The best OpenAI Dots alternatives for teams are Dock, Claude, Grok Bot, Lindy, Manus, Gemini Task (formerly Gemini Spark), Meta Muse, Relevance AI, OpenClaw and Microsoft 365 Copilot. A dot is one person's agent: OpenAI's own help center says that in Slack and Teams "only a dot's owner can direct it." If the work belongs to a company, pick a tool built for several people and several agents. Ours, Dock, is first on the list for that reason, and each entry below says who the others suit better.
What OpenAI Dots are
OpenAI introduced dots at DevDay on September 29, 2026. A dot is an always-on agent inside ChatGPT, powered by GPT-6 Astra, with "their own cloud computer, their own browser, and the apps you've connected." You can message or call it in ChatGPT or message it in Slack and Microsoft Teams. TechCrunch called it "a new personal agentic assistant," and Engadget reported that a dot can reach more than 4,000 apps through plugins and that only one primary dot is available at launch. The first dot comes with ChatGPT Pro or a Business Premium seat; Enterprise workspaces get a beta an admin has to switch on.
A lot of it is good. Custom rules let you choose, per action, whether the dot acts, asks or hands the step back to you, and you can open its cloud computer to watch the work. For one busy person, it is a capable assistant.
Why teams look for an OpenAI Dots alternative
One owner per dot
The admin guide, Manage dots in ChatGPT workspaces, says: "Only a dot's owner can direct it. Other people's direct messages or mentions do not start work for that dot." Your cofounder can see your dot's posts in a channel, but they can't hand it a task.
One dot each, for now
OpenAI's getting started article says that "in the future, you'll be able to add more dots." Specialist dots, the version with its own identity for organizations, start as "focused enterprise pilots" run with OpenAI's engineers.
Every person pays for a top plan
ChatGPT Pro comes in three tiers at $100, $200 and $500 a month, billed monthly only. A Business Premium seat is $125 a month, or $100 a month billed annually, and a Business workspace needs at least two seats. Five people who each want a dot are paying for five Premium seats.
Region limits
Pro users in the European Economic Area, Switzerland and the UK can't get a dot. Business Premium works in all supported ChatGPT regions.
GPT-6 Astra, few channels
Dots run on GPT-6 Astra. At launch a dot can't have its own email address or call you, and texting a dot is a limited beta for US Pro users only, not Business or Enterprise, per the getting started article.
For a personal assistant, those limits are reasonable. They get in the way when three people need to see and steer the same pipeline, client list or month-end close.
How we picked
We looked for tools a team of under 20 could use for company work this month, and weighed five things:
- It works while you are away, on a schedule or always on.
- More than one person can use it or see what it did.
- Its price is published. We checked each on the vendor's site on October 13, 2026.
- It is clear where the agent runs.
- You decide what needs approval.
We also read the pages that rank for "OpenAI Dots alternatives" today. Most were written by a vendor about its own product, and few compared team features or mentioned that a dot takes orders only from its owner. We tried to cover both, including the places where Dock is the wrong choice.
