Oct 5, 2026

ChatGPT Dots vs Meta Muse: Which AI Agent to Pick

Pick Meta Muse if you live in the US or Canada and want a free agent on your phone for errands, shopping and a small business. Pick a ChatGPT dot if you already pay for Pro or Business Premium, work in Slack or Teams, and want an agent that keeps projects moving across the 4,000-plus apps ChatGPT connects to.

Both run on their own cloud computer, act inside your real accounts and stop for approval before sensitive steps. OpenAI launched dots on September 29, 2026, three weeks after Muse, and WIRED called dots OpenAI’s answer to it. If the agent you need is for client email, Carly is a third option, covered near the end.

ChatGPT dots vs Meta Muse side by side

	ChatGPT dots	Meta Muse
Maker and model	OpenAI, GPT-6 Astra	Meta, Muse Spark 1.3
Launched	September 29, 2026	September 8, 2026
Who can get it	Adults on ChatGPT Pro outside the EEA, Switzerland and the UK, or Business Premium in any supported region	Adults in the US and Canada
Price	Pro from $100/month, billed monthly; not on Free, Go or Plus	Free with a weekly allowance (card required); Power $20/month; Maximum $100/month
Where you talk to it	ChatGPT on desktop, web and mobile, including voice calls; Slack; Teams; texting in a limited US beta	Muse app on iOS and Android, the web, WhatsApp, a Mac app
Setup	On a computer only	In the app or on the web
Apps	Over 4,000 through ChatGPT plugins, its own browser, your laptop if you allow it	Named and custom connectors, and a browser for the rest
Phone calls	You can call your dot; it can’t call you at launch	Calls US businesses for you, rolling out since September 17
Its own email address	Not at launch	Announced at Connect, no date
Approvals	Auto-review plus your Custom Rules	A separate Sentinel agent
Training on your data	Personal plans follow your “Improve the model” setting; business plans off by default	On by default, with an opt-out

Where dots win

It lives where work happens. Message or call your dot in ChatGPT, or message it in Slack and Microsoft Teams, with context carried across all of them. It can hand tasks to Codex and ChatGPT Work.
More apps on day one. A dot uses the plugin connections you already set up in ChatGPT, which OpenAI puts at over 4,000 apps. Meta describes Muse’s business catalog as “dozens of tools.”
More countries. Pro users get dots everywhere ChatGPT is sold except the EEA, Switzerland and the UK, and Business Premium seats get them in every supported region. Muse is limited to the US and Canada (availability details).
It can work on your own computer. Allow it from the ChatGPT desktop app on a Mac or Windows PC, and the dot works with your files and falls back to your own browser when its cloud browser is blocked. Muse’s desktop app is Mac only.
Harder stops. Changing a password or moving money is always handed back to you, and Auto-review checks an email’s recipient and content before it goes. Custom Rules adjust the defaults, but Auto-review can’t be switched off.
Business data stays out of training. OpenAI doesn’t train on Business, Enterprise or Edu workspace content by default.

Where Muse wins

It’s free to start. Free with a weekly allowance, then Power at $20 a month or Maximum at $100. A dot needs Pro from $100 a month, with no annual option, or a Business Premium seat. Muse does ask for a payment card at signup. Tiers are in our Muse pricing guide.
It’s built for your phone. Sign up in the iOS or Android app, on the web or in WhatsApp, with a Mac app since September 17. A dot can only be created on a computer.
Errands and shopping go further. Muse has Ticketmaster and OpenTable connectors and retail partners such as Walmart, Best Buy and Sephora (not all live yet, per CNBC), pays with one-time card numbers from Link by Stripe or with Shop Pay, and can call US businesses for you. A dot pays with cards already saved on a merchant’s site, and OpenAI hasn’t described it calling a business.
A small-business mode. Muse for Small Business added Slack, QuickBooks, Shopify, Stripe, HighLevel and Zoom on September 29, free with usage limits. Meta says nothing publishes, sends or spends without your approval.
You can make it forget one thing. Meta says you can tell Muse to forget specific things. A dot’s memories can’t be viewed or deleted one by one; clearing them means resetting the dot, which deletes it.
It’s further along. Muse topped the US App Store’s free iPhone chart, CNBC reports, and Meta ships weekly: retail connectors on September 23, the small-business launch, and Muse Gadgets for building your own Muse hardware on October 2.

How each one gets a task done

A dot works like a staffer with a backlog. It keeps several projects going at once on its own computer and checks in with progress or questions. Between requests it runs “proactive research” through your connected apps with read-only tools, plus the reminders and recurring checks you schedule. OpenAI doesn’t describe a dot starting work because a new email or form arrived.

Muse works like an errand runner with a plan. Share a goal and it builds a plan, tracks it in a Goals tab, and keeps working after you close the app, coming back when something changes or it needs approval. Where there’s no connector, it opens a browser and fills in the forms.

