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Head to head · Assistant proactive · October 2026 research run

GAIA vs Dots

GAIA scores 49.5 (D) on agent readiness against Dots's 28.3 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do assistant proactive.

Best AI personal assistants that act for one person · All 190 assistants comparisons

GAIAThe Experience Company · Platform D49.5/100#813 of 986 DotsOpenAI · Platform F28.3/100#973 of 986

Which one, for what

GAIA D

Best 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 3
  • Schema & documentation, 51 against 41
  • Agent ergonomics, 54 against 22
  • Payments & pricing, 20 against 10
  • Maintenance & community, 78 against 38
  • Transparency & trust, 60 against 31

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.

Dots F

Best for A ChatGPT Pro or Enterprise user who wants ongoing work tracked across mail, documents, code and Slack with approval before sends.

Also in its favour

  • No incidents deducted, where GAIA loses 5 points for them

Watch for

Beta. The admin setting is labelled Use dots (Beta), access is rolling out gradually, and Teams access is an invite-only alpha

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runGAIADotsEdge
Reliability16%20673GAIA +64
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.25141GAIA +10
Agent ergonomics13%16.25422GAIA +32
Security & auth14%17.55458Dots +4
Payments & pricing10%12.52010GAIA +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87838GAIA +40
Transparency & trust7%8.86031GAIA +29
Negative events≤15-50
TotalD 49.5/100F 28.3/100

Facts side by side

FactGAIADots
KindPlatformPlatform
VendorThe Experience CompanyOpenAI
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthOAuthOAuth or key
PricingPaidPaid
x402nono
LicencePolyForm-Noncommercial-1.0.0Proprietary hosted service. The governing terms were not read
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-09-142026-10-09
Terms last updated2026-08-14no document linked
Privacy policy last updated2026-08-07no document linked
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticeyes
Arbitration or class-action waiveryes
Popularity308 starsnone

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.

Dots

Actions that affect accounts or share information pass an automatic review, and custom rules can require approval or a hand-off. Dots is a beta on Pro plans from $100 a month, and no status page, terms, privacy policy or way to delete individual saved notes was found in the pages we could read.

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.

Dots

  1. Say what may be sent. Asking a dot to draft replies does not permit sending them, and an action outside a stated scope needs another decision
  2. Stop three things separately. Pause stops the main task only, delegated tasks stop in Activity and recurring tasks in Scheduled, and completed actions are not undone
  3. Connect each thing separately. A messaging channel grants no access to an inbox, an app or a computer
  4. Sign out of websites and disconnect apps yourself when removing access. Revoking dots access or disconnecting an app does not delete information already obtained
  5. Keep the connected computer online with the ChatGPT app open for local work. Only one personal computer can be connected at a time

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, GAIA or Dots?

GAIA scores 49.5 (D) on agent readiness against Dots's 28.3 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

Other comparisons with GAIA or Dots

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