· 8 min read · Omkar Satpute and Milind Soni
Meta Muse vs OpenAI dots: the two one-agent products
Meta Muse and OpenAI dots compared on price, region, model, where the agent runs, memory, training, and phone calls, plus the open-source third option.
Meta Muse is a free-to-start consumer agent, US and Canada only, on Meta's own model, in Meta's cloud, and it phones businesses for you. OpenAI dots are a paid agent inside ChatGPT, GPT only, not on Pro in the EEA, Switzerland, or the UK, with 4,000+ apps and your ChatGPT memory already loaded. Both give you exactly one agent; if you want a team, or your data on your own disk, the third option at the end is MausBot.
What they share
Muse launched on September 8 and dots on September 29, and the press has framed them as rivals since the second one shipped. The framing is fair, because they are the same shape. Each gives you one agent: Muse spawns hidden subagents but will not let you make a second one, and a dot is one primary dot that you name. Each runs on its maker's own model and nothing else. Each works from a computer in its maker's cloud, so each keeps working after you close the app. Each has memory, background work (goals for Muse, routines for dots), and some form of proactive work. Each is closed source. The differences are all in who can get in, what it plugs into, and what you are asked to trust.
Side by side
Every cell comes from the product's own launch post, security post, or help centre. "Reported" marks a price the company has not published and the press has.
| Meta Muse | OpenAI dots | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free tier metered in weekly tokens; Power $20 a month; Maximum $100 | First dot included with the plan; ChatGPT Pro reported from $100 a month, Business Premium reported $125 per user |
| Plan needed | A Meta account, 18+, card at signup (reported) | ChatGPT Pro or Business Premium; Enterprise, Edu, and Healthcare as an admin-enabled beta; not on Free, Go, or Plus |
| Region | US and Canada | Pro excludes the EEA, Switzerland, and the UK; Business Premium everywhere ChatGPT is sold |
| Age | 18 and over | 18 and over |
| Model | Muse Spark 1.3, proprietary; open weights on the roadmap, no date | GPT-6 Astra only |
| Where the agent runs | A Linux VM in Meta's cloud with a Chromium browser | A sandboxed Linux computer with Chrome in OpenAI's cloud, one per dot, which you can open and inspect |
| Local control | Mac app is a client; the cloud agent reaches into Files, Mail, Messages, Calendar, and Notes by opt-in; no Windows agent | Optional, off by default, through the ChatGPT desktop app |
| Connected apps | Gmail, Calendar, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, OpenTable, Ticketmaster, Spotify, Plaid, Stripe Link checkout | 4,000+ through ChatGPT plugins |
| Memory controls | A MEMORY.md you can inspect, edit, and download; forget-on-request is best-effort, and Meta says it may still remember what it learnt from deleted items | Shared with ChatGPT; cannot view, edit, or delete individual memories; Reset deletes everything |
| Training on your data | On sanitized trajectories, opt-out | Pro follows the Improve-the-model toggle, including actions and connected-app data; business plans not trained on by default |
| Approvals and purchases | Scoped approvals; every purchase needs a human | Custom Rules: act, act if pre-approved, ask first, or hand off; payments only with cards saved on merchant sites, always with approval |
| Phone calls | Calls US businesses for you, in beta; voice mode | You can call your dot; it cannot call you at launch |
| Channels | Its own app, WhatsApp, and since Connect its own email address | ChatGPT, Slack, Teams; texting in a limited US beta; uses your personal email |
| Platforms | iOS, Android, web, WhatsApp, macOS | Created in the ChatGPT desktop app or desktop web; then reachable in ChatGPT on iOS and Android |
| Multiple agents | One per person, with hidden subagents | One primary dot; teams of dots envisioned, no date |
Where they differ, in prose
Price and who can get in
Muse is a consumer product: sign up with a Meta account, add a card, and start on a free tier metered in weekly tokens; Power is $20 a month and Maximum $100. It is US and Canada only, with Canada opened on September 18 and no UK or EU date, and it has reportedly topped the US App Store since then. Dots are a feature of a ChatGPT subscription, and not a cheap one: Pro or Business Premium, with the first dot included at no extra cost and extra dots unpriced. Pro is reported from $100 a month and Business Premium at $125 per user. Dots are not on Free, Go, or Plus, and Pro excludes the EEA, Switzerland, and the UK, where OpenAI has said a launch is not planned for now. Business Premium covers every ChatGPT region. So Muse is easier to start and harder to get in by geography; dots are the reverse, if your company pays.
Model and ecosystem
Muse runs on Muse Spark 1.3, a proprietary model from Meta Superintelligence Labs; Meta says open weights are on the roadmap and gives no date. Dots run on GPT-6 Astra only. The bigger ecosystem difference is what the agent arrives knowing. A dot receives your ChatGPT memories on day one, builds its own, and shares permissions and memory with ChatGPT, ChatGPT Work, and Codex. Muse starts from your Meta accounts instead: Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp are connectors, and WhatsApp is also a place you can talk to it. Pick the one whose history you want the agent to inherit.
Apps
Muse ships a curated connector list: Gmail, Calendar, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, OpenTable, Ticketmaster, Spotify, Plaid, and Stripe Link checkout. Dots inherit the ChatGPT plugin catalogue, which OpenAI puts at 4,000+ apps. On breadth dots win outright. On depth Muse's short list is built around errands, which is what its marketing shows: booking, buying, and calling. Dots use your personal email rather than an address of their own; Muse gained its own email address at Connect on September 24.
Trust
This is the section that has produced the headlines. Meta's security post is unusually candid: Meta can access Muse VM data today, a confidential VM is promised later, prompt injection is admitted to be unsolved, and training on sanitized trajectories is on unless you opt out. The Verge reported Muse inferring a family's location from Amazon order data, Reuters reported staff flagging it routing around guardrails, and Amazon blocked it from shopping on September 20, a block that is still in place. On the dots side, OpenAI's privacy FAQ says you cannot view, edit, or delete individual memories, only Reset, and that disconnecting an app does not delete what the dot learned from it. Its safety post says injection protections "do not eliminate" the risk, and human review can happen even with training off. NBC reported that OpenAI apologised the day before launch for agents that had accessed non-public Australian health-insurance data, and that the keynote voice demo failed. Neither company is hiding the trade-off. Both are asking you to accept it.
Phone and proactive work
Muse makes outbound calls to US businesses, in beta since mid-September, and runs goals in the background after you close the app. Dots cannot call you at launch; you can call your dot. Their proactive work is "proactive research," which OpenAI describes as read-only and enforced in code, plus scheduled tasks. If the job is "ring the restaurant and move the booking," that is Muse. If the job is "have a brief waiting for me in Slack," that is dots.
Who should pick which
Pick Muse if you are in the US or Canada, want one assistant with no setup, need it to phone businesses, already live in WhatsApp and Instagram, and are comfortable with Meta holding the accounts it works in.
Pick dots if you pay for ChatGPT Pro outside the EEA, Switzerland, and the UK, or your company pays for Business Premium anywhere, you work in ChatGPT, Slack, or Teams, and you want the agent to start with your ChatGPT memory and the full plugin catalogue.
Pick neither if you are on ChatGPT Plus, on a Claude plan, in the UK or EU without a business plan, want two models, or need the record on your own disk. That is where the third option comes in.
The third option
MausBot, published on GitHub as MausBot, takes the opposite shape on every axis the two agree on. It is a team, not one agent: a chat app where every contact is a bot with its own model, its own computer, its own connected apps, and its own memory, and bots can share a room and hand work to each other. The model is a setting per bot: bots run on the claude, codex, or grok CLI with the login you already have, so a ChatGPT Plus subscriber gets a GPT agent and a Claude subscriber gets a Claude one, in the same room. It runs on your machine, with a harness on 127.0.0.1 and the full record in ~/.openmausbot; a bot gets a cloud desktop only when you give it one. It is free and Apache 2.0. The honest cost is that the free app runs on your computer, so with the laptop shut nothing runs unless a bot is on a cloud computer, you run it on a server, or you take Pro at $49 a month, and it does not phone businesses. The full five-way, with Grok Bot and Cue, is in Muse vs Grok Bot vs Dots vs Cue.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Muse or dots free?
- Muse has a free tier, metered in weekly tokens, with a card reported to be required at signup; paid Power and Maximum tiers add quota. Dots have no free tier: the first dot is included at no extra cost with ChatGPT Pro, reported from $100 a month, or Business Premium. MausBot is free; you pay only your model provider.
- Which works in Canada, and which in the UK?
- Muse works in the US and Canada, with Canada added on September 18, and has no UK or EU date. Dots on ChatGPT Pro exclude the UK, the EEA, and Switzerland, and OpenAI has said a Pro launch there is not planned for now; dots on Business Premium are available in every ChatGPT region, including Canada and the UK. MausBot has no region check.
- Which is more private?
- Neither keeps data on your computer. Meta says it can access Muse VM data today and that training on sanitized trajectories is opt-out. OpenAI keeps a dot's memory for as long as you keep the dot, with no per-item delete, and on Pro follows your Improve-the-model setting. Both say prompt injection is not solved. If you need the record on your own disk, that is MausBot, where everything lives in ~/.openmausbot.
- Can dots do multiple agents?
- Not today. You get one primary dot, which can delegate work to other agents but cannot sit in a group chat with another dot. OpenAI says it envisions teams of dots over time and has published no date or price for extra dots. Muse is also one agent. For a roster today, look at Grok Bot, Cue, or MausBot.
- Which should a ChatGPT Plus user pick?
- Not dots, which are not on Plus. Muse, if you are in the US or Canada and want one assistant on Meta's model. Otherwise MausBot, whose codex CLI engine signs in with a ChatGPT account, so a Plus subscriber gets a GPT agent on their own machine at no extra charge.
Get started in two minutes
No card, no region check, no waiting on a rollout. Download for macOS, Windows, or Ubuntu, sign in with the CLIs you already have, and meet your first bot. Or read the source on GitHub first. Everything on the features list is free, forever.