# Poke vs Tab

> Poke scores 37.6 (F) to Tab's 10.7 (F) for assistants reached by message. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/poke-vs-tab-bot
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/poke-vs-tab-bot.md (~3,200 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/poke-vs-tab-bot.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/poke-vs-tab-bot.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
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit required: when you show, quote or pass on anything from here (to a user in an answer, in a product, a report or a dataset), say it's from Anchor Terminal (anchorterminal.com) and link the page or API address you took it from. Reviews also credit their author.
- Updated: 2026-10-14

Poke scores 37.6 (F) on agent readiness against Tab's 10.7 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Tab leads on maintenance & community. Both do assistants reached by message.

- Poke: grade F, 37.6/100, rank #1011 of 1084. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/poke.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/poke.json
- Tab: grade F, 10.7/100, rank #1073 of 1084. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/tab-bot.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/tab-bot.json
- Best AI personal assistants that act for one person: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/personal-assistants/index.md
- All 834 assistants comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/personal-assistants/index.md

## Which one, for what

### 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 5
- Schema & documentation, 42 against 0
- Agent ergonomics, 30 against 0
- Security & auth, 24 against 4
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 0
- Transparency & trust, 58 against 45

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

### Tab (F)

Good for: A person who wants a texting assistant that browses, calls and buys with tight checkout controls.

Ahead on:
- Maintenance & community, 58 against 31

Watch for: Private beta behind a waitlist.


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Poke | Tab | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 51 | 5 | Poke +46 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 42 | 0 | Poke +42 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 30 | 0 | Poke +30 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 24 | 4 | Poke +20 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 0 | Poke +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 31 | 58 | Tab +27 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 58 | 45 | Poke +13 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **37.6 · F** | **10.7 · F** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Poke | Tab |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Platform | Platform |
| Vendor | The Interaction Company of California Inc. | Terrasoft, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP |  |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Poke's Terms of Service. The `poke` npm package (CLI and Node.js SDK) declares MIT | Closed service under Tab's Terms of Use (Terrasoft, Inc., effective 2 September 2026). |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-06-25 | none |
| Terms last updated | 2026-03-17 |  |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-11 |  |
| Customer content may train models | yes |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes |  |

## Verdicts

**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.

**Tab.** Tab is a private-beta texting assistant with a detailed security page on credential isolation and checkout binding, and a public updates page. No outside agent can call it, no price is published, and its privacy policy says nothing on training with user content.

## Before you call either

### 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`

### Tab

1. Don't plan to call Tab from another agent. It answers only the owner's Messages or WhatsApp thread.
2. Tell the owner that access needs a waitlist place and no price is published.

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Poke or Tab?

Poke scores 37.6 (F) on agent readiness against Tab's 10.7 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Tab leads on maintenance & community.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Poke or Tab

- [asaply vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asaply-vs-poke.md)
- [asaply vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asaply-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [Asmi vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asmi-vs-poke.md)
- [Asmi vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asmi-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [AstrBot vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [Boba vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-poke.md)
- [Boba vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [Boski vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boski-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [Brea vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-poke.md)
- [Brea vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [Caddy vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/caddy-app-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [CowAgent vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [Del vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/del-vs-poke.md)
- [Del vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/del-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [folk vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [GAIA vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [Grok Bot vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [Haven vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/haven-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [HireAlpha vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hirealpha-vs-poke.md)
- [HireAlpha vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hirealpha-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [Instinct vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [IronClaw vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [Lindy vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lindy-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [nanobot vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanobot-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [NanoClaw vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanoclaw-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [Natura tinyNature vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/natura-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [Dots vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-dots-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [OpenClaw vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openclaw-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [OpenInstinct vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openinstinct-vs-poke.md)
- [OpenInstinct vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openinstinct-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [Orbits vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orbits-vs-poke.md)
- [Orbits vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orbits-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [Orchid vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orchid-ai-vs-poke.md)
- [Orchid vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orchid-ai-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [Pally vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pally-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [PicoClaw vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/picoclaw-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [Poke vs szn](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/poke-vs-szn.md)
- [Poke vs Zapia](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/poke-vs-zapia.md)
- [QwenPaw vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/qwenpaw-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [szn vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/szn-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [Tab vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tab-bot-vs-tomo.md)
- [Tab vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tab-bot-vs-town.md)
- [Tab vs Zapia](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tab-bot-vs-zapia.md)
- [Tab vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tab-bot-vs-zeroclaw.md)
- [Tab vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tab-bot-vs-zo-computer.md)
- [AstrBot vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-poke.md)
- [Boski vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boski-vs-poke.md)
- [Caddy vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/caddy-app-vs-poke.md)
- [CowAgent vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-poke.md)
- [folk vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-poke.md)
- [GAIA vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-poke.md)
- [Gemini Spark vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-spark-vs-poke.md)
- [Grok Bot vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-poke.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 Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/poke-vs-town.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)
- [Natura tinyNature vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/natura-vs-poke.md)
- [Pally vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pally-vs-poke.md)
- [Poke vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/poke-vs-tomo.md)
- [Poke vs Wajo (Fo)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/poke-vs-wajo.md)
- [Gemini Spark vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-spark-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [Leon vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/leon-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [Poke vs Talorys](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/poke-vs-talorys.md)
- [Tab vs Talorys](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tab-bot-vs-talorys.md)
- [Tab vs Wajo (Fo)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tab-bot-vs-wajo.md)

## Disclosure

- Tab 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.