the specialists it can call.

Agentforce Coworker Auto-Enablement: What Changes in Your Org

Salesforce's FAQ on Coworker automatic enablement says it began switching Coworker on in waves from August 10, 2026, for customers with unmetered user-based AI seats. (Some third-party write-ups cite August 4; use Salesforce's date.)

What that means in practice:

• Admins are notified first. An email goes out before activation with an opt-out link.
• Users see an Ask button next to global search, and search can return AI-generated answers alongside the usual results.
• Only eligible users get it. Users who receive an eligible AI seat after your org's enablement window do not get Coworker automatically. An admin has to grant access manually.
• You can reverse it. Opting out doesn't lock you out. You can turn Coworker on later from Setup.

Not every org is in scope. Salesforce's FAQ lists four exclusions:

• Orgs that have chosen not to enable generative AI features
• Orgs with multi-dataspace or multi-org topologies
• HIPAA, health and life sciences, and government orgs
• Usage-based (Flex Foundation) seats without unmetered user-based AI entitlements

The same FAQ notes that Coworker is not currently covered by the Salesforce Business Associate Addendum (BAA). If you handle protected health information anywhere in your org, don't turn Coworker on manually without talking to your compliance team first.

Verify in your org: Search Setup for "Agentforce Coworker." If the setup page shows it as On, auto-enablement has already happened. If you see an opt-out option, it hasn't yet.

How to Turn Off Agentforce Coworker (or Opt Out)

You have two windows to act, and the steps differ:

Before auto-enablement reaches your org

1. Use the opt-out link in Salesforce's notification email, or
2. Go to Setup, search Quick Find for Agentforce Coworker, and select Opt Out of Auto Activation.

After Coworker is already on

1. Make sure you have the Agentforce Coworker Admin permission set (see below).
2. Go to Setup, search Quick Find for Agentforce Coworker, and open the Coworker setup page.
3. Turn Coworker off with the toggle. To keep the setup but hide it from users, turn off only the end-user experience under Manage.

Neither choice is permanent. Salesforce's FAQ confirms you can turn Coworker back on at any time, so opting out while you audit is a low-cost decision.

Agentforce Coworker Setup: Permissions and User Access

Access works in two layers: one for whoever configures Coworker, one for everyone who uses it.

For admins, you need the System Administrator profile plus the Agentforce Coworker Admin permission set and its matching permission set license (Agentforce Coworker Setup). In some orgs the license is added automatically when you assign the permission set. Older docs and workshops call the permission set "Ask Agentforce Admin," so if that's what you see, it's the same thing under its earlier name.

For users, access comes from the Agentforce Coworker User permission set group plus its matching license. Community write-ups describe the group as bundling access to the Coworker setting, the Coworker agent itself, and the default data space. You can edit the group to add other agents users should reach through Coworker, or to point at a custom data space.

From the Coworker setup page, use Manage under user access to select users and assign them. Salesforce recommends managing Coworker users from Coworker Setup rather than the main Users pages, and removing access means removing both the permission set group and the license.

Here's an audit query to see who currently has Coworker access. It filters on the group's label rather than its API name, because the two often differ (in our test org, the group labeled "Access Agentforce Default Agent" has the API name CopilotSalesforceUserPSG):

SELECT Assignee.Name, Assignee.Profile.Name, Assignee.IsActive,
       PermissionSetGroup.DeveloperName
FROM PermissionSetAssignment
WHERE PermissionSetGroup.MasterLabel LIKE '%Coworker%'
ORDER BY Assignee.Profile.Name

Look specifically for inactive users, integration users, and contractors. Auto-enablement follows entitlements, not intent.

What Data Coworker Can Reach

Out of the box, Coworker searches Salesforce CRM data only, and that source can't be removed. Everything else is opt-in:

Data 360 (formerly Data Cloud) powers the search layer. Hands-on reports say Data 360 needs to be activated in the org, not just provisioned, before Coworker setup will complete, and Salesforce's FAQ says Einstein generative AI must be turned on. A standard free Developer Edition won't meet the requirements. Ours didn't have the Coworker entitlement at all.

Here's the part that matters more than the AI: Coworker doesn't bypass your security model. It exposes it. Answers are built from what the signed-in user can already see. If your org-wide defaults are Public Read/Write on objects that should be private, or you have sharing rules left over from teams that no longer exist, Coworker won't create that exposure. It will make it trivially easy to discover.

Before you widen access, review your org-wide defaults. Setup > Sharing Settings is the authoritative view. If you want a full list you can sort and share with your security team, export it with the Salesforce CLI:

sf data query --target-org your-org-alias --result-format csv \
  --query "SELECT QualifiedApiName, InternalSharingModel, ExternalSharingModel FROM EntityDefinition WHERE IsCustomizable = true" > sharing.csv

Then filter the CSV in a spreadsheet for anything other than Private or ControlledByParent. Values you'll see include Read, ReadWrite, ReadWriteTransfer, and FullAccess.

Don't filter in SOQL. We tested WHERE InternalSharingModel IN ('ReadWrite', 'Read') against an org where Account, Contact, and Opportunity are all ReadWrite. It returned zero rows. Filtering and sorting on this field in EntityDefinition aren't reliable, so pull the full list and filter afterwards.

Can Coworker Change Records?

