The best monday.com AI agents alternatives fall into three groups, and only one of them changes who does the work. ClickUp, Notion, Asana, Airtable, Smartsheet and Microsoft 365 Copilot are work software built for people, with agents added on top. Lindy, Relevance AI and Zapier Agents are agent builders: you design each agent and keep each one running. Dock is AI-native: you hire agents, and they run the work. Every price below was checked on the vendor's own site on October 17, 2026.
Coding already made this shift. Developers now direct coding agents that write, test and ship the code, and the menus and settings matter less each month. Business work is next. On an AI-native platform, agents do the work end to end and there is very little software left to operate. You set direction. The agents run sales, marketing and ops.
monday.com built its business on work-management boards. On its May 11 earnings call co-CEO Eran Zinman described "changing our core offering from monday Work Management to monday AI work platform," per the Motley Fool transcript. Its agents browse the web, act in Gmail and Slack and run on schedules. They are still a feature of a board.
monday.com AI agents: software for people, with agents added
monday's own pages describe the model. Its getting-started guide says that "once you have a board-based workflow in place, you can use monday AI." Agents "execute tasks end to end, all directly inside your boards and workflows," per the AI agents overview. The board comes first, people operate it, and the agents work inside it.
The bill counts people, then runs. Basic, Standard and Pro seats cost $9, $12 and $19 a month billed annually, and plans start from three seats, per monday.com/pricing. Per monday's AI pricing model article, customers who joined on or after May 6, 2026 buy seats and AI credits together, and the credits "are not included for free." The minimum is 1,000 credits a month on Basic, 2,000 on Standard and 3,000 on Pro, at $0.01 a credit per the AI Feature Catalog. An introductory discount on the pricing page currently offsets that minimum.
The meter is hard to forecast. monday prices an agent run by complexity, from about 10 to 50 credits for a simple task to more than 250 for an extra complex one, and "each agent run may include multiple tasks depending on the prompt." monday's own guide to AI credits works an example: a five-person project team running two agents through the workday uses about 5,000 to 8,000 credits a month. The Pro minimum is 3,000, and the same pool also pays for Sidekick, the meeting notetaker and AI blocks. The pricing FAQ puts a typical three-person team at 800 to 1,200 credits a month: sized for people using AI lightly, not for agents working every day.
The agent stops when the pool runs dry. monday warns at 80% and 100% of the pool, and usage can pause after a short grace period. The terms are new, too: the seats-plus-credits model is five months old.
Switching work tools keeps you in the old model
Most lists of monday.com alternatives compare boards. With agents, the question changes. We judged every pick on four tests:
- Who does the work: agents, or people operating the tool with AI help?
- What does the bill count: people, runs, or the work?
- Where do the agents work: inside the vendor's app, or across the business?
- What happens when the credits run out?
Six of the ten picks answer the first test the way monday does. Three more are builders you operate. Only one starts from the agents.
Swapping one board for another changes the vendor. It does not change who does the work.
monday.com AI agents alternatives compared
| Tool | Model | Starting price | How agents are billed | Where agents work |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dock | AI-native | $20 per person per month | Included: 5 to 20 always-on agents per person, plus business credits | Shared workspaces, on your Mac or in the cloud |
| ClickUp | Work tool | Core $9 per user, billed yearly | Pooled AI credits per seat; 100 to 300 per Super Agent use | Inside ClickUp, plus Slack and the web |
| Notion | Work tool | Business $20 per member, billed yearly | Notion credits add-on, $10 per 1,000 | Notion, Slack and email |
| Asana | Work tool | Starter $10.99 per user, billed yearly | 50 requests per account included, then $0.50 to $0.60 each | Inside Asana, plus Gmail, Outlook and Slack |
| Airtable | Work tool | Team $20 per user, billed yearly | 15,000 credits per collaborator included, packs from $20 | Inside Airtable bases |
| Smartsheet | Work tool | Pro $9 per member, billed yearly | AI included; Smart Agents not shipped | Inside Smartsheet |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot | Work tool | $21 per user, billed yearly ($18 promo) | Per-seat license, plus Copilot Credits for custom agents | Outlook, Teams, Word and Excel |
| Lindy | Builder | $29.99 or $49.99 per active user | Pooled credits per active user | Slack, email and iMessage |
| Relevance AI | Builder | Pro $19 a month, billed yearly | Actions per plan, $80 per 1,000 extra | Relevance AI's cloud |
| Zapier Agents | Builder | Free; Pro $33.33 a month, billed yearly | Activities shared across the account | Zapier's connected apps |
| monday.com | Work tool | Basic $9 per seat, billed yearly, three seats minimum | Credit pool bought with seats, $0.01 a credit | Inside monday boards, plus connected tools |
The AI-native option
1. Dock
Dock is where you hire AI agents for business work. Your AI Chief of Staff builds a team of agents for sales, marketing and ops, and you run it from your phone: text or email your Chief of Staff, who hands the work to the right agent. Each agent has a job, works in shared workspaces alongside your people, and leaves the work in docs and tables everyone can open. The Agent Marketplace has ready-made specialists, such as Lead Gen, the SEO Auditor and Competitor Watch, who arrive with the job written and the routines scheduled.
