OpenAI Dot vs. Meta Muse: How the Two Always-On AI Agents Compare

Two agents, similar promises

Meta released Muse on September 8, followed by OpenAI's always-on agents in ChatGPT three weeks later. Both can continue working after you leave, run their own cloud computers and connect to outside services. The idea is to give an AI a task and stop checking on it every few minutes.

Muse can go shopping, complete forms, make travel plans, send emails and monitor things such as prices. Dots can manage ongoing research, work across connected applications and perform recurring tasks, with OpenAI closely integrating them with ChatGPT, Work and Codex.

How they work

Muse runs on a dedicated Secure VM with its own browser and is designed to feel like messaging another person. It can be used via Muse's apps, the web or WhatsApp, and then linked with services like email and your calendar. In Engadget's hands-on, Muse turned saved Instagram and Facebook posts into organized recipe and restaurant collections.

Dot lives within ChatGPT and is powered by GPT-6 Astra. Each one has its own cloud computer, can use connected plugins, remembers relevant context and can keep working on scheduled or recurring jobs. Users can also grant a Dot access to their local computer to retrieve files or browse the internet, and OpenAI plans to enable users to manage multiple Dots simultaneously.

Supervision, privacy and price

Both agents still need supervision. Meta states that Muse asks for permission before sensitive actions like sending an email or making a purchase, while OpenAI uses permissions, Custom Rules and Auto-review to manage what Dots can do. Both companies caution that their agents can make mistakes, and Amazon has already blocked Muse from shopping on its site.

Price is the most obvious difference. Muse's free tier has a usage cap, with Power and Maximum tiers at $20 and $100 per month respectively. Dots currently require a much higher subscription, with the lowest available option being Pro 100 at $100 per month. A Business Premium seat costs $100 per user per month billed annually or $125 per user per month billed monthly.

Privacy controls matter on both. Meta says conversations and data within its VM aren't shared with its advertising systems and that users can choose not to have interactions used to enhance Meta's AI models, though Engadget found the model-improvement setting enabled by default. OpenAI says personal-plan Dot activity may be used to improve its models depending on the user's ChatGPT setting, while Business and Enterprise data is not used for training by default. Proactive Dot research is read-only until a subsequent action passes its normal permission checks.

Availability

Dots are rolling out to eligible Pro users outside the European Economic Area, Switzerland and the UK, and are available to Business Premium users across supported ChatGPT regions, with Enterprise access still in beta. OpenAI states that Dot usage won't count toward usage limits unless the Dot is working within ChatGPT Work or Codex. Muse is currently available in the US and Canada.

Sources: Engadget