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Head to head · Assistants reached by message · October 2026 research run

GAIA vs Zapia

GAIA scores 49.5 (D) on agent readiness against Zapia's 17.3 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Zapia leads on payments & pricing. Both do assistants reached by message.

Best AI personal assistants that act for one person · All 834 assistants comparisons

GAIAThe Experience Company · Platform D49.5/100#816 of 1010 ZapiaBrainlogic AI S.A.S. · Platform F17.3/100#995 of 1010

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 15
  • Schema & documentation, 51 against 0
  • Agent ergonomics, 54 against 0
  • Security & auth, 54 against 3
  • Maintenance & community, 78 against 56

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.

Zapia F

Best for Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking users who want an assistant over their mail, calendar, Drive and WhatsApp in an app.

Ahead on

  • Payments & pricing, 30 against 20

Also in its favour

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

Watch for

No API, MCP server or A2A endpoint, and the terms forbid unauthorised automated connections.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runGAIAZapiaEdge
Reliability16%206715GAIA +52
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.2510GAIA +51
Agent ergonomics13%16.2540GAIA +54
Security & auth14%17.5543GAIA +51
Payments & pricing10%12.52030Zapia +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87856GAIA +22
Transparency & trust7%8.86059GAIA +1
Negative events≤15-50
TotalD 49.5/100F 17.3/100

Facts side by side

FactGAIAZapia
KindPlatformPlatform
VendorThe Experience CompanyBrainlogic AI S.A.S.
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthOAuthOAuth or key
PricingPaidFreemium
x402nono
LicencePolyForm-Noncommercial-1.0.0Closed service under Zapia's terms and conditions (Brainlogic AI SAS). No date was found on the terms.
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesno
Last release2026-09-142026-10-12
Terms last updated2026-08-14
Privacy policy last updated2026-08-07
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.

Zapia

Zapia is a personal assistant app for iOS, Android and the web with a free plan that isn't a trial, weekly iOS releases and explicit confirmation before anything that writes. No outside agent can call it, and no status page, security contact or hosting location was found.

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.

Zapia

  1. Don't plan to call Zapia from another agent. It answers only in its own app and on the web, and the terms forbid unauthorised automated access.
  2. Tell the owner that Pro and Ultra trials become paid after 7 days unless cancelled in the app store.

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, GAIA or Zapia?

GAIA scores 49.5 (D) on agent readiness against Zapia's 17.3 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Zapia leads on payments & pricing.

Other comparisons with GAIA or Zapia

Disclosure

Zapia competes with LocalGhost, which Anchor Terminal's founder builds. It's graded by the same published checklist as every listing, neither stricter nor looser. Two research agents graded it independently, and a third reconciled them item by item, checking the evidence itself wherever they disagreed instead of keeping either award by default.

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