Price. Starter $20, Standard $100 and Scale $200 per person per month, with 5, 10 or 20 agents always on and 10,000, 20,000 or 50,000 business credits a month, per the Dock pricing page (as of October 2026). In the page's words: "You pay per person. The agents come included."
What it does well. Agents own recurring work outside any one app, like outreach, research, reporting and follow-ups, and reach thousands of platforms on your business credits with no accounts to open first. Each agent runs on your Mac or in the cloud, on the model you choose. Sensitive changes like plan changes, removing people or sending an email campaign wait for a person's approval.
The catch. Business credits pay for paid work like verified contacts, outreach and images, so Dock has an allowance to watch too. Dock is also younger than most names here. Its security page says SOC 2 Type II is not yet attested, and agents that run locally need a Mac. Its surfaces are docs, tables, HTML pages, files and video, not Gantt charts.
Choose Dock for agents that run and grow your business. The business agents guide explains the first hire.
Work tools with agents added on top
The next six began as software people log into. Each now sells agents and prices them the way it prices people: a seat first, then a meter. Their terms moved through 2025 and 2026 too. Picking one over monday changes the board. You still operate it.
2. ClickUp
ClickUp started as task and project management and now sells Super Agents, which its help center calls "Brain AI-powered teammates." They take assigned tasks and direct messages and run on an hourly, daily, weekly, monthly or custom schedule.
Price. New workspaces start on ClickUp's new plans, per its pricing introduction: Core at $9, Business at $17 and Max at $100 per user a month billed yearly, with 1,000, 1,500 and 10,000 AI credits per seat pooled across the workspace, per clickup.com/pricing. Extra credits cost $10 per 10,000.
What it does well. The lowest unit price here, with Super Agents that search the web, post in Slack and react to webhooks from outside apps.
The catch. The credit pool grows with seats, so the agent budget is set by headcount. Each Super Agent use costs 100 to 300 credits, and "every Super Agent run consumes credits, even when the Super Agent only returns an answer," per ClickUp's credits article. When the pool is used up, AI features pause. ClickUp's own tools table gives Super Agents every Gmail tool except Send email and Send draft, through a person's own connection.
3. Notion
Notion began as docs, wikis and databases, and "rebuilt Notion AI from the ground up as Agents" on September 18, 2025, per its release notes. Custom Agents moved to paid credits on May 4, 2026, per Notion's blog.
Price. Business is $20 per member a month billed yearly, and Custom Agents require Business or Enterprise, per notion.com/pricing. Runs spend Notion credits, an add-on at $10 per 1,000 a month, and unused credits don't carry over, per Notion's help center.
What it does well. The clearest per-run costs here, from about $0.03 to $0.11 for a Q&A agent up to $0.10 to $0.30 for a daily brief, and Custom Agents that run on schedules, react to Slack and new emails, and send email through Gmail or Outlook.
The catch. Notion charges "a fee per member" for everyone in a paid workspace, and the agent credits sit on top. When credits run out, "Custom Agents will pause automatically until credits reset or an admin adds more credits." The agents serve the pages, and the pages are still the product.
4. Asana
Asana's AI Teammates are 30-plus prebuilt agents for marketing, operations, IT and professional services, triggered by assigning a task, a mention, a rule, a form or a recurring task. They are "available automatically as part of all paid plans."