OpenAI Dots alternatives compared
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Team features | Where agents run |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI Dots (reference) | One person on ChatGPT Pro or Business Premium | Pro from $100/mo; Business Premium $100-$125/seat/mo | One dot per person; only the owner can direct it | OpenAI cloud computer; your computer optional |
| Dock | Founders who want a team of business agents | $20 per person/mo | Agents and people in one shared workspace; Agent Marketplace | Your Mac or the cloud |
| Claude | Teams that want one shared agent in Slack | Team $25/seat/mo ($20 annual) | @Claude in Slack, one Claude per channel (beta) | Anthropic's cloud |
| Grok Bot | A like-for-like personal agent with a cloud computer | Cursor Pro $20/mo; Teams $40/seat/mo | Team Bots (beta) with shared skills, per-user memory | One cloud computer shared by your Bots |
| Lindy | Teams that live in Slack | Team from $29.99 per active user/mo (3,000 credits; $49.99 for 5,000) | Shared credit pool, admin allocations, approvals | Slack, iMessage, email, web |
| Manus | Research, decks and sites on a schedule | Pro from $20/mo; Team from $20/seat/mo | Pooled credits, guest seats, Slack | Manus cloud; persistent computer add-on |
| Gemini Task (formerly Gemini Spark) | Personal Google accounts | Google AI Pro $19.99/mo | None; work accounts excluded | Google's remote browser and computer |
| Meta Muse | Owner-operators on a budget | Free; Power $20/mo | None found | Muse cloud computer |
| Relevance AI | Building a sales and ops agent workforce | Pro $19/mo annual; Team $234/mo annual | Build users and end users per plan | Relevance AI platform |
| OpenClaw | Technical teams who want to self-host | Free (pay for models) | Shared gateway for team sessions | Your own machine |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot | Companies already on Microsoft 365 | $30/user/mo annual | Tenant admin, Agent 365 governance | Inside Microsoft 365 |
1. Dock: a team of business agents for your company
Dock is our product, so read this entry with that in mind. You hire a team of AI business agents who work alongside the people on your team in one shared workspace. Each agent has a role, like lead generation, SEO or competitor research, and does that work on a schedule as well as when asked.
Best for: founders of small knowledge-work teams, like agencies, consultancies, accounting and law firms, who want several agents doing company work everyone can see.
Pricing: Starter is $20, Standard $100 and Scale $200 per person per month. Each plan comes with business credits (10,000, 20,000 or 50,000 a month) and a number of always-on agents (5, 10 or 20), per the pricing page.
What it does well: Each agent has their own job, and their work lands in docs and tables the whole team can open. The Agent Marketplace has ready-made specialists, such as Lead Gen or the SEO Auditor, who arrive with the job written and the routines scheduled. It is open to every account as of today. Agents can also reach more than 2,000 platforms on your business credits with nothing to set up, such as Google Maps listings or a voiceover. Your Chief of Staff agent coordinates the rest of the team and is reachable by email and iMessage. Agents run on your Mac or in the cloud, your choice, on models from the major labs.
Access follows the owner: "An agent works in the workspaces its owner can access inside the same company, at the owner's permission level, plus any workspace it's added to directly. Inheritance never crosses into another company." Sensitive changes like plan changes, removing people or sending an email campaign wait for a person's approval.
If you already pay OpenAI, keep paying. Dock agents on GPT-6 Astra or GPT-5.6 can run on your ChatGPT plan instead of your Dock allowance. In the Mac app, open Settings, then Billing, then Bring your own plan, and pick "My Codex plan" on the OpenAI row. Your ChatGPT plan pays for agents running on your Mac, while agents in the cloud always use Dock usage.
Where it falls short: Dock's security policy says SOC 2 Type II is "not yet attested," and Dock is not HIPAA-eligible and doesn't sign BAAs, so a clinic or a company with a strict vendor review should wait or look elsewhere. And if all you want is one assistant for your own inbox and errands, a team of agents is more than you need.
Verdict: the pick when the work belongs to the business and you want several agents on it, in view of your team.
2. Claude: one shared Claude in Slack
Anthropic's Claude has two parts that matter here. Claude Cowork runs tasks in Anthropic's cloud, so "close your laptop and Claude keeps going," and scheduled tasks run with no device online. Claude Tag, shown as @Claude on the pricing page, puts a team agent in Slack: "Within a given Slack channel, there's one Claude that interacts with everyone."
Best for: teams that work in Slack and want one shared agent that anyone in a channel can ask.
Pricing: per the Claude pricing page, Team Standard seats are $25 a month ($20 billed annually) and Premium seats $125 ($100 annually), for teams of 2 to 150. Pro is $20 a month and Max starts at $100. @Claude is listed for Team and Enterprise only.
What it does well: The whole channel shares one Claude, the reverse of a dot's owner-only rule. It can schedule tasks for itself, and with "ambient" behavior on, it keeps people updated without being asked.
Where it falls short: Claude Tag is in beta, works in Slack today, and only an Owner or Primary Owner can set it up. Cowork on Team plans is also in beta on web and mobile. Memory is off by default on Team and Enterprise. You get one general agent per channel, so roles like "the bookkeeper" or "the SDR" are yours to define in prompts.
