# Grok Bot vs Poke

> Grok Bot scores 45.2 (E) to Poke's 37.6 (F) for assistant proactive. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-poke
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-poke.md (~2,600 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-poke.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-poke.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

Grok Bot scores 45.2 (E) on agent readiness against Poke's 37.6 (F), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Poke leads on reliability, payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do assistant proactive.

- Grok Bot: grade E, 45.2/100, rank #893 of 986. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/grok-bot.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/grok-bot.json
- Poke: grade F, 37.6/100, rank #955 of 986. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/poke.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/poke.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

### Grok Bot (E)

Good for: A person or team already paying for Cursor or SuperGrok who wants named assistants that keep working on a cloud computer, with routines and Slack or X entry points, and who will write approval rules.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 50 against 30
- Security & auth, 68 against 24
- Transparency & trust, 66 against 58

Watch for: All of one user's Bots share one cloud computer, with its files, browser sessions and command-line credentials. The docs say separate Bots are not a security boundary

### Poke (F)

Good for: One person who wants an assistant in their text messages that reads and drafts mail, manages a calendar and reaches other apps through MCP.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 51 against 40
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 25
- Maintenance & community, 31 against 20

Watch for: No documented setting for which actions need approval before Poke sends, deletes or spends. Release notes mention email draft approval only in passing


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Grok Bot | Poke | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 40 | 51 | Poke +11 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 40 | 42 | Poke +2 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 50 | 30 | Grok Bot +20 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 68 | 24 | Grok Bot +44 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 25 | 30 | Poke +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 20 | 31 | Poke +11 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 66 | 58 | Grok Bot +8 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **45.2 · E** | **37.6 · F** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Grok Bot | Poke |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Platform | Platform |
| Vendor | SpaceXAI and Cursor (Anysphere, Inc.) | The Interaction Company of California Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary | Proprietary service under Poke's Terms of Service. The `poke` npm package (CLI and Node.js SDK) declares MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | none | 2026-06-25 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-09-03 | 2026-03-17 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-29 | 2026-09-11 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |

## Verdicts

**Grok Bot.** Connector tokens stay on Cursor's backend and each user gets a separate microVM, with approvals, drafts and a review model before risky actions. All of a user's Bots share one computer and its sign-ins, the review model skips memory writes, and the status page shows seven major Grok Bot incidents since 3 September 2026.

**Poke.** Hosted assistant that answers in Apple Messages, WhatsApp, Telegram and RCS and acts in Gmail, Outlook, calendars and MCP servers. Plan prices and a status page are public. No approval settings, credential storage, model providers or retention periods are documented, and customer content trains models unless Maximum Privacy is selected.

## Before you call either

### Grok Bot

1. State in each request what the Bot may change and where it must stop. Which actions pause for approval depends on the tool, the risk and the owner's Auto-review rules
2. Add narrow Ask first rules for sending, publishing, purchasing and deleting. Ask first wins over Allow automatically when both match
3. Treat any sign-in or file on the cloud computer as available to every Bot on the account. Give a workload its own Cursor user when it needs separate credentials
4. Run Test run with safe inputs. A test run performs real work and can call connected tools
5. To remove access, pause routines, sign out of sites on the computer, uninstall connectors and revoke them at the source service. Deleting the Bot is not enough

### Poke

1. POST JSON to `https://poke.com/api/v1/inbound/api-message` with a Bearer key from Kitchen. Legacy `pk_` keys work only on the deprecated `/api/v1/inbound-sms/webhook`
2. Expect only `{"success": true}` back. Poke's answer goes to the owner's message thread, not to the caller
3. Do not retry a POST blindly. No idempotency key is documented, and a repeated message may make Poke act twice
4. Treat an API key as full access to the owner's mail, calendar and integrations. Create one key per automation and revoke it when done
5. Avoid the prefilled integration link with `apiKey` in the query string for real secrets. Enter the key in the form or use `npx poke@latest mcp add -k`

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Grok Bot or Poke?

Grok Bot scores 45.2 (E) on agent readiness against Poke's 37.6 (F), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Poke leads on reliability, payments & pricing and maintenance & community.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Grok Bot or Poke

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