Price. Starter is $10.99 and Advanced $24.99 per user a month billed annually, or $13.49 and $30.49 billed monthly, per asana.com/pricing. AI Teammates come with "5 requests per user per month, up to 50 requests per account" on paid plans. More cost $0.50 per request prepaid or $0.60 pay-as-you-go.
What it does well. Practical integrations: Gmail and Outlook can send with approval, Slack can send and schedule messages, and HubSpot, Google Drive and web browsing are on the list.
The catch. The agents wait for a person to assign, mention or schedule them inside Asana. Fifty requests a month for a whole account is a trial-sized pool, and daily agent work passes it quickly. Asana's help center also lists what AI Teammates can't do, including creating dashboards and sending status updates.
5. Airtable
Airtable relaunched as "AI-native" in June 2025 with Omni, an assistant that builds apps, and field agents that research the web, read documents or categorize feedback on each row. Bending Spoons completed its acquisition on September 4, 2026, and on October 12 Airtable announced it was "parting ways with a large portion of the pre-acquisition team," while promising that "nothing changes regarding your plan, price, or service offering," per its newsroom.
Price. Team is $20 and Business $45 per user a month billed annually, per airtable.com/pricing. Team includes 15,000 AI credits per billable collaborator a month and Business 20,000, pooled, and extra packs start at $20 for 10,000, per Airtable's AI billing article.
What it does well. A generous included allowance, free building with Omni, and field agents that rerun whenever a record changes.
The catch. Field agents work on the data in your bases, and we found no documented way for them to send email. The agents keep a database accurate, and the database is still the product.
6. Smartsheet
Smartsheet is a spreadsheet-style project tool often compared with monday. Its AI features are included on Pro, Business and Enterprise with "no separate add-on" for most capabilities, per smartsheet.com/ai.
Price. Pro is $9 per member a month billed yearly or $12 monthly, and Business $19 or $24, per smartsheet.com/pricing. We found no AI credits or published AI usage limits.
What it does well. No AI meter to watch, and on Business it connects to Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot and Gemini, so you can work on sheets from the assistant you already use.
The catch. Its agents have not shipped. Smart Agents, announced in November 2025, are "currently in development." The AI helps people work the sheet. People still do the work.
7. Microsoft 365 Copilot
Copilot Business includes the Researcher, Analyst and Facilitator agents, and Cowork can send emails, schedule meetings, create documents and post in Teams, with "you approve each action before it happens," per Microsoft Learn.
Price. Copilot Business is $21 per user a month paid yearly, discounted to $18 for the first year on annual plans bought by December 31, 2026, or $25.20 paid monthly, per Microsoft's pricing page. It needs a Microsoft 365 Business plan and covers up to 300 users. Custom agents built in Copilot Studio can be billed in packs of 25,000 Copilot Credits for $200 a month.
What it does well. Your email, calendar and files are already there, and Cowork runs on schedules and on events like a new email.
The catch. The meters stack: per-seat licenses, Copilot Credits for Studio agents, and usage-based billing for Cowork. Researcher is capped at 25 queries per user a month. Cowork works on each person's own mail and calendar, a helper attached to one seat. Anything custom means Copilot Studio, which needs an Azure subscription.
Agent builders: you still design and run the software
The last three move agents out of a single work app. You still assemble each agent from triggers, tools and permissions, and maintain them when a connected app changes. You are still operating software.
8. Lindy
Lindy is an AI employee that lives in Slack threads, email and iMessage, with scheduled routines, meeting help and more than 1,000 integrations.
Price. On October 17 Lindy's pricing page showed two versions on different loads: Team from $29.99 a month for 3,000 credits each, or from $49.99 for 5,000. Credits pool across the workspace, top-ups are $10 per 1,000, and a free start includes $50 in credits for seven days.
What it does well. It meets people in Slack, and each connected app can be set to always allow, require approval or never run.
The catch. Every active user is billed, so cost tracks headcount, not work. When credits run out, Lindy "pauses credit-using actions until your credits reset." Lindy's docs say guardrails "apply in shared Slack threads only," so direct messages and iMessage aren't guarded.
9. Relevance AI
Relevance AI is a low-code platform for building agents and "Workforces," teams of agents that hand work to each other on a visual canvas. It is aimed at sales and go-to-market teams.
Price. Per the docs, Pro is $19 a month billed annually or $29 monthly, with 2,500 actions and two build users, and Team is $234 a month annually or $349 monthly, with 7,000 actions, five build users and 45 end users. Extra actions cost $80 per 1,000. The free plan is retired.