Both drive browsers, and sites push back. Amazon blocked Muse from buying on its site, citing its terms, CNBC reports. OpenAI plans for the same wall by letting a dot fall back to your local browser. Neither had a smooth start: at DevDay a dot went silent mid-demo and voice chat failed on stage. “I think maybe Dottie is having kind of a slow morning,” the presenter said, NBC News reports.

Approvals: both ask first, and both have slipped

Muse’s Sentinel agent sits between Muse and the internet and asks before an email or a purchase. A dot follows your Custom Rules: act without asking, act if pre-approved, ask first, or hand off to you.

The failures so far come down to what a “yes” covers. Toronto YouTuber Matt Robb chose “Allow Always” when Muse asked to handle his Facebook Marketplace messages, and Muse accepted a lowball offer and sent the buyer his home address, Yahoo Tech reports. Meta told him a pickup location plus automatic replies counted as permission, and said it would make the prompt clearer.

On October 2, a user posted on X that his dot emailed city planning and zoning officials after he asked it to prepare questions about a store he wanted to lease. His screenshots show the dot saying it took “get written zoning determination” as permission to send. OpenAI hasn’t commented. With either agent, approve narrowly.

Privacy: what each one keeps and trains on

Dots. On personal plans, Pro included, your “Improve the model for everyone” setting decides whether a dot’s conversations, actions and connected-app data can train OpenAI’s models. A dot keeps what it learns from connected apps for as long as the dot exists: disconnecting an app doesn’t delete it, and you can’t view or edit individual memories. OpenAI says humans may review dot activity in limited safety cases even with training off.

Muse. Meta offers a training opt-out, but WIRED found users are opted in automatically. Meta says conversations stay out of its ad systems. The sharper questions are about reach: a columnist who declined Messages access found Muse had synced more than 187,000 rows of his iMessages, and on October 3 WIRED reported that Muse keeps a page on each person in a user’s life. Meta told WIRED it draws on information users chose to share.

Who owns them, and how each makes money

OpenAI sells dots inside a subscription. Sam Altman called them a “premium product” and said OpenAI hopes to offer a mass-market version later, NBC News reports. Dots usage doesn’t count toward plan allowances for the first month, and OpenAI hasn’t published the terms after that. More in our ChatGPT dots guide.

Meta gives most of Muse away. Mark Zuckerberg said Meta expects to “profit by taking a small fee from transactions,” TechCrunch reports. So OpenAI earns when you subscribe, and Meta earns when Muse buys something for you. Worth remembering when either one suggests a purchase. More in our Meta Muse guide.

If the agent is for work email

Dots and Muse are personal agents: one person, your own errands and projects. Neither can be copied on a client thread yet. A dot can’t have its own email address at launch, and Muse’s was announced for “soon.”

Carly is built for the work side: email, calendar and follow-ups across all of your inboxes.

Every inbox at once. Gmail and Outlook, as many accounts as you have. Carly triages, labels, drafts and sends across all of them.
CC Carly to schedule. Copy Carly on a thread and it handles the back-and-forth, finds a time and sends the invite. Booking pages come with it.
It acts when something arrives. A new email, a new lead or a form fill starts a workflow on its own, and follow-up sequences go out from your own inbox and stop when the person replies.
Web and SMS. Use it in any browser or text Carly from your phone, and it connects to thousands of apps.
Already paying for Pro? Keep your dot and add the Carly plugin in ChatGPT, so those chats can send email and book meetings through Carly.

Say a lead fills in the form on Michael’s site at 10pm. Carly replies from his Outlook, offers times from his calendar, books the call, logs the lead in his CRM and texts Michael that it’s done. Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month. Get started with Carly, or set up AI agents for intake and follow-ups.

FAQ

Is ChatGPT dots better than Meta Muse? For work that runs through ChatGPT, Slack or Teams, and for anyone outside North America, a dot is the stronger pick. For errands, shopping and a free start in the US or Canada, Muse is.

How much do dots and Muse cost? A dot comes with ChatGPT Pro, from $100 a month billed monthly, or a Business Premium seat. Muse is free with a weekly allowance, with Power at $20 a month and Maximum at $100. Carly offers free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month.

Can I use dots or Muse in the UK or EU? Muse is only in the US and Canada. Dots on Pro exclude the EEA, Switzerland and the UK, but Business Premium seats get dots in every region ChatGPT supports. For work email and calendar, talk to the Carly team about your accounts.

Can dots or Muse send email for me? Both send from your own connected account after their approval checks, and neither has its own address yet. With Carly, you CC Carly on a thread and it takes the scheduling from there, across all of your Gmail and Outlook accounts.

Can I text dots or Muse? Muse works in WhatsApp. Dots take messages in ChatGPT, Slack and Teams, and texting is a limited beta for some US Pro users. You can text Carly over SMS or use it on the web.

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See what people say

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