What Is Otto by Workato? Pricing, Apps and Limits
Otto is Workato’s AI teammate, and on August 26, 2026 it stopped being an enterprise-only product. Workato opened it to individuals and teams on a self-serve plan under the name Otto for Everyone. The original Otto launched in May 2026 for employees inside companies already running Workato. Now anyone can sign up.
That matters because Workato is an integration company first. Otto is what happens when a business with more than 1,400 connectors decides the interface to all of them should be a colleague rather than a canvas.
How Otto works
You reach Otto in Slack, on the web, and over SMS. There is no separate console to learn, which is the same bet most of this category is making right now.
The pitch is projects rather than tasks. Workato’s framing is that Otto plans the work, executes it across the applications where the work actually happens, and reports back with a finished result, instead of waiting for you to prompt it through each step. It runs in the cloud around the clock with its own computer, so it can use tools, write code, and work through a problem without your laptop being open.
Three details are worth knowing before you try it:
- It watches, not just answers. Otto can check your calendar, messages and connected tools for relevant changes on a schedule, and runs continuously in the background rather than only inside a session you start.
- Roughly 20 popular work apps are preconfigured, including Gmail, Google Calendar, Outlook, Slack, Google Drive, Excel, GitHub, GitLab, Box, Airtable, Dropbox, Shopify and Google Meet. Behind those sit Workato’s 1,400+ connectors and support for remote MCP servers.
- Ottos work with other Ottos. Workato calls it multiplayer: your Otto can coordinate with a teammate’s rather than each person running an isolated assistant.
What Otto costs
This is the part to read carefully, because Otto is billed in credits, not seats.
The free trial runs 30 days and comes with 500 credits. Above that there is a Pro plan for personal use with 1,000 credits, and a Team plan with multiple seats drawing on shared credits. You can buy additional credits as you need them, set a monthly spending limit, and upgrade, downgrade or cancel.
Workato has not published dollar figures for Pro or Team on the product page, so treat the trial as the only firm number and confirm rates before you budget.
The shape is what matters more than the number. Credits are consumed by work, and Otto’s whole design is to do long, multi-step, autonomous work. The more useful it is, the more it costs, and the two are not separable. That is a fine trade for a project you have already decided is worth money. It is a worse fit for the kind of small, constant, unglamorous automation that should just run forever in the background and never appear on an invoice.
Who Otto is for
Otto suits a team already living in Slack that wants a capable generalist agent pointed at multi-step projects, with an appetite for consumption-based billing. If your company runs Workato, it is close to a default: the connectors are there, the governance is there, and Otto is the friendlier front door to all of it.
It is a heavier answer than most solo operators need. If the honest description of your week is that email piles up and meetings take four messages to schedule, you are buying a project agent to do an assistant’s job, and paying per credit for the privilege.
If the job is your inbox and your calendar
Carly is built for that narrower problem, and the difference in billing shape is the real reason to compare them.
- Triages your inbox and drafts or sends replies in your voice across Gmail and Outlook, with several accounts of each connected at once
- Books, reschedules and confirms meetings, with unlimited booking pages, unlimited connected calendars and group availability polls
- Fires on real triggers: an inbound email, a calendar invite, a form submission, a Slack message, a schedule
- Gives each agent its own inbox, so clients and colleagues can write to it directly instead of going through you
- Connects to thousands of apps, and for anything else with a public API you paste your own key at carlyassistant.com/integrations
- Reachable by email, text or chat, with no console to learn
Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month. The everyday automation that runs whether or not you think about it is the free part, which is exactly the work a credit meter punishes you for.
For the wider field, see the best AI personal assistants, the best AI workflow automation tools, and the best AI agents for productivity. If you are evaluating the platform underneath Otto, there is also a rundown of Workato alternatives.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Otto by Workato?
Otto is Workato’s AI teammate: a cloud agent that takes on multi-step projects across your work apps and reports back with a finished result. You reach it in Slack, on the web or by SMS. It launched for enterprise employees in May 2026 and opened to individuals and teams on a self-serve plan on August 26, 2026.
How much does Otto by Workato cost?
Otto is billed in credits rather than per seat. The free trial lasts 30 days and includes 500 credits. A Pro plan for personal use comes with 1,000 credits, and a Team plan gives multiple seats a shared credit pool. You can buy more credits and set a monthly spending limit. Workato has not published dollar prices for Pro or Team, so check current rates directly.
What apps does Otto connect to?
Around 20 widely used work apps are preconfigured, including Gmail, Google Calendar, Outlook, Slack, Google Drive, Excel, GitHub, GitLab, Box, Airtable, Dropbox, Shopify and Google Meet. Beyond those, Otto can reach Workato’s 1,400+ connectors and remote MCP servers.
Does Otto work on its own or only when prompted?
Both. Otto runs continuously in the cloud and can monitor your calendar, messages and connected tools for relevant changes on a schedule, rather than only acting inside a chat session you open.
Is Otto a good fit for one person?
It can be, but it is aimed higher. Otto is designed for multi-step projects and billed by consumption, so a single person whose real problem is inbox triage and scheduling is buying more agent than the job needs. An AI executive assistant like Carly covers that ground with free Zapier-style workflows and AI agents from $35/month.
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