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Head to head · Assistant proactive · October 2026 research run

GAIA vs ZeroClaw

ZeroClaw scores 70.2 (BB) on agent readiness against GAIA's 49.5 (D), and leads in every scored category. 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 ZeroClawZeroClaw Labs · Agent harness BB70.2/100#161 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.

No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.

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.

ZeroClaw BB

Best for One person who wants an assistant on their own hardware that answers on Telegram, Discord, Matrix or email, asks before it writes or runs commands, and works with a local model.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 74 against 67
  • Schema & documentation, 82 against 51
  • Agent ergonomics, 72 against 54
  • Security & auth, 76 against 54
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 20

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
  • No key needed to call it
  • Free to start without a card
  • Open source

Watch for

The docs state that command execution is not audited. [security.audit] records certificate events only, and tool receipts are opt-in and not durable

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runGAIAZeroClawEdge
Reliability16%206774ZeroClaw +7
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.25182ZeroClaw +31
Agent ergonomics13%16.25472ZeroClaw +18
Security & auth14%17.55476ZeroClaw +22
Payments & pricing10%12.52060ZeroClaw +40
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87880ZeroClaw +2
Transparency & trust7%8.86064ZeroClaw +4
Negative events≤15-5-3
TotalD 49.5/100BB 70.2/100

Facts side by side

FactGAIAZeroClaw
KindPlatformAgent harness
VendorThe Experience CompanyZeroClaw Labs
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthOAuthNone
PricingPaidFree
x402nono
LicencePolyForm-Noncommercial-1.0.0MIT OR Apache-2.0
Read-only variant documentednoyes
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-09-142026-09-05
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 stars33k stars

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.

ZeroClaw

Supervised autonomy is the default, so tools outside a short read-only list wait for the owner's approval, and secrets are encrypted in the config file. The docs state that command execution is not written to an audit log, and the project publishes no privacy policy or terms.

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.

ZeroClaw

  1. Keep [risk_profiles.<alias>] level = "supervised". full runs every tool not listed in always_ask, and the YOLO preset removes the sandbox and path rules too
  2. Add sending and account tools such as send_via, google_workspace and http_request to always_ask so a session-level Always grant cannot skip the prompt
  3. List senders in [peer_groups.<name>] external_peers. ["*"] accepts anyone on that channel
  4. Set [web_fetch].allowed_domains and [http_request].allowed_domains. Fetches run unprompted and the OS sandbox does not block egress
  5. Run one-shot tasks with zeroclaw agent -a <alias> -m "<task>". A cron or webhook turn has no prompt, so shell calls fall to the command policy

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, GAIA or ZeroClaw?

ZeroClaw scores 70.2 (BB) on agent readiness against GAIA's 49.5 (D), and leads in every scored category.

Are GAIA and ZeroClaw open source?

No open-source release is listed for GAIA. ZeroClaw is open source (MIT OR Apache-2.0).

Other comparisons with GAIA or ZeroClaw

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