By default, no. In hands-on tests, Coworker refuses direct edit requests ("I'm not able to directly edit or update records in Salesforce from here") unless an admin enables agent actions for record updates on the Salesforce data source. That setting is off for every object by default.

With it turned on:

• Coworker proposes the change, showing old and new values, and the user must confirm it.
• The user's own permissions are checked only at confirmation, so a user who can't edit a field still can't edit it through Coworker. The change simply fails after they click.
• Coworker can propose a change without applying field dependencies or validation rules. If the change breaks a rule, it fails after confirmation. Expect some user confusion here.
• A single command can create or update up to 15 records. Salesforce says limits may change as GA settles.
• It can only create or modify Salesforce CRM records, not data in connected sources.

Coworker can also route requests to other agents you've built. In one hands-on test, it handed an "add delivery instructions to this contact" request to a separate prebuilt agent and returned the confirmation in the same chat. That path depends on what those agents are allowed to do, so review your existing agents' topics and actions and the user context they run under before you let Coworker route to them.

My recommendation: keep record updates off for the first 30 days. Read-only Coworker delivers most of the value (faster answers, less clicking through related lists) with almost none of the risk.

Agentforce Coworker Pricing and Billing

Billing depends on each user's license, so mixed orgs get mixed billing.

• Seat-based (unmetered): Users on Agentforce 1 Edition or Agentforce for Sales, Service, and Industries licenses get unmetered Coworker use. Default CRM search and optional Slack search don't draw down credits.
• Usage-based: Other users, including Foundations users, consume Flex Credits or Data Services Credits per search.
• Data 360 always costs credits: Ingesting, processing, and indexing external data (Drive, SharePoint, custom DMOs) consumes credits regardless of your billing plan.
• Configuration matters: Salesforce's billing guidance warns that licensed users stay unmetered only if user-based AI permissions are set up correctly. If they aren't, those users consume credits instead.

Check Digital Wallet after enablement. For unmetered users, Coworker usage should show as 0% against contracted limits. If you see consumption from users you expected to be unmetered, fix their permissions before the bill arrives.

A 30-Day Agentforce Coworker Rollout Plan

If auto-enablement already happened, you're not starting from zero. You're starting from "on for everyone eligible." Here's how to get back to a controlled rollout without simply opting out.

Week 1: Contain and audit

1. Run the access query above. Remove Coworker access from integration users, inactive users, and anyone outside your pilot group.
2. Review Sharing Settings (or the CSV export). Flag any public org-wide defaults on sensitive objects.
3. Confirm record-update agent actions are off on the Salesforce data source.
4. Check Digital Wallet for unexpected credit consumption.

Week 2: Pilot with one team 5. Pick 15–25 users from one team, such as account executives on one segment. 6. Keep Coworker on CRM data only. No Slack, no external sources yet. 7. Give them five real questions to try daily ("What's open on this account?", "Which of my opportunities closing this quarter have no activity in 14 days?").

Week 3: Test permissions on purpose 8. Have two users with different roles ask the same question about a restricted account. Confirm the lower-access user gets a narrower answer. 9. Ask about stale, conflicting, and missing records. Note where answers are wrong, and trace each to a data problem.

Week 4: Decide 10. Expand to the next team, add one data source, or opt out with a documented reason and a review date.

Go / No-Go Checklist

Keep Coworker on (or turn it back on) when you can answer yes to all of these:

• Coworker access is limited to users who should have it, and integration and inactive users are excluded.
• No sensitive objects have a public org-wide default you can't justify.
• Record-update agent actions are off, or on only for objects you've reviewed.
• Any agents Coworker can route to have least-privilege actions and user contexts.
• External data sources each have a named data owner.
• Digital Wallet shows the billing behavior you expect.
• Users know what Coworker is, that answers need checking, and where to report bad answers.

If you can't tick all of these yet, opt out. That's a defensible call, not a failure. It's reversible, and turning Coworker on in a month with a clean sharing model beats leaving it on today with a messy one.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Agentforce Coworker turned on automatically? For eligible orgs, yes. Salesforce began rolling auto-enablement on August 10, 2026 for customers with unmetered user-based AI seats. Admins get a notification email and can opt out from that email or in Setup before activation.

How do I turn off Agentforce Coworker? Before auto-enablement, use the opt-out link in Salesforce's notification email or go to Setup > Agentforce Coworker > Opt Out of Auto Activation. After it's on, use the toggle in Agentforce Coworker Setup. You can turn it back on at any time.

Does Agentforce Coworker cost extra? Not for users on Agentforce 1 Edition or Agentforce for Sales, Service, and Industries seats, which get unmetered CRM search. Other users consume Flex Credits, and ingesting external data into Data 360 consumes credits on every plan.

Can Agentforce Coworker update Salesforce records? Only if an admin turns on agent actions for record updates, which is off by default. Even then, Coworker proposes the change and the user must confirm it, and the user's own permissions are checked before anything is saved.

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Next step: Open Setup, search "Agentforce Coworker," and check its status before your users find the Ask button for you. Then run the access query and export your sharing settings.

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Keep reading:

• Why Your Agentforce Pilot Failed: The Reality Check
• Salesforce Data Cloud Explained: Why It's the Foundation Every AI Agent Needs
• How to Set Up an Agentforce Agent Without Code