Dule AI Review: The CC-to-Schedule Assistant (2026)
Dule is an AI scheduling assistant that lives in your email. You CC hey@dule.ai on a thread, it reads the conversation, checks your Google Calendar, offers times, and sends the invite. Nobody clicks a booking link.
It’s free to start, $5 a month for Pro, and built by a former VC who got tired of calendar ping-pong.
Short answer: Dule is a cheap, capable way to hand off the back-and-forth if you live on Google Calendar and only need scheduling. If you’re on Outlook, keep several calendars, or want the same assistant to handle the rest of your inbox, Carly works the same way (CC it on the thread) across all your Google and Outlook calendars at once, and keeps going after the invite lands.
Dule and its alternatives at a glance
| Assistant | How you hand it a meeting | Calendars | Beyond scheduling | Entry price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carly | CC, forward, or text | All your Google and Outlook calendars at once | Inbox, follow-ups, workflows, thousands of apps | Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month |
| Dule | CC hey@dule.ai | Google only (primary on Free, up to 4 more on Pro) | No | Free; Pro $5/mo |
| Howie | CC, SMS, iMessage | Google only | Reminders, briefings | From $25/mo in credits |
| SkipUp | CC | Google and Outlook | Follow-up chasing | 10 free meetings; Pro $49/mo |
| Calendly Callie | CC callie@calendly.com | Your Calendly calendars, one mailbox | Meeting recaps (Notetaker) | $18/seat/mo billed yearly |
| Clara | CC | Google and Outlook | No | $80/mo for 30 meetings |
| Blockit | CC or Slack | Google and Outlook | No | Free for 15 meetings/mo; $83/mo billed yearly |
What Dule is
Dule (dule.ai) calls itself “your AI executive assistant,” but the job is narrower: it books meetings over email. Founder Ashwin Sinha built it after, in his words on Product Hunt, getting “tired of playing calendar ping-pong in my previous job as a VC.”
He first posted it to Reddit’s r/SideProject as a free beta in April 2025, then launched it on Product Hunt in June 2025 as “Dule for Google Calendar,” where it finished #16 for the day. We found no announced funding round, and the web console still carries a “Beta” label.
The pitch is anti-link. Dule promises scheduling “within your email, no tabs, no links,” aimed at people drowning in inbound requests: recruiters, VCs fielding pitches, founders running vendor demos.
How Dule’s CC flow works
Connect your Google Calendar at console.dule.ai, then CC hey@dule.ai on a thread. Per Dule’s own guides:
- It offers times. Three to five options that fit your working hours and buffers, each written in the recipient’s local time.
- It chases. If nobody answers, it nudges the thread.
- It books. Once a slot is picked, it sends the invite from your Google Calendar.
- It reschedules in the thread. Reply “Claire can’t do Wednesday” and it re-proposes. A declined required guest triggers the same.
How you write the email picks the mode. Quick Add books a time that’s already agreed (“mark our calendars for 11AM tomorrow”). Auto Coordinate takes over when you reply “Dule will coordinate.” Request a Time lands several outside people on one slot. Multi-Thread Coordination runs separate threads with, say, a candidate and a hiring manager, and books once both confirm.
The To and Cc lines set who’s required: two or more people in To makes the Cc’d people optional, and “make Emily optional” changes it. Preferences, video links included, are set by emailing Dule; its examples tell it to always add a Google Meet link or your Zoom link.
What Dule costs
Verified on dule.ai on October 3, 2026:
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0, no card | Your primary Google Calendar, holidays imported, preferred hours and meeting lengths |
| Pro | $5/month, or $4/month on the annual plan | Up to 4 extra “shadow” calendars, remembered instructions (flights, holidays), custom name@dule.ai addresses, no Dule signature on replies |
| Enterprise | $100/month, or $80/month on the annual plan | Up to 20 users ($2/month per extra user), an assistant at ai@yourcompany.com, Google Workspace integration |
Two caveats. Both paid plans show “Coming Soon” buttons on the homepage, though Dule’s help pages describe Pro features as live, so check the console before you budget. And the free plan has a cap: Dule’s FAQ reserves uncapped scheduling for paid plans without publishing the free limit.
Billing runs through Paddle, with a full refund within 30 days. Next to Howie’s $25 entry and Clara’s $80, it’s the cheapest paid CC scheduler here.