What it does well. Agents can run on autopilot or ask a person for approval, and model costs pass through at wholesale with no markup, or you bring your own keys.
The catch. You design the agents yourself on the canvas, and the plans count build users and end users. An action is counted every time an agent runs a tool, and "if the Tool fails, this will still count as one Action."
10. Zapier Agents
Zapier Agents work across "9,000+ apps," on command and "while you sleep." Zapier is now moving Agents into AI by Zapier, a step inside Zaps billed in tasks, and "has not set a date to turn off Agents yet," per its help center.
Price. The Agents plan is free for 400 activities a month, and Pro is $400 a year, or $33.33 a month, for 1,500, per zapier.com/pricing. An activity is a trigger, a lookup, an action, a web search or a page browse, and all users on an account share the total.
What it does well. Nobody connects more apps, and the free tier lets you try an agent on live work.
The catch. Agents "can only take actions in the apps you've connected and use the triggers and actions you've set up." Every step is one you designed. Zapier's own FAQ still calls the product an "early beta," and the move to task billing means the pricing above will change.
monday.com vs Dock
Both let agents work on a schedule and act in other tools. The difference is where each product starts.
monday.com starts from the board. Seats pay for the people who operate it, a credit pool bought with those seats pays for AI, and agents act inside the boards. monday's separate builder, Agent Factory, starts at $49 a month for 10 active agents and 5,000 agent credits, per its pricing page. There, you design the agents.
Dock starts from the agents. You pay per person, from $20 a month, with 5, 10 or 20 always-on agents included. A Chief of Staff keeps them in step, and their work lands in docs and tables your people can open. You set direction. The agents run the work. The longer argument is in hire agents, not headcount and AI-native vs bolted-on agents.
How to choose
Start with one question: do you want software to operate, or agents that run the work? If all you need is a project board, a board is fine. This post is about who does the work.
The six work tools differ mainly in where the meter sits. Each is billed by the seat and built around people operating it. The three builders give you parts, and you design and maintain each agent. If you want agents that run sales, marketing and ops, hire them. That is Dock. To weigh an agent against a hire, see AI agent cost vs hiring.
FAQ
Does monday.com have AI agents?
Yes. monday agents are built into the monday AI work platform. You describe the job, grant access to boards, connect tools like Gmail, Slack or HubSpot, and set jobs to run daily, weekly or monthly. monday also sells Agent Factory, a separate builder from $49 a month.
How much do monday.com AI agents cost?
Agents draw from the account's AI credit pool, at $0.01 a credit on yearly billing and $0.0125 on monthly billing. A run costs about 10 to 50 credits when simple and 150 to 250 or more when complex. Since May 6, 2026, new customers buy credits alongside seats: at least 1,000 a month on Basic, 2,000 on Standard and 3,000 on Pro, with seats from $9, $12 and $19 a month billed annually and a three-seat minimum.
What is an AI-native alternative to monday.com?
An AI-native platform is built for agents to do the work end to end, not for people to operate boards with agents added on top. Dock is one: you hire AI agents for sales, marketing and ops, a Chief of Staff coordinates them, and plans start at $20 per person per month with 5 always-on agents and 10,000 business credits included.
Is ClickUp or Notion better than monday.com for AI agents?
They follow the same model with different meters. ClickUp has the cheapest credits ($10 per 10,000), but every Super Agent run costs 100 to 300 credits even when the run only answers a question. Notion's Custom Agents need the $20 Business plan plus credits. All three bill per seat first and pause AI when the credits run out.
Is there a free monday.com alternative with AI agents?
Zapier Agents has a free plan with 400 activities a month. ClickUp's free plan includes a 500-credit AI trial per workspace, Airtable's free plan includes 500 AI credits per editor, and Lindy gives $50 in credits for seven days. Relevance AI has retired its free plan.
Can I keep monday.com and use a different agent tool?
Yes. monday's Bring Your Own Agent feature, in beta, connects agents built on Claude Managed Agents, Microsoft Copilot Studio, OpenAI and other platforms, so they can be assigned items and monitored inside monday. The board stays at the center, and the agents become items on it.
monday.com is a board with agents added to it. If the work you want done is the business itself, hire agents that run it. Start for free.