Comparison as of , with both products as they were that day · The Interaction Company of California (part of Cognition)
Poke alternative: MausBot
A Poke alternative that is open source and runs the AI agents you already have on your own computer. Poke is a texting assistant Cognition bought in July 2026.
Poke, from The Interaction Company of California, now part of Cognition, is a personal assistant you text in Apple Messages, WhatsApp, Telegram or RCS for email, calendar, reminders and connected apps, free with a small allowance or $19 and $199 a month. MausBot is the open source Poke alternative: one team of the AI agents you already have, on your own computer or server.
What Poke is
Poke is a proactive assistant that lives in your messages. You text it or send a voice note, and it reads, searches and drafts email in Gmail or Outlook, manages your calendar and reminders, searches the web, builds and publishes a simple website, and runs automations in the background. Integrations come as shareable Recipes, and developers can add any MCP server or call the Poke API. Poke picks the model for each task. On Ultra, Poke Human sends a real person to make calls, book tables and place orders. Its maker, a Palo Alto startup, launched Poke publicly in March 2026, raised $25 million at a $300 million valuation, and joined Cognition, the maker of Devin, on July 23, 2026. Poke keeps working as before.
Launched: Public launch March 2026; open to all, no waitlist, from March 19, 2026. Sources: Poke; Poke: pricing; Poke: FAQ; Poke Docs; Poke Docs: Usage and resets; Poke Docs: Release notes; Poke: Privacy Notice; Poke: Terms of Service; Cognition: welcoming The Interaction Company; TechCrunch: Poke makes AI agents as easy as sending a text; TechCrunch: Why Cognition bought Poke.
Why people look for a Poke alternative
- Poke picks the model for each task: frontier models for complex tasks start on Pro at $19 a month, and on every action only on Ultra at $199.
- The free plan has a small usage allowance; past it, Poke drops to a lighter mode until the allowance resets, and Pro does the same at its own limit.
- Your conversations can train Interaction's AI models unless you choose Maximum Privacy, and its terms allow using content to train the third-party models behind the service.
- Its future runs through Cognition: nothing changes through the end of 2026, the teams plan to test combining the products in 2027, and a full merger has not been ruled out.
- WhatsApp works only in some markets, after Meta barred general-purpose chatbots.
- Its documented tools are email, calendar, reminders, web search and integrations; Poke describes no computer or browser of its own to work on.
Poke vs MausBot
The Poke column comes from the vendor's own pages and the press cited above, checked on November 15, 2026. Where the vendor has not said, the cell says so.
| Poke | MausBot | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free with a small usage allowance; Pro $19 a month; Ultra $199 a month with credits, then pay as you go | Free and open source. Bots run on the Claude, ChatGPT or Grok account, or the API key, you already have |
| Models | Poke picks the model per task; frontier models for complex tasks on Pro, for every action on Ultra | 16 agent engines (Claude Code, Codex, Grok, Cursor, Copilot and more), API and local models; chosen per bot, switchable mid-conversation |
| Agents | One assistant per person, reached as one contact | As many bots as you like, in group chats, with a Chief of Staff that hands out work |
| Where it runs | Interaction's cloud, through your connected email, calendar and apps | Your own computer or server; cloud computers with a live desktop on a Cloud plan |
| Where your data lives | Interaction's servers; may train its models unless you pick Maximum Privacy | ~/.openmausbot on your own machine; prompts go only to the model provider you choose |
| Platforms | Apple Messages, WhatsApp (some markets), Telegram and RCS; a web app for settings | macOS, Windows, Ubuntu; iPhone and Android apps |
| Apps and tools | Gmail, Outlook, Notion, GitHub, Linear and more as Recipes; any MCP server; an API | Gmail, Slack, Notion, LinkedIn and hundreds more apps, any MCP server, and bots' own numbers and inboxes |
| Open source | No | Yes. Apache 2.0 on GitHub, apart from an enterprise/ folder |
What MausBot is
MausBot is a free, open-source app that runs a team of the AI agents you already have. Each bot has its own model, computer and connected apps, on Claude Code, Codex, Grok, Cursor, Copilot and other agent engines, API models or local models, using the accounts you already pay for. A Chief of Staff bot hands work to the others, bots share group chats, and every bot reads your About me. It runs on Mac, Windows and Ubuntu with iPhone and Android apps, keeps your data in ~/.openmausbot on your own machine, and is published on GitHub under Apache 2.0. You can self-host it free on your own server, and Cloud plans from $15 a month keep bots working with the laptop closed.
What Poke still does better
- Nothing to install: it lives in Apple Messages, WhatsApp, Telegram and RCS, and was the first AI agent approved on Apple's Messages for Business.
- Proactive by design: it uses your connected apps and its memory to message you first, and runs automations in the background.
- Poke Human, on Ultra, puts a real person on calls, reservations, orders and rides, with expenses charged at cost.
- A free plan that never stops answering: past its allowance it slows down instead of cutting you off.
- A shareable Recipes library, plus MCP servers and an API for developers.
Other Poke alternatives
MausBot is the open-source option. The other agents in this category, each with its own comparison page:
- Grok Bot by xAI: Grok Bot opened as a beta on August 11, 2026 and reached version 1.0 on November 2, 2026.
- OpenAI dots by OpenAI: Dots launched on September 29, 2026.
- ChatGPT Work by OpenAI: ChatGPT Work is an agent inside ChatGPT that OpenAI launched on July 9, 2026, built on Codex technology.
- Meta Muse by Meta: Muse launched on September 8, 2026.
Every other comparison page: Grok Bot, OpenAI dots, ChatGPT Work, Meta Muse, Claude Cowork, Claude Duet, Gemini Spark, Perplexity Computer, Manus, Cue by Manus, Instinct, Viktor, Lindy, Squad, Turnstone, Bops, Hark Pro, OpenClaw, Hermes Agent, Vellum, Open Dots, OpenBot, Rakazo, OpenMuse, OpenInstinct.
Frequently asked questions
- What is Poke?
- Poke is a personal AI assistant you text in Apple Messages, WhatsApp, Telegram or RCS. It handles email, calendar, reminders and connected apps, and messages you first when something needs you. It is made by The Interaction Company of California, which joined Cognition in July 2026.
- Is Poke free?
- Yes, with a small usage allowance; past it, Poke keeps answering in a lighter mode until the allowance resets. Pro is $19 a month and Ultra $199 a month, with pay-as-you-go usage beyond its credits. The MausBot app is free; your bots run on the Claude, ChatGPT or Grok account, or the API key, you already have.
- Did Cognition buy Poke?
- Yes. Cognition, the maker of Devin, announced on July 23, 2026 that The Interaction Company of California is joining it, in a deal TechCrunch put in the low nine figures. Poke works as before, with nothing changing through the end of 2026.
- Is there an open source Poke?
- Not from Interaction: Poke is closed and hosted. MausBot is an open source alternative, Apache 2.0 on GitHub apart from an enterprise/ folder, and its bots run on your own computer or server.
- Can I text MausBot like Poke?
- No. You talk to your bots in the MausBot desktop app or its iPhone and Android apps. On your phone, a bot can prepare a text or WhatsApp message that sends only when you tap Send.
This comparison is based on Poke and MausBot as they were on . Both products change. If something here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.