# GAIA vs Lindy

> GAIA scores 49.5 (D) to Lindy's 32.3 (F) for assistant proactive. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-lindy
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-lindy.md (~2,550 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-lindy.min.md (~580 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-lindy.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-12

GAIA scores 49.5 (D) on agent readiness against Lindy's 32.3 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Lindy leads on payments & pricing. Both do assistant proactive.

- GAIA: grade D, 49.5/100, rank #813 of 986. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/gaia.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/gaia.json
- Lindy: grade F, 32.3/100, rank #968 of 986. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/lindy.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/lindy.json
- Best AI personal assistants that act for one person: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/personal-assistants/index.md
- All 190 assistants comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/personal-assistants/index.md

## Which one, for what

### GAIA (D)

Good for: It suits one person who wants mail triage, meeting briefs, todos and scheduled workflows from one assistant reachable on WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord or iMessage, and who wants to read the source.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 67 against 24
- Schema & documentation, 51 against 32
- Agent ergonomics, 54 against 43
- Security & auth, 54 against 49
- Maintenance & community, 78 against 9
- Transparency & trust, 60 against 52

Watch for: The default approval mode in the source is `always_allow`, commented as nothing gated, while the privacy policy and the 26 August release notes say destructive actions wait for approval.

### Lindy (F)

Good for: Lindy suits a person or small team that lives in Slack and Google or Microsoft mail and wants briefs, drafts, scheduling and meeting notes done on a schedule.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 35 against 20

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: The integrations page says approval settings apply in shared Slack threads only. Web chat, Slack direct messages, iMessage and SMS are not covered, and reads are never covered.


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | GAIA | Lindy | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 67 | 24 | GAIA +43 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 51 | 32 | GAIA +19 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 54 | 43 | GAIA +11 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 54 | 49 | GAIA +5 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 35 | Lindy +15 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 78 | 9 | GAIA +69 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 60 | 52 | GAIA +8 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -5 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **49.5 · D** | **32.3 · F** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | GAIA | Lindy |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Platform | Platform |
| Vendor | The Experience Company | Crivello Corp (doing business as Lindy) |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | OAuth | OAuth |
| Pricing | Paid | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | PolyForm-Noncommercial-1.0.0 | Proprietary service under Lindy's Terms of Service. No source is published |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-14 | 2025-10-21 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-08-14 | 2026-09-24 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-08-07 | 2026-09-28 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | yes |
| Popularity | 308 stars | none |

## Verdicts

**GAIA.** GAIA's source is public, so its approval gate, memory store and token handling can be read. Three approval modes and per-tool overrides exist, but the default mode in the source runs every action unasked, which the privacy policy and release notes do not say. Pro costs $30 a month and self-hosting is limited to noncommercial use.

**Lindy.** Lindy keeps what it remembers in files the owner can read and edit, and publishes credit prices. Its approval setting applies in shared Slack threads only, so writes asked for by direct message, text or web chat run unasked, which its pricing page does not say. It has no status page, and its changelog stops in October 2025.

## Before you call either

### GAIA

1. Set Settings > Approvals to Always ask or Auto before connecting mail. The default in the source runs every action, including send and delete, without asking.
2. Expect no public API on the hosted service. The backend turns off its OpenAPI document in production, so reach GAIA through its apps, bots or CLI.
3. Check the plan before relying on the hosted service. The README and docs describe a Free plan, and the pricing page says GAIA is a paid product.
4. For self-hosting, prepare Docker, Node.js 20, a WorkOS account and a model key first, and confirm the use is noncommercial under the licence.
5. Add outside tools as MCP servers by URL on the Integrations page. GAIA asks before adding a server in every approval mode.

### Lindy

1. Treat a request sent by direct message, text or web chat as unguarded. Approval prompts appear in shared Slack threads only.
2. Run a routine as a dry run before turning it on. A dry run reads real data and sends, posts and writes nothing.
3. Turn off unused tools after adding an MCP server. Every supported tool arrives switched on, and a large server adds more than a hundred.
4. Expect a billed seat for anyone who mentions Lindy in Slack. A teammate who joins that way has seven free days first.
5. Connect only hosted MCP servers on public HTTPS with streamable HTTP, the one kind the docs describe.

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, GAIA or Lindy?

GAIA scores 49.5 (D) on agent readiness against Lindy's 32.3 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Lindy leads on payments & pricing.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-lindy.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-lindy.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "gaia", "b": "lindy"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare gaia lindy`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/gaia.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/lindy.json

## Other comparisons with GAIA or Lindy

- [AstrBot vs GAIA](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-gaia.md)
- [AstrBot vs Lindy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-lindy.md)
- [CowAgent vs GAIA](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-gaia.md)
- [CowAgent vs Lindy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-lindy.md)
- [GAIA vs Gemini Spark](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-gemini-spark.md)
- [GAIA vs Grok Bot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-grok-bot.md)
- [GAIA vs Haven](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-haven.md)
- [GAIA vs Hermes Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-hermes-agent.md)
- [GAIA vs Instinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-instinct.md)
- [GAIA vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-ironclaw.md)
- [GAIA vs Leon](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-leon.md)
- [GAIA vs nanobot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-nanobot.md)
- [GAIA vs NanoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-nanoclaw.md)
- [GAIA vs Dots](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-openai-dots.md)
- [GAIA vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-openclaw.md)
- [GAIA vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-picoclaw.md)
- [GAIA vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-poke.md)
- [GAIA vs QwenPaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-qwenpaw.md)
- [GAIA vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-zeroclaw.md)
- [GAIA vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-zo-computer.md)
- [Gemini Spark vs Lindy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-spark-vs-lindy.md)
- [Grok Bot vs Lindy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-lindy.md)
- [Haven vs Lindy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/haven-vs-lindy.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Lindy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-lindy.md)
- [Instinct vs Lindy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-lindy.md)
- [IronClaw vs Lindy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-lindy.md)
- [Leon vs Lindy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/leon-vs-lindy.md)
- [Lindy vs nanobot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lindy-vs-nanobot.md)
- [Lindy vs NanoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lindy-vs-nanoclaw.md)
- [Lindy vs Dots](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lindy-vs-openai-dots.md)
- [Lindy vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lindy-vs-openclaw.md)
- [Lindy vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lindy-vs-picoclaw.md)
- [Lindy vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lindy-vs-poke.md)
- [Lindy vs QwenPaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lindy-vs-qwenpaw.md)
- [Lindy vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lindy-vs-zeroclaw.md)
- [Lindy vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lindy-vs-zo-computer.md)