Verdict: the best pick if "one smart colleague in our Slack" is what your team wants.
3. Grok Bot: the closest like-for-like
Grok Bot, from SpaceXAI (formerly xAI), is the product most similar to a dot. Bots are "AI teammates you can give real work to," each signing into your tools on a cloud computer, running routines on a schedule and learning a workflow by watching you do it once.
Best for: anyone who wants a dot-style agent at a lower price, especially Cursor or SuperGrok subscribers.
Pricing: as of mid-October 2026, Grok Bot is included with Cursor Pro ($20 a month), SuperGrok ($30 a month) and Cursor Teams ($40 per seat a month), with weekly Bot usage included and extra usage billed on top.
What it does well: You can run several Bots at once, one on outbound and one on reporting, and put them in a thread to pass work between themselves. Team Bots, in public beta since September 28 on Teams and Enterprise plans, gives each Bot its own Slack handle so a channel can see its work, with skills shared across the team.
Where it falls short: Grok Bot's own FAQ says every Bot you create shares one persistent cloud computer, including files, browser and logins, and that "isolation is per user, not per Grok Bot." Team Bots keep "separate context and memories for each user," so what one person teaches a Bot doesn't carry over to a colleague.
Verdict: the right switch if you liked the dot and want more than one, at a lower price.
4. Lindy: a Slack teammate with credits
Lindy calls itself a "Slack-native teammate in threads + mentions," and also works over iMessage, email and a Chrome extension. In its own comparison with dots, Lindy says "a dot centers on one person's work, while Lindy centers on knowledge and tasks shared across a team," and recommends dots for companies on Microsoft Teams.
Best for: small teams that run on Slack and want meeting notes, follow-ups and inbox work handled in threads.
Pricing: free to start with $50 in credits that last 7 days. Team starts at $29.99 per active user a month (3,000 credits; the 5,000-credit tier is $49.99), as of October 2026, per the pricing page, with top-ups at $10 per 1,000 credits.
What it does well: Seats add their credits to a shared pool, admins can set allocations per seat, and approvals are built in. It connects to 1,500+ integrations and keeps scheduled routines running.
Where it falls short: Anyone who @mentions Lindy in Slack takes a paid seat, credits don't roll over, and when they run out, Lindy pauses.
Verdict: a sensible pick if your company already lives in Slack threads and you want one shared assistant there.
5. Manus: research and deliverables on a schedule
Manus is a general agent that turns a request into research reports, slides, websites and apps, and can repeat them on a schedule.
Best for: small teams that want finished deliverables, like a weekly market brief or a pitch deck, more than an assistant that lives in chat.
Pricing: Free has 300 daily credits. Pro starts at $20 a month (4,000 credits) or $40 (8,000 credits), with 20 concurrent tasks and 20 scheduled automations. Manus Team starts at $20 per seat a month with pooled credits. A persistent Cloud Computer that keeps running between sessions is an add-on at $30 or $50 a month.
What it does well: The output is a usable file, and the team plan pools credits and adds free guest seats that can view and comment. You can tag @manus in Slack threads.
Where it falls short: In a shared Slack thread, "only the first user's request will be processed," and Slack use needs a paid Slack plan. Always-on work beyond scheduled tasks costs extra through the Cloud Computer add-on.
Verdict: good for a team that wants deliverables on a cadence; less suited to ongoing responsibility for a process.
6. Gemini Task (formerly Gemini Spark): Google's personal agent
Google announced Spark at I/O in May as "a 24/7 personal AI agent" that keeps working "even when you close your laptop or lock your phone" (Google blog). Google's help center now says it was renamed Task, found in the Chat and Task toggle in Gemini.
Best for: individuals who live in a personal Google account and already pay for Google AI Pro.
Pricing: included with Google AI Pro at $19.99 a month or AI Ultra from $99.99. It isn't sold separately.
What it does well: It comes with a plan many people already pay for, works in a remote browser and on a remote computer, and can run up to 15 tasks at once.
