Head to head · Assistants that act in your accounts · October 2026 research run
Instinct vs Tomo
Tomo scores 13.1 (F) on agent readiness against Instinct's 7.3 (F), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Instinct leads on transparency & trust. Both do assistants that act in your accounts.
Best AI personal assistants that act for one person · All 314 assistants comparisons
Which one, for what
Instinct F
Best for People who want to hand errands to an assistant by text or phone.
Ahead on
- Transparency & trust, 53 against 47
Watch for
No API, MCP server or A2A endpoint for an outside agent.
Tomo F
Best for People who want accountability, check-ins and reminders by text, including in group chats.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 15 against 10
- Payments & pricing, 10 against 0
- Maintenance & community, 54 against 2
Watch for
No API, MCP server or A2A endpoint for an outside agent.
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Instinct | Tomo | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 10 | 15 | Tomo +5 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 0 | 0 | even |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 0 | 0 | even |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 3 | 0 | Instinct +3 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 0 | 10 | Tomo +10 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 2 | 54 | Tomo +52 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 53 | 47 | Instinct +6 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | F 7.3/100 | F 13.1/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Instinct | Tomo |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Platform | Platform |
| Vendor | Spear Street Technology, Inc. (d/b/a Instinct) | Mapo Labs, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | ||
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Paid | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Closed service under Instinct's Terms of Service (Spear Street Technology, Inc. d/b/a Instinct, last revised 26 August 2026). | Closed service under Tomo's Terms of Service (Mapo Labs, Inc., last updated 24 September 2026). |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | none | 2026-09-29 |
| 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 |
Verdicts
Instinct
Instinct is a hosted assistant reached by text or call that acts in the owner's Google Workspace and WhatsApp and can make purchases. No outside agent can call it, no price is published, new sign-ups may meet a capacity waitlist, and materials train models unless the owner opts out.
Tomo
Tomo is a hosted personal AI over iMessage and an iOS app, centred on goals, check-ins and reminders, with regular iOS releases since April 2026. No outside agent can call it, there's no free plan, and no status page, security contact or subprocessor list was found.
Before you call either
Instinct
- Don't look for an endpoint. app.instinct.com/mcp serves the web app shell and refuses POST with 405.
- Confirm any purchase with the owner. The terms say Actions may not be reversible.
Tomo
- Don't plan to call Tomo from another agent. It answers only the owner's iMessage, group chats it's added to and the iOS app.
- Tell the owner that adding Tomo to a group chat applies its terms to every participant.
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Instinct or Tomo?
Tomo scores 13.1 (F) on agent readiness against Instinct's 7.3 (F), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Instinct leads on transparency & trust.
Other comparisons with Instinct or Tomo
- AstrBot vs Instinct
- CowAgent vs Instinct
- GAIA vs Instinct
- Gemini Spark vs Instinct
- Grok Bot vs Instinct
- Haven vs Instinct
- Hermes Agent vs Instinct
- Instinct vs IronClaw
- Instinct vs Leon
- Instinct vs Lindy
- Instinct vs nanobot
- Instinct vs NanoClaw
- Instinct vs Dots
- Instinct vs OpenClaw
- Instinct vs PicoClaw
- Instinct vs Poke
- Instinct vs QwenPaw
- Instinct vs ZeroClaw
- Instinct vs Zo Computer
- CowAgent vs Tomo
- GAIA vs Tomo
- Gemini Spark vs Tomo
- Grok Bot vs Tomo
- Haven vs Tomo
- Hermes Agent vs Tomo
- Instinct vs Natura tinyNature
- Instinct vs Pally
- Instinct vs Wajo (Fo)
- IronClaw vs Tomo
- Leon vs Tomo
- Lindy vs Tomo
- nanobot vs Tomo
- NanoClaw vs Tomo
- Natura tinyNature vs Tomo
- Dots vs Tomo
- OpenClaw vs Tomo
- Pally vs Tomo
- Poke vs Tomo
- QwenPaw vs Tomo
- Tomo vs Wajo (Fo)
- Tomo vs ZeroClaw
- Tomo vs Zo Computer
- Instinct vs Talorys
- Talorys vs Tomo
- AstrBot vs Tomo
- PicoClaw vs Tomo
Disclosure
Instinct 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.
Tomo 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.
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/instinct-vs-tomo.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/instinct.json·/api/v1/tools/tomo.json - From a terminal
anchor compare instinct tomo(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "instinct", "b": "tomo"}at/mcp, no key