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Head to head · Assistants reached by message · October 2026 research run

Dots vs Orchid

Dots scores 28.3 (F) on agent readiness against Orchid's 20.2 (F), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Orchid leads on reliability and transparency & trust. Both do assistants reached by message.

Best AI personal assistants that act for one person · All 834 assistants comparisons

DotsOpenAI · Platform F28.3/100#980 of 1010 OrchidZero Email, Inc. · Platform F20.2/100#992 of 1010

Which one, for what

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 10
  • Agent ergonomics, 22 against 0
  • Security & auth, 58 against 0
  • Maintenance & community, 38 against 24

Watch for

Beta. The admin setting is labelled Use dots (Beta), access is rolling out gradually, and Teams access is an invite-only alpha

Orchid F

Best for A founder or operator who wants Gmail and calendar triage by text with approval before anything leaves.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 50 against 3
  • Transparency & trust, 60 against 31

Watch for

No API, MCP server or A2A endpoint for an outside agent.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runDotsOrchidEdge
Reliability16%20350Orchid +47
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.24110Dots +31
Agent ergonomics13%16.2220Dots +22
Security & auth14%17.5580Dots +58
Payments & pricing10%12.51010even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.83824Dots +14
Transparency & trust7%8.83160Orchid +29
Negative events≤1500
TotalF 28.3/100F 20.2/100

Facts side by side

FactDotsOrchid
KindPlatformPlatform
VendorOpenAIZero Email, Inc.
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingPaidPaid
x402nono
LicenceProprietary hosted service. The governing terms were not readClosed service under Orchid's Terms of Service (Zero Email, Inc., last updated 16 January 2026).
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-09none
Terms last updatedno document linked
Privacy policy last updatedno document linked
Customer content may train models
Terms restrict automated access
Terms restrict benchmarking
Terms or service can change without notice
Arbitration or class-action waiver

Verdicts

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.

Orchid

Orchid is a paid executive assistant over iMessage, SMS and Telegram that holds drafts and calendar holds until the owner approves, with a public status page and a named subprocessor list. No outside agent can call it, there's no free tier, and its privacy policy allows training a personal model while its blog says it never trains.

Before you call either

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

Orchid

  1. Don't plan to call Orchid from another agent. It answers only the owner's iMessage, SMS and Telegram threads.
  2. Check status.orchid.ai before telling the owner Orchid is down. The 7 August incident moved it to a new number.
  3. Tell the owner that drafts and holds wait for their approval unless they widen it.

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Dots or Orchid?

Dots scores 28.3 (F) on agent readiness against Orchid's 20.2 (F), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Orchid leads on reliability and transparency & trust.

Other comparisons with Dots or Orchid

Disclosure

Orchid 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.

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