Where it falls short: For a business, the help center is blunt: "this feature isn't available if you sign in with a work or school Google Account." It is not available in the EEA, Switzerland or the UK, and scheduled runs stop when task mode is off or your device is off. Google's business agent product is Gemini Enterprise, sold separately per seat.
Verdict: a strong personal pick; your Google Workspace team can't use it.
7. Meta Muse: the free personal agent with business connectors
Meta's Muse is a personal agent that keeps working after you close the app. Since September 29, Muse for Small Business adds skills and connectors for owners, including QuickBooks, Shopify, Stripe, Slack, Notion and Meta's own ads tools.
Best for: a solo owner-operator in the US or Canada who wants an agent for both personal and business errands at little or no cost.
Pricing: Muse is "free for most of what people need." Paid plans are Power at $20 a month and Max at $100, with larger weekly allowances.
What it does well: The free tier is an easy way to try an always-on agent, and the small-business connectors cover common storefront and finance tools.
Where it falls short: Meta describes Muse as "a personal AI agent," and we found no seats, shared workspaces or team features. It is limited to people 18 and over in the US and Canada.
Verdict: the budget choice for a business of one.
8. Relevance AI: build your own agent workforce
Relevance AI is a platform for building teams of agents, mostly for sales and go-to-market work, with scheduled tasks and escalations to email and Slack.
Best for: a revenue or operations lead who wants to design agents step by step and connect them to CRM and outreach tools.
Pricing: Pro is $19 a month billed annually ($29 monthly) with 2 build users. Team is $234 a month billed annually ($349 monthly) with 5 build users and 45 end users. The free plan is retired.
What it does well: You control each agent's steps, and the Team plan separates the people who build agents from the people who use them. Calling and meeting agents are on Team and above.
Where it falls short: It is a builder, so someone on your team owns the setup, and its focus has moved toward enterprise customers. SSO and role-based access are Enterprise-only.
Verdict: worth it if you have an operator who enjoys building; heavy for a founder who wants work done this week.
9. OpenClaw: the free, self-hosted option
OpenClaw is the open-source agent in nearly every Dots comparison. It runs on your own Mac, Windows or Linux machine and talks to you over WhatsApp, Slack, iMessage, Teams, Telegram and more than 20 other channels.
Best for: a technical founder or team that wants full control over data and models and is happy to run it themselves.
Pricing: free under the MIT license. "No subscription. No hosted tier." You pay your model provider.
What it does well: You can bring hosted, subscription-backed or local models, state stays on your hardware, and the project's README says one gateway can run as a personal assistant or a shared team deployment.
Where it falls short: You own setup, uptime and security. The README tells you to treat inbound messages as untrusted and says tools run on the host unless you configure sandboxing.
Verdict: the right answer for builders; a part-time IT job for everyone else.
10. Microsoft 365 Copilot: for companies already on Microsoft
Microsoft 365 Copilot includes Copilot Chat and lets licensed users build internal agents in Copilot Studio. Agent 365 is the "control plane to observe, secure, and govern AI agents," and OpenAI says it is working to bring specialist dots into Agent 365.
Best for: companies whose people, files and approvals already live in Teams and Outlook, with an IT admin who manages the tenant.
Pricing: Microsoft 365 Copilot is $30 per user a month paid yearly; Copilot Business is $18 on a promotion through December 31, 2026, down from $21. Copilot Studio packs are $200 a month for 25,000 credits. Agent 365 is $15 per user a month.
What it does well: Agents sit inside the tools your company already runs, under the admin controls your IT already uses. Microsoft also announced Autopilot, an always-on agent with "its own identity, memory, computer and workspace" in your tenant.
Where it falls short: Autopilot is heading into private preview with no published price, so today you mostly build agents in Copilot Studio, and the pricing has several meters.
Verdict: the natural pick inside a Microsoft shop; a lot of moving parts for a small team.
Also considered
Viktor is an AI employee in Slack and Teams, $100 a month for the whole workspace. Hark launched Hark Pro on October 6, a free personal agent with paid tiers at $20 and $100 a month. Instinct is licensed "for your personal use only." Zapier Agents is $33.33 a month billed annually and suits teams already on Zapier.
OpenAI Dots vs Dock
Dots and Dock agree on the basics: an agent should keep working when you close the laptop, use real apps and check with a person before sensitive changes. They differ on who the agent works for.
| OpenAI Dots | Dock | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | One person's work | A company's work, shared by its team |
| Agents | One primary dot per person at launch | 5, 10 or 20 always-on agents, by plan |
| Access | Only the owner can direct it in Slack and Teams | The owner's workspaces at the owner's permission level, plus any workspace it's added to |
| Ready-made roles | Specialist dots, in enterprise pilots | Agent Marketplace, open to every account |
| Models | GPT-6 Astra | Models from the major labs |
| Price | Pro from $100/mo; Business Premium $100-$125/seat/mo | $20, $100 or $200 per person/mo |
You can also use both. A ChatGPT customer can keep a dot for personal work and run Dock agents on GPT-6 Astra, with the ones on their Mac paid for by the same ChatGPT plan. The personal agent vs business agent piece goes deeper on why the two shapes differ.
How to choose an OpenAI Dots alternative
- You want a team of agents doing company work your colleagues can see and steer: Dock. Start with one or two Marketplace hires and add roles as the work grows. Our business agents guide explains the category.
- Your team lives in Slack and wants one shared helper in the channel: Claude with @Claude, or Lindy if you prefer per-seat credits.
- You liked the dot but want several, or a lower price: Grok Bot.
- You need finished files on a schedule, like a Monday market brief: Manus.
- You are a business of one, in the US or Canada, on a tight budget: Meta Muse.
- You use a personal Google account for everything: Gemini Task.
- You have an operator who wants to build sales agents step by step: Relevance AI.
- You want everything on your own hardware and can maintain it: OpenClaw.
- Your company runs on Microsoft 365 with an IT admin: Microsoft 365 Copilot.
- You are in the UK or EU and wanted a dot on Pro: Business Premium gets you one, or pick a tool above that is sold in your region (Gemini Task and Muse aren't).
- You need SOC 2 reports or HIPAA today: rule out tools that can't show them, which currently includes Dock.
FAQ
What is the best OpenAI Dots alternative for a team?
For a small company, Dock is our pick: several business agents in one shared workspace, from $20 per person a month. If your team only wants one shared assistant in Slack, Claude's @Claude or Lindy are good fits. For a like-for-like personal agent, Grok Bot is closest.
How much do OpenAI Dots cost?
Your first dot is included with ChatGPT Pro, which starts at $100 a month billed monthly, or with a ChatGPT Business Premium seat at $125 a month ($100 billed annually). A Business workspace needs at least two seats.
Can my whole team use one dot?
No. OpenAI's admin guide says only a dot's owner can direct it, and other people's direct messages or mentions don't start work. Colleagues can see a dot's messages in a Slack or Teams channel, but each person who wants to assign work needs their own dot.
Are OpenAI Dots available in the UK and EU?
On Pro, no: dots exclude the European Economic Area, Switzerland and the UK. Business Premium seats get dots in every supported ChatGPT region, and Enterprise workspaces can turn on the beta.
What is the difference between OpenAI Dots and Meta Muse?
Both are personal agents with their own cloud computer. Dots come with ChatGPT Pro or Business Premium and run on GPT-6 Astra. Muse is free for most use, with Power at $20 and Max at $100 a month, and is limited to the US and Canada. Neither offers one shared agent that a whole team can direct.
Is there a free alternative to OpenAI Dots?
Meta Muse has a free tier, Hark Pro is free with paid upgrades, and OpenClaw is free open-source software you host yourself, paying only for the model. Manus and Lindy have free starting plans with limited credits.
Can I run Dock agents on my ChatGPT plan?
Yes. Dock agents on GPT-6 Astra or GPT-5.6 can run on your ChatGPT subscription instead of your Dock allowance. Pick "My Codex plan" under Settings, Billing, Bring your own plan in the Dock Mac app. It covers agents running on your Mac; cloud agents use Dock usage.
If the work you want off your plate belongs to the company, hire agents the whole team can work with. Start for free.