Where Dule is strong
- Price. Free to try; Pro costs about what a coffee does.
- Nothing for guests to learn. They reply to an email. No sign-up, no page.
- Multi-thread scheduling. Separate candidate and hiring-manager threads that book together is a real recruiting workflow few CC assistants advertise.
Where Dule stops
Google Calendar only. The console’s only sign-in is “Login Using Google,” and Dule’s help page says “Works with Gmail today; Outlook & Apple Calendar are coming soon.” On Product Hunt, Sinha put it plainly: “Currently, Dule is limited to any email account that’s connected with a Google Calendar.” You can CC it from Outlook, but your calendar has to be Google’s.
Scheduling is the whole job. Dule won’t triage your inbox, answer the other question in the thread, follow up after the call, or log the meeting in your CRM.
Few calendars. Free reads your primary calendar; Pro adds four more. If your week spans a work Google account, a client’s Microsoft 365 calendar and a personal one, part of it is invisible to Dule.
No booking page when you want one. Link-free is the point, but website leads and some guests would rather click a slot.
A thin track record. Product Hunt lists “No reviews yet,” the Reddit launch post drew no comments, and we found no Trustpilot or G2 page, so there’s little independent evidence of how it handles messy threads. Paid tiers marked “Coming Soon” and SOC 2 “underway” say the same: it’s early.
The best Dule alternatives
1. Carly
Carly works the way Dule does. CC Carly on any thread (“looping in Carly to find us a time”) and it reads the conversation, checks your calendars, offers times in each person’s time zone, chases the slow replier, sends the invite with the video link, and handles the reschedule later. Your guests just reply to an email.
The difference is reach. Carly connects all your Gmail and Outlook accounts and all your Google and Outlook calendars at once, so one request covers every calendar you own. A thread that arrives at your client address gets the same treatment as one at your main inbox, and Carly won’t offer a slot that’s open on your work calendar but taken on your personal one.
Then it keeps going, because scheduling is one job of many:
- The rest of the inbox. Carly triages, drafts replies, follows up on threads that have nothing to do with a meeting, and turns commitments buried in email into tasks.
- Booking pages when a link is the right tool. Make one at carlyassistant.com/booking-pages/new for the website lead who’d rather pick a slot, and run a group availability poll when a thread has too many people.
- Workflows that fire on their own. Describe what you want in plain English and Carly builds it: when a meeting is booked, log it in HubSpot and post to Slack; when a candidate emails a resume, save it to Google Drive. Triggers include new email, calendar events, schedules and forms. Start from a template at carlyassistant.com/workflows.
- Email Agents with their own address. Spin up separate agents, one for recruiting and one for client intake, each with its own instructions and knowledge.
- Text Carly. From your phone: “move my 3pm with Michael Bennett to Thursday.”
- Thousands of apps. Carly connects to thousands of apps, including Salesforce, Asana, Linear and Zoom, and works with the notes your recorder already produces in Fathom, Fireflies or Gong.
Here’s the difference in practice. Josh Whitaker is a recruiter whose interviews live on his Google Workspace calendar and whose client calls live on an Outlook calendar. He CCs Carly on a candidate thread. Carly offers times that are clear on both calendars, books the interview, adds the candidate to HubSpot, and pings #hiring in Slack. Dule would see only the Google half of his week.
Best for: anyone who wants CC-to-schedule on Outlook or Google, across several calendars, plus an assistant for the rest of the inbox.
Pricing: Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month. Get started, or for a team rollout, book a call with the Carly team.
2. Howie
Howie is the best-known CC scheduler: a named assistant you reach by email, SMS or iMessage, with holds, buffers and daily briefings. It shares Dule’s biggest gap: Gmail and Google Calendar only. Full breakdown in our Howie review.
Best for: Google Workspace users with heavy external schedules who want a polished persona.
Pricing: From $25/month for 1,250 shared credits; a custom-domain assistant email is +$20/month.
Limitations: No Outlook, and Howie doesn’t publish how many credits a meeting uses.
3. SkipUp
SkipUp is a lean CC assistant built around follow-up: it reads the thread, proposes times, and keeps chasing until the meeting is booked. Unlike Dule, it works on Outlook as well as Gmail. More in SkipUp alternatives.
