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The five personal agents worth knowing

Two are free to start, one runs on your own hardware and one costs $100 a month. Here is what separates them.

OpenAI

Dots

OpenAI's newest agent works from a cloud computer of its own and looks for useful work while you are elsewhere, but it charges a steep $100 a month for the privilege.

OpenAI introduced Dots at its DevDay event on 29 September 2026. Every Dot is powered by GPT-6 Astra and given its own cloud machine, with a browser, a terminal and storage for files, so the work continues once ChatGPT is closed. Entry costs $100 a month through ChatGPT Pro; companies can instead buy Business Premium, likewise $100 a month per seat when paid yearly. Individual Pro subscribers can use it in every ChatGPT market bar Britain, Switzerland and the countries of the EEA.

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From
$100 a month
Model
GPT-6 Astra
Launched
September 29, 2026
Meta

Muse

Meta's errand runner costs nothing to start and lives where people already chat, though its first weeks have shown how much a talkative agent can give away.

Meta released Muse on 8 September 2026 as an agent for the errands of ordinary life, built on its Muse Spark model. No other big lab offers a free tier worth the name: Muse Free grants 100 million Muse tokens each week, though sign-up demands a payment card. Above it sit Muse Power at $20 a month and Muse Maximum at $100 a month. Only Canadian and American adults can use it for now, and Meta has not said when other countries will follow.

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From
Free
Model
Muse Spark
Launched
September 8, 2026
Google

Gemini Spark

Google's agent needs no introduction to your inbox or calendar, which makes it the bargain of the field in America and a non-starter across much of Europe.

Google unveiled Gemini Spark at its I/O conference on 19 May 2026. The agent runs on Gemini 3.5 from Google's cloud and draws on everything your Google account already knows. Americans pay least: Google AI Pro includes it for $19.99 a month. In other supported countries it comes only with Google AI Ultra, whose two tiers cost $99.99 and $199.99 monthly, and Britain, Switzerland, Nigeria and the European Economic Area cannot buy it on any plan.

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From
$19.99 a month
Model
Gemini 3.5
Launched
May 19, 2026
Anthropic

Claude

Anthropic's assistant prefers the desk to the high street: hand it a brief and it returns a finished report, spreadsheet or deck, though it will not run your errands.

Claude is Anthropic's assistant, running on Claude Opus 5.5 and Sonnet 5.5. On 16 September 2026 the agent abilities of Cowork and Design moved into ordinary conversations, so there is no longer a separate mode to choose. The entry ticket is Claude Pro, $20 a month or $17 with yearly billing, while heavier users can move to Claude Max for $100 or $200. Anthropic sells it across its entire footprint, Britain and the EU among them; mainland China and Russia are the notable gaps.

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From
$20 a month
Model
Claude Opus 5.5 / Sonnet 5.5
Launched
September 16, 2026
OpenClaw Foundation

OpenClaw

The open-source agent asks nothing of your wallet and a good deal of your attention: you choose the model, host the gateway and answer for its security.

OpenClaw is free agent software you run yourself, whether on a spare laptop, a server at home or a machine you rent. It launched on 24 November 2025 and is looked after by the OpenClaw Foundation, a non-profit answerable to no lab. Its MIT licence comes with no premium edition and no hosted version, so the only bills are for the model you plug in and, if the agent does not live at home, a small VPS, usually $5 to $20 a month. It runs wherever Node.js does.

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From
Free
Model
Any: Claude, GPT, Gemini or local
Launched
November 24, 2025

The agents at a glance

The agents at a glanceDotsMuseGemini SparkClaudeOpenClaw
Keeps working when you log off
Carries on with long or scheduled tasks after you close the app.
YesYesYesPartlyYes
Takes the initiative
Suggests or starts useful work without being asked.
YesYesPartlyNoPartly
Its own computer in the cloud
Runs on a machine the provider hosts, not on your laptop.
YesYesYesPartlyNo
Lives in chat apps
Reachable from messaging apps you already use.
PartlyPartlyNoNoYes
Talks by voice
You can speak to it and hear answers.
YesPartlyPartlyPartlyPartly
Buys things
Can complete purchases or bookings for you.
PartlyYesPartlyNoPartly
Standing rules
Has a place for instructions that apply to every task.
YesPartlyPartlyPartlyYes
Choose the AI model
Lets you decide which language model does the thinking.
NoNoNoNoYes
Run it yourself
Runs on a laptop, home server or rented machine that you control.
NoNoNoNoYes
Free to start
Has a free tier with the agent included.
NoYesNoNoYes
Built for teams
Sold on business plans with admin controls.
YesPartlyPartlyYesPartly

A full dot means yes, a half dot means partly, an empty ring means no.