What is dots? OpenAI's always-on ChatGPT agent, explained

dots are OpenAI’s always-on AI agents, built into ChatGPT. A dot runs in the cloud on its own computer and browser, works on your goals between conversations, and comes back with finished work or decisions for you to make. OpenAI launched them at DevDay on September 29, 2026 (TechCrunch). You need ChatGPT Pro, from $100 a month, or a Business Premium workspace to get one (OpenAI).

If you searched for “dots” and found ChatGPT’s regular chat, that’s expected: a dot lives inside ChatGPT on the web, desktop and mobile apps rather than in a separate app.

What a dot does

A regular ChatGPT chat waits for you to type. A dot keeps working when you’re not there. Per OpenAI’s feature page and docs:

• It has its own computer. A dot works on a cloud computer with a browser, so it keeps going when your devices are off. You can open its computer to check on it or select Take over to do a step yourself.
• It starts from what ChatGPT knows. It begins with your ChatGPT memory, so you don’t have to introduce yourself again.
• It connects to your apps. Over 4,000 apps through ChatGPT plugins, and it can hand work to Codex for software and ChatGPT Work for research, data analysis and documents.
• It comes to you. When it’s idle, it researches your connected apps read-only and comes back with work to review or decisions to make.
• It’s in more than one place. You can message or call your dot in ChatGPT, or message it in Slack and Microsoft Teams, and it keeps one memory across all of them (channels). Texting it over iMessage or Android RCS is a beta for US Pro users only, and it can’t call you yet.
• It asks before sensitive steps. Custom Rules and Auto-review gate sensitive actions, and some steps always stay with you.

It runs on GPT-6 Astra. You get one dot for now; OpenAI says you’ll be able to add more in the future (eesel).

Who can get dots, and what it costs

There’s no standalone price. Your first dot comes with ChatGPT Pro at no extra cost, and chatting with it doesn’t count toward your ChatGPT usage limits (pricing). Pro comes in $100, $200 and $500 tiers with more included usage at each step. Business Premium workspaces get a dot in supported regions, subject to workspace eligibility.

Two limits matter:

• No Free, Go or Plus access. If you’re on the $20 Plus plan, you don’t get a dot.
• Not in Europe yet on Pro. Pro access excludes the EEA, the UK and Switzerland.

Tasks a dot starts in Codex or ChatGPT Work count toward those products’ usage limits as usual (docs), so heavy use can still run into caps.

Privacy and safety

OpenAI’s pricing page lists “Content is used to train our models” for Pro, with an opt-out available (pricing). According to DataCamp’s summary of OpenAI’s help docs, a dot’s proactive research and its notes to itself aren’t trained on directly, and Business, Enterprise and Edu content isn’t used for training by default. If you’re on Pro and don’t want your dot’s work used, turn the training setting off.

One practical point: stopping a task doesn’t undo actions the dot already took (docs). Set up Custom Rules for anything that sends, buys or deletes before you hand over a recurring job.

How dots compare

dots arrived in a busy month for personal agents:

• Claude Duet is Anthropic’s answer: a morning brief and check-ins from a cloud computer, at $20 a month on Claude Pro, but only on a US waitlist. See what Claude Duet is.
• Grok Bot lets you run several Bots that message each other, from $30 a month on X Premium, with native desktop apps. See what Grok Bot is.
• Muse is Meta’s consumer agent, free to start in five countries and aimed at everyday errands rather than work. See what Muse is.

A dot makes most sense if you already pay for ChatGPT Pro, work in Slack or Teams, and use Codex: then it costs nothing extra and plugs into tools you already use. If you’re on Plus, upgrading to Pro just for a dot is a big jump, and the agents above are cheaper ways to try the idea. For the full field, see the best AI assistants.