# Instinct vs OpenInstinct (slim)

> OpenInstinct scores 21.8 (F) to Instinct's 7.3 (F) for assistants reached by message. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-openinstinct.md (~3,450 tokens) · this version ~580 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-openinstinct.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-openinstinct
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-13

OpenInstinct scores 21.8 (F) on agent readiness against Instinct's 7.3 (F), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Both do assistants reached by message.

- Instinct: F 7.3, rank #1009 of 1010 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/instinct.min.md
- OpenInstinct: F 21.8, rank #988 of 1010 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openinstinct.min.md
- Instinct, good for People who want to hand errands to an assistant by text or phone.
- OpenInstinct, good for Developers comfortable running their own iMessage assistant on Vercel with a browser agent and Link wallet. Ahead on Reliability, 33 against 10; Payments & pricing, 50 against 0; Maintenance & community, 66 against 2; Transparency & trust, 59 against 53. Also Open source.

| Category | Instinct | OpenInstinct |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 10 | 33 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 0 | 0 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 0 | 0 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 3 | 0 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 0 | 50 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 2 | 66 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 53 | 59 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Instinct | OpenInstinct |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Spear Street Technology, Inc. (d/b/a Instinct) | Merit Systems, Inc. |
| Pricing | Paid | Free |
| Licence | Closed service under Instinct's Terms of Service (Spear Street Technology, Inc. d/b/a Instinct, last revised 26 August 2026). | MIT (Copyright 2026 Merit Systems, Inc.). |
| Last release | none | 2026-10-05 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-08-26 |  |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-08-26 |  |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes |  |