Best for: sales and customer success teams whose meetings die when prospects go quiet.
Pricing: 10 free meetings per person; Pro from $49/month for 30 meetings shared across the workspace.
Limitations: Scheduling and follow-up only; custom agent branding sits on the Custom plan.
4. Calendly Callie
Callie is Calendly’s beta assistant: add callie@calendly.com to the thread and it offers times and books. Calendly’s help center (updated September 29, 2026) says it only answers from your Calendly login email, shared mailboxes won’t work, and links remain the tool for group scheduling. Details in our Callie breakdown.
Best for: existing Calendly users booking one-on-ones from one inbox.
Pricing: Standard Plus at $18/seat/month billed yearly, or $24 billed monthly.
Limitations: One mailbox, one-on-one meetings, English only.
5. Clara
Clara is the original CC-to-schedule assistant, relaunched in 2026 as fully automated and pitched at Outlook users who care about confidentiality. It works with Google and Outlook. History in what happened to Clara Labs.
Best for: professionals on Outlook or Exchange who want scheduling only.
Pricing: 14-day free trial with 5 meetings; Standard is $80/month for 30 meetings.
Limitations: Scheduling only, with a meeting cap at 16 times the price of Dule Pro.
6. Blockit
Blockit schedules over email or Slack, and when the other side also runs Blockit, the two agents negotiate calendar to calendar. It works with Google and Outlook. See Blockit alternatives.
Best for: investors and executives whose counterparts already use Blockit.
Pricing: Free for 15 meetings a month; Lite is $83/month billed annually ($999/year) for 40 meetings.
Limitations: The agent-to-agent trick needs both sides on Blockit, and paid tiers climb fast.
How to pick
- On Google, scheduling only, budget near zero: Dule.
- On Google and want a persona you can text: Howie.
- Already on Calendly, booking one-on-ones from one inbox: Callie.
- On Outlook, juggling several calendars, or want the whole inbox handled: go with Carly. CC it on the thread, and the same assistant that books the meeting answers the rest of the email, follows up after the call, and runs your workflows.
More options in our best AI scheduling assistants roundup.
FAQ
What is Dule AI?
Dule (dule.ai) is an AI scheduling assistant you CC on email at hey@dule.ai. It reads the thread, checks your Google Calendar, proposes times in each person’s time zone, follows up, and sends the invite. Carly works the same way on both Google and Outlook.
How much does Dule cost?
Free with no card. Pro is $5/month ($4 on the annual plan) and Enterprise is $100/month ($80 annual) for up to 20 users. As of October 3, 2026, both paid plans show “Coming Soon” on Dule’s homepage.
Does Dule work with Outlook?
Not yet. Sign-in is Google-only, and Dule’s help page lists Outlook and Apple Calendar as coming soon. You can CC it from any email app, but your calendar has to be Google Calendar. On Outlook or Microsoft 365, Carly schedules the same way across all your Outlook and Google calendars at once.
Can Dule handle group meetings and time zones?
Yes. It finds a slot across everyone on the thread and writes each option in each recipient’s local time. For guests who’d rather click a time than reply, set up a Carly booking page.
Is Dule safe to give calendar access?
Dule says it only reads emails sent or copied to it, processes them through OpenAI’s API, and doesn’t keep them long term. SOC 2 is listed as underway, not complete.
What’s the best Dule alternative?
For CC-to-schedule plus everything around it, Carly: Outlook and Google, all your calendars at once, inbox follow-ups, and workflows that run on their own triggers. For scheduling only, Howie on Google, or Clara and SkipUp on Outlook.
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See what people say
"Before Carly, I relied on a Calendly link, but the whole process felt impersonal and not very professional. Carly changed that by handling all the back-and-forth, so I'm no longer stuck in endless email threads trying to line up schedules.
Now Carly reaches out to candidates, shares my real-time availability, lets them pick a slot, then sends a Zoom link and drops it straight into my calendar. She sends reminders to both of us before each call, which has significantly reduced no-shows and last-minute confusion.
On top of scheduling, Carly acts like a full executive assistant, sending me my schedule the night before so I can prepare for each call. It reminds me of the old x.ai assistant, but Carly is noticeably smarter, faster, and better suited to my healthcare recruitment business."
