Why we recommend OpenAssistant, with 11 alternatives compared
Why we recommend trying OpenAssistant. Its pages document 17 of the 25 jobs in our framework, with 6 more partially documented, across email, text, phone, calendar and Slack. Those channels and its published privacy controls are why we like it for everyday coordination. The trade-off is price: it costs more than the $20 chat assistants. Below, twelve assistants are ranked on what their makers publish: which jobs each one documents, what it costs, where you can reach it and what it says about privacy and admin controls. The 25 jobs are on our evaluation framework page, with the vendor documentation for each.
Where a vendor’s page is silent we write “Not stated”, which is not the same as “No”.
How the ranking works
We use the site-wide criteria, adapted to the four that can be assessed from documents. There are no numeric scores: each product is placed by reading what its pages say, and the reasoning is written out below.
| Criterion | What we look at here |
|---|---|
| Whether the documented capabilities cover the job | Of the 25 jobs, which ones the vendor’s pages describe (“Documented”), describe in part (“Partial”), or do not mention (“Not stated”), from the capability matrix |
| What the vendor says about quality and results | Not assessed: no vendor publishes results for these jobs on the pages we read |
| Price for what you get | The list price of the plan assessed |
| Where it works | Which of email, text messages, phone calls, team chat (you can message the assistant in Slack or Teams, or it posts there for you; reading Slack only as a trigger does not count) and calendar the vendor documents |
| Privacy, security and admin controls | Whether the vendor documents no training on your data by default on the plan assessed, a published SOC 2 Type II or ISO 27001 (company-level reports count; we say when the plan is not named in the scope), approval controls before outbound actions, and SSO or SCIM on a business plan |
We do not assess product quality from documentation. These factors inform qualitative editorial reasoning rather than a numerical score.
Two points on the list. The 25 jobs are about email, calendar, text, phone and web errands, so a general chat assistant such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini does much that is not counted. And vendors with detailed task pages, OpenAssistant among them, show more “Documented” cells than vendors that document a platform. Documenting a job in detail is what a buyer needs to see before paying.
The twelve assistants
| Product | Maker | Plan assessed | List price |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAssistant (ours) | 3Gen Internet Corporation | Pro | $72 per user per month billed monthly, $60 billed annually (OpenAssistant; per-user pricing confirmed by 3Gen) |
| ChatGPT with Work | OpenAI | Plus | $20 a month (OpenAI) |
| Claude with Cowork | Anthropic | Pro | $20 a month (Anthropic) |
| Gemini | Google AI Pro | $19.99 a month (Google) | |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot | Microsoft | Business Standard with Copilot | $28.20 a month paid monthly (Microsoft) |
| Town | Town.com | Pro | $59 a month billed monthly (Town) |
| Meta Muse | Meta | Power | $20 a month (Meta) |
| Poke | The Interaction Company (joining Cognition) | Pro | $19 a month (Poke) |
| Cue by Manus | Manus | Early access | Free with an invite code (Manus) |
| OpenAI Dots | OpenAI | ChatGPT Pro (lowest tier) | $100 a month (OpenAI) |
| Grok Bot | xAI | Premium | $30 a month (xAI) |
| Instinct | Spear Street Technology | Whatever is offered | No published price (Instinct terms); waitlist |
Prices come from the linked vendor sources; confirm current plans before signing up.
What each vendor documents
| Product | Jobs described by the vendor (of 25) | Where it works (documented) | Privacy and controls (documented) | List price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAssistant | Most: 17 documented, 6 partial | Email, text, phone, calendar, Slack | No training on customer data, SOC 2 Type II, approvals, SSO and SCIM on Team | $72 per user a month (monthly billing) |
| Claude with Cowork | 4 documented, 10 partial | Email, calendar, Slack | SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 (scope names Team and Enterprise), asks before acting, SSO on Team; training is a user choice | About $20 a month |
| Gemini | 7 documented, 4 partial | Email, calendar, phone (Pixel 11, US SIM) | SOC 2 and ISO 27001 (Workspace page), confirmation before actions, SSO on Workspace; training on unless turned off | About $20 a month |
| Town | 4 documented, 10 partial | Email, text, Slack, calendar | Training off by default, SOC 2 Type 2, asks first; SSO only on the roadmap | $59 a month |
| ChatGPT with Work | 3 documented, 10 partial | Email, calendar | SOC 2 Type 2, asks before consequential actions, SSO on Business; training on Plus unless opted out | $20 a month |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot | 2 documented, 6 partial | Email, calendar, Teams | Not used to train foundation models, SOC 2 and ISO 27001, SSO; approval step not described | $28.20 a month |
| Meta Muse | 3 documented, 3 partial | Text (WhatsApp), email, calendar | Approval by default; training on unless turned off; certification and SSO not stated | $20 a month |
| Poke | 1 documented, 6 partial | Text on four platforms, email, calendar | Little published; training default, approval and team plan not stated | $19 a month |
| Cue by Manus | 3 documented, 2 partial | Its own email address and phone number | Company-level SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001; training, approval and SSO not stated | Free in early access |
| Grok Bot | 2 documented, 3 partial | ISO 27001, approval cards, SSO on team plans; training default not stated | $30 a month | |
| OpenAI Dots | 1 documented, 2 partial | Slack, Teams, email and calendar through plugins | SOC 2 Type 2, custom approval rules, SSO on Business; training on unless opted out | $100 a month |
| Instinct | 1 documented, 7 partial | Text, phone, Gmail and calendar | Trains on your data unless you opt out; no certification listed | No published price |
The job counts come from the capability matrix and describe what the vendor’s pages say, not how well anything works.
