Muse, dots, Grok Bot or Claude Duet? The Big Four Personal AI Agents Compared

Muse, dots, Grok Bot or Claude Duet? This is the comparison everyone is searching for right now. Muse is Meta's personal agent. dots are OpenAI's standing agents inside ChatGPT. Grok Bot is a team of standing agents from SpaceXSI (formerly xAI). Claude Duet is Anthropic's proactive agent, announced on October 21. All four work on their own computer in the cloud, connect to apps, and stop for your approval before sensitive actions. We checked every figure against the four companies' official sources, and clearly marked what comes from the media and what hasn't been published yet.

Full disclosure: Platin Digital is an OpenAI Select Partner, and we usually build our clients' agents on Hermes Agent, open-source software. That's why we took extra care to be fair to all four companies, and every assessment of ours is marked as such.

Home, office, workshop and corner office: the difference in one sentence

Muse was born at home. dots were born in the office. Grok Bot was born in the workshop. Claude Duet was born in the corner office. That's the image to remember, and it explains almost every difference below.

Muse is a personal assistant that lives in Meta's home. It buys, books and turns a recipe video into a shopping list. Its business version sits where small businesses already are: on their Facebook Page, on Instagram and in their ad account. On October 21, Mark Zuckerberg said on Meta's earnings call that more than 10 million people have already adopted Muse, and that shopping is one of its top uses.

A dot is a colleague who sits in ChatGPT's office. You tag it in a Slack thread, and it picks a project up where it left off. Its tools are teamwork tools: email, files, code and shared documents.

Grok Bot is a team of apprentices in a workshop. Several bots, each with a role, all working at the same bench: one cloud computer, with the same files and the same logins. You can show them once how to do something. And whatever is on the bench is available to everyone working at it.

Claude Duet is the business owner's chief of staff. It works for one person, not for a team. In the morning it shows up with a list of what's urgent: an email waiting for a reply, a scheduling conflict, an unpaid invoice. During the day it prepares contracts, forecasts and slide decks and puts them on your desk to sign. And there are things even the boss can't approve, like moving money between accounts. And like a real chief of staff, it checks the mailbox every few hours, not every minute. Anthropic itself writes that it may miss something that arrives between checks.

What is Claude Duet, and why did it arrive last?

Claude Duet is a separate app where Claude works as a proactive agent: it comes to you with what needs your attention, carries out tasks, keeps working while you're away, and checks with you before acting on your behalf. Anthropic announced it on October 21, 2026 as a research preview, and wrote that it was built for professionals and small business owners.

It runs on Claude Opus 5.5, and there's no model picker. It has a virtual machine in the cloud with its own browser, so it keeps working even when your phone is off. Your memory, skills and connected apps carry over from your Claude account. The work happens in a single thread, by text or by voice, and you can open topic channels that share the same memory. Big jobs, like a financial model or a slide deck, arrive as an editable file in the Make tab. The Tasks tab shows what's in progress and what's waiting for you, and only you can mark a task as done. According to Anthropic, for every number or summary it attaches the email, file or spreadsheet it came from.

Why last? Anthropic didn't say. What the sources do say: it comes with more limitations than its rivals have admitted to. You can't watch its browser or take it over. Personal errands, like booking tickets, are weaker than work tasks, according to Anthropic itself. Microsoft 365 isn't available yet, and Slack works with restrictions. The first reviews are split: Dan Shipper of Every, who tested it for two weeks, saw it as a pro tool. Claire Vo, in Lenny's Newsletter, praised the polish but wrote that it never reminded her it existed, and she forgot to use it. We gathered all the details in the complete guide to Claude Duet.

And what about Grok Bot and SpaceXSI? xAI, Elon Musk's AI company, was acquired by SpaceX in February 2026, later became SpaceXAI, and in October was renamed SpaceXSI: that's how its official X account appears today. Cursor, the company behind the code editor, also announced in August that it's part of SpaceX. That's why Grok Bot is presented on x.ai, but you sign in with a Cursor account, and its computers run in Cursor's cloud. It launched on August 11, the first of the four. The full rundown is in the guide to Grok Bot.

Muse vs. dots vs. Grok Bot vs. Claude Duet: the full comparison table

If you don't have time to read everything, this table is the article. Every row was checked against an official source. Anything from a media report is marked as such, and anything not yet published is stated explicitly. We write from Israel, so the table has an Israel row; if you're elsewhere, check each company's availability for your own country (Muse is US and Canada only, Duet is US only, and dots on ChatGPT Pro isn't offered in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland).

And if you don't have time for the table either, here's the main difference in each:

The architecture: four agents, four cloud computers

On paper, the four architectures are similar: a computer in the cloud, a guard layer, and your approval. The differences are where the guard sits, and who shares the computer with whom.

In Muse, the guard is a separate agent. Sentinel runs on the same machine, separated from Muse at the system level, and everything Muse tries to send out to the internet passes through it. In dots, the guard is a layer of checks and rules, and every dot has its own computer. In Grok Bot, a reviewer model works according to rules you write, but all the bots share one computer.

In Duet, the guard comes from two tools Anthropic already runs in other products. The auto mode classifier from Claude Code reviews the actions, and password handling is built the same way as in Claude Managed Agents: passwords are stored outside the environment where the agent works, so it never sees them. Of the four, only Anthropic has published financial actions that are blocked even when you approve them. dots and Grok Bot hand steps like passwords and CAPTCHAs back to you. On the other hand, in Grok Bot you can watch the bot's computer in real time, while in Duet you can't see the browser at all.

Approvals and safety: who asks you, and when

dots give you detailed rules for each type of action. Muse hands guard duty to a separate agent. Grok Bot combines a reviewer with rules, but all its bots share a computer. Duet sets the limits itself, and some won't budge even with your approval. All four approaches are legitimate, and it's worth understanding what each one means.

In dots, for each type of action you pick one of four options: act without asking, act only when you ask, ask first, or hand the task back to you. Some actions always come back to you, like changing a password or approving the use of a saved password. OpenAI states openly that the rules are instructions the dot "tries" to follow, and that it may make mistakes. And deleting a dot doesn't undo actions it has already taken.

In Muse, Meta hasn't published a rule system with this level of detail. What it has published: Muse asks before sensitive actions, you set how much access each app gets, and there's a full log. On top of that sits Sentinel. Even if Muse gets "persuaded" to do something, there's another layer that has to agree.

In Grok Bot, every pending action is shown with its target and values, and you choose: once, always, or deny. Behind that works Auto Review, and you add rules to it in plain language. SpaceXSI writes that it complements least-privilege permissions rather than replacing them. And the shared bench: all your bots share files, browser cookies and logins. The documentation says explicitly not to use separate bots as a security boundary.

In Duet, the split is simple. Reading, drafting and preparing it does on its own. Before it sends a message, pays, signs a document or deletes something, it shows you exactly what it's about to do and waits. If you don't answer, it moves on to other work and reminds you later. Trading securities and moving money between accounts are blocked even with approval. In the sources we checked, Duet has no rules you define per type of action, as dots does. Anthropic is candid about the limits too: it writes that emails and websites can contain instructions designed to trick the agent, and that no defense is perfect. That's why significant actions wait for you.

And privacy? According to Meta, Muse has no access to passwords and payment methods, and its data isn't shared with the ad systems. In dots, logging in to sites happens in a private form, and in Business and Enterprise accounts content isn't used for training by default. In Grok Bot, settings are set in your Cursor account. In Duet, you type passwords into a separate form on your device, and a full card number never reaches Claude. Anthropic hasn't yet published data retention or training terms specific to Duet, and has promised more safety details in the coming days.

How you talk to them, and where they live

Muse leads on channels and devices. dots on team tools. Grok Bot covers every operating system. Duet lives on your phone.

Muse is available in an iOS and Android app, in WhatsApp, on muse.ai, and in a Mac app that can run apps on your computer with your permission. Meta Connect added long voice conversations and video chat with an avatar. Meta also showed hardware: Muse Charm, a pocket device with no price or date, and in October, Muse Gadgets and Muse Home Link. No hardware has been announced for the other three.

A dot lives inside ChatGPT: you create it and talk to it in the mobile app, the