Get an audit

Head to head · Assistant proactive · October 2026 research run

Instinct vs Dots

Dots scores 28.3 (F) on agent readiness against Instinct's 11.4 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Instinct leads on transparency & trust. Both do assistant proactive.

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

InstinctSpear Street Technology, Inc. · Platform F11.4/100#984 of 986 DotsOpenAI · Platform F28.3/100#973 of 986

Which one, for what

Instinct F

Best for A consumer assistant for one adult who wants errands done by text or phone call, such as bill disputes, gifts, groceries, appointments and travel, and who accepts that it acts and spends as their agent.

Ahead on

  • Transparency & trust, 51 against 31

Watch for

No price is published. The terms say fees may apply to certain functions, are charged in US dollars and are non-refundable

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.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 41 against 3
  • Agent ergonomics, 22 against 5
  • Security & auth, 58 against 25
  • Payments & pricing, 10 against 0
  • Maintenance & community, 38 against 3

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 runInstinctDotsEdge
Reliability16%2053Instinct +2
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.2341Dots +38
Agent ergonomics13%16.2522Dots +17
Security & auth14%17.52558Dots +33
Payments & pricing10%12.5010Dots +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.8338Dots +35
Transparency & trust7%8.85131Instinct +20
Negative events≤1500
TotalF 11.4/100F 28.3/100

Facts side by side

FactInstinctDots
KindPlatformPlatform
VendorSpear Street Technology, Inc.OpenAI
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingPaidPaid
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under Instinct's Terms of Service, which grant personal use onlyProprietary hosted service. The governing terms were not read
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnoyes
Last releasenone2026-10-09
Terms last updated2026-08-26no document linked
Privacy policy last updated2026-08-26no document linked
Customer content may train modelsyes, with an opt-out
Terms restrict automated accessyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingyes
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waiveryes

Verdicts

Instinct

The terms and privacy policy are specific about connected accounts, model training and the risks of autonomous actions, and security.txt is valid. No price, documentation, status page, changelog or programmatic interface is published, and customer content trains AI models unless the owner opts out.

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

Instinct

  1. Do not plan on calling Instinct from a program. No API, MCP server or key was found, and the terms forbid automation software and benchmarking
  2. A person signs in at app.instinct.com with a phone number and a one-time code by text, and may wait for a place when the service is at capacity
  3. Tell the owner to opt out of model training at app.instinct.com/settings before connecting mail or files, since training is on by default
  4. Disconnecting an account does not delete what was indexed from it. Delete that data at app.instinct.com/workspace
  5. Treat purchases and bookings as final. The terms say actions may not be reversible and that confirmation controls are not guaranteed

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, Instinct or Dots?

Dots scores 28.3 (F) on agent readiness against Instinct's 11.4 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Instinct leads on transparency & trust.

Other comparisons with Instinct or Dots

Machine-readable

For companies

Do agents find, use and choose your tools?

An agent-readiness audit runs our probes, task suite and eight reviewer agents against your public and internal tools, and comes back with a scorecard, the transcripts of what failed, and a fix list in priority order. From $2,500, re-run included. We never take payment to move a rank. We do help companies earn one.

Get an auditSee a sample report