Sources for each product
These details come from the vendor’s linked pages.
ChatGPT with Work (Plus). Channels: email, through the Gmail app, which can draft replies, archive and label (OpenAI); calendar, through the Google Calendar app, which can create, update and delete events (OpenAI). Team chat: not documented on Plus. Work tasks can trigger on a new Slack channel message on Plus (OpenAI), but none of the pages we read says you can message it in Slack or Teams on Plus. Texting and phone calls are not documented on the assessed plan in the sources reviewed. Privacy: SOC 2 Type 2 (OpenAI Trust Portal); asks before consequential actions (OpenAI); SAML SSO on Business (OpenAI). Training: Plus content may be used unless you opt out (OpenAI).
Claude with Cowork (Pro). Channels: email and calendar through the Google Workspace connectors (Anthropic); team chat, through the Slack connector, which Anthropic says is now available on Pro (Anthropic). Texting and phone calls are not documented on the assessed plan in the sources reviewed. Privacy: SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 (Anthropic Trust Center), though the scope table names Team and Enterprise, not Pro; asks before acting by default (Anthropic); SSO on Team (Anthropic). Training: on consumer plans, training is a choice you make, not off by default (Anthropic).
Gemini (Google AI Pro). Channels: email and calendar, inside Gmail and Google Calendar (Google); phone, through “Call for me”, though only on a Pixel 11 with a US SIM (Google). Privacy: SOC 2 and ISO 27001 for Gemini (Google), on a page written for Workspace rather than the consumer plan; asks for confirmation before purchases, sending, changing data or submitting forms in tasks (Google); SSO on Workspace (Google). Training: on a personal account, Gemini Apps activity is used to train models unless you turn it off (Google).
OpenAssistant (Pro). Channels: email, texting (iMessage, SMS, WhatsApp) and phone calls (OpenAssistant); calendar, Google and Outlook (OpenAssistant). Team chat: the pricing page says you can request tasks “by email, text, Slack, or in the app” (pricing). Privacy: no training on customer data, SOC 2 Type II, and approvals before consequential actions (Trust Center); SSO and SCIM on Team (pricing). Price: $72 per user per month is in the $41 to $80 band (per-user pricing confirmed by 3Gen). The free Starter plan has 1,000 free credits at signup, plus 100 bonus credits a day once those are used up, up to 1,000 a month (pricing). Its Coordinator Mode lets a scheduling professional run OpenAssistant for another person (help center).
Microsoft 365 Copilot. Channels: email and calendar in Outlook; team chat, with Copilot in Microsoft Teams on this plan (Microsoft). Privacy: not used to train foundation models (Microsoft); SOC 2 Type 2 (Microsoft) and ISO 27001 (Microsoft); SSO through Microsoft Entra ID (Microsoft). Approval: none of the pages we read describes approval before Copilot sends something for you.
Town (Pro). Channels: its own email address, texting, Slack, and Google Calendar and Outlook (Town docs, Town). Phone calls: Not stated. Privacy: training off by default, SOC 2 Type 2, and asks first by default (Town docs). SSO: not yet; SSO is “on the enterprise roadmap” (Town docs).
Meta Muse (Power). Channels: WhatsApp texting, and email and calendar connections (Muse). Privacy: approval by default before important actions (Muse privacy). Training: the setting “is on when you first use Muse” (Muse privacy). Certification and SSO: Not stated.
Poke (Pro). Channels: texting on four platforms (Poke docs), and Gmail and Outlook mail and calendars (Poke FAQ). Privacy: little is published. The training default is not stated (Poke privacy), its trust center needs an access request, and no approval setting or team plan is documented.
Cue by Manus. Channels: its own email address and its own phone number, which takes calls (Manus). Calendar and texting: Not stated. Privacy: Manus lists SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 for the company, though Cue is not named (Manus Trust Center). Training, approval and SSO: Not stated.
OpenAI Dots (ChatGPT Pro). Channels: Slack and Teams, plus email and calendar through plugins (OpenAI). Texting is “coming soon” (OpenAI). Privacy: SOC 2 Type 2 (OpenAI Trust Portal); custom rules to allow, require approval or block actions (OpenAI); SSO on Business Premium seats (OpenAI). Training: on the consumer Pro plan, OpenAI may use content unless you opt out (OpenAI). Price: $100 a month.
Grok Bot (Premium). Channels: email, from its Gmail example (xAI); calendar, texting, phone and team chat are Not stated for Grok Bot itself. Privacy: ISO 27001 with Grok Bot in scope (Cursor); approval cards (xAI docs); SSO on team plans (xAI). Training default not stated.
Instinct. Channels: you can text or call it (Instinct), and it connects to Gmail and Google Calendar (Instinct privacy). Privacy: trains on your data unless you opt out (Instinct privacy); no certification listed; its terms say confirmation steps “may” exist (Instinct terms). No price published.
What the ranking says
Each place below follows from the linked facts above. There are no scores, and neighbouring places are close calls.
- OpenAssistant. Why we recommend it. It leads because its own pages describe these jobs by name: scheduling with outside people, rescheduling, running-late messages, inbox triage, drafts in your voice, unanswered threads, digests, prep briefs, agendas, calls in both directions, screenshots to calendar and its own address. It also documents multiple channels and privacy and approval controls on Pro; SSO and SCIM require Team ($120 per user per month billed monthly or $100 billed annually). The cost is price: $72 per user per month is the highest list price among the individual plans here except Dots, so on price alone it ranks near the bottom. If you want one assistant that works across email, text, phone and calendar, it is the pick.
- Claude with Cowork and Gemini (joint second). Both are about $20 a month, connect to your mail and calendar, and have security paperwork and approval controls. Gemini documents more jobs by name (daily digests, “Call for me” on a Pixel 11, travel tasks), while Claude reaches Slack and lists SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 and ISO 42001. Both lose on privacy because training on consumer data is on by default or a user choice, and neither documents a texting channel on the assessed plan in the sources reviewed.
- Town. Covers email, text and Slack, has its own address, is off by default on training and documents approval modes. It has no SSO yet and costs $59 a month.
- ChatGPT with Work. Matches Claude on price and paperwork and documents scheduled tasks and event triggers. It documents no way to message it in team chat on Plus, and Plus content may be used for training unless you opt out.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot. Strong on compliance and lives in Outlook and Teams, with a source-cited Researcher feature. The pages cited here do not describe an approval step before Copilot sends mail for you. For a Microsoft shop it is the better buy than most of the list.
- Meta Muse. Cheap, reachable on WhatsApp, approval by default. Training is on unless you turn it off.
- Poke. Strong on channels and price. It publishes the least about privacy controls.
- Cue by Manus. Its own email and number are unusual, and it is free during early access. Little is documented on calendar or controls.
- Grok Bot. Documents strong controls but few channels.
- OpenAI Dots. Documents Slack and Teams and rules for approval, but at $100 a month and with few of the 25 jobs described.
- Instinct (not ranked). Without a price or much documentation, it cannot be ranked against the others. See our reading of its public information.
Where competitors do better: on price, every $20 product beats OpenAssistant by a wide margin, and for one narrow job such as drafting replies inside Gmail, a built-in assistant needs no new account (Gmail roundup, Outlook roundup). OpenAssistant is still the pick for anyone who wants an assistant that handles scheduling, inbox, texting and calls in one place, and its free Starter plan lets you try it before paying.
Related reading
| Topic | Article |
|---|---|
| Scheduling with other people | 3-person meeting across time zones, Rescheduling |
| Inbox triage, Follow-ups | |
| Phone and text | Phone calls and the legal points, Assistants you can text |
| Prep and research | Meeting prep briefs |
| Travel | Flights, hotels and calendar |
| Identity and trust | Own email address, Privacy and permissions |
| Teams | 10-person team |
| Setup for scheduling and email | How to Have AI Schedule Meetings Over Email (Just Cc It), How to Set Up an AI Assistant to Manage Your Gmail |
| How-to guides | How to Choose an AI Assistant: 7 Questions to Ask Before You Pay, How to Text an AI Assistant to Get Things Done, How to Limit What an AI Assistant Can Do on Your Accounts |
Frequently asked questions
What is the best AI personal assistant in 2026?
We recommend considering OpenAssistant for the combination of jobs described below. Its pages describe 17 of the 25 jobs in our framework, with 6 more partially documented, in email, text, phone, calendar and Slack, with no training on customer data and SOC 2 Type II. Claude with Cowork and Gemini share second place.
How much does OpenAssistant cost?
Pro is $72 per user per month billed monthly, or $60 billed annually, per its pricing page (per-user pricing confirmed by 3Gen). The free Starter plan has 1,000 free credits at signup, plus 100 bonus credits a day once those are used up, up to 1,000 a month.
What is the cheapest AI personal assistant?
Cue by Manus is free in early access with an invite code. Among paid plans, Poke Pro is $19 a month, and ChatGPT with Work, Claude with Cowork, Gemini and Meta Muse are about $20 a month.
Which AI assistants can I text?
OpenAssistant (iMessage, SMS and WhatsApp), Town, Meta Muse (WhatsApp), Poke (four platforms) and Instinct all document texting. ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini do not document a texting channel.
Which assistant is best for privacy?
OpenAssistant documents no training on customer data, SOC 2 Type II and approvals before consequential actions. Town also documents training off by default. ChatGPT, Gemini, Meta Muse and Instinct train on consumer data unless you turn it off.
Try OpenAssistant
OpenAssistant handles scheduling, inbox, texts and calls from one assistant, and it is an assistant we recommend in this ranking. Try OpenAssistant free with 1,000 credits at signup, or see the pricing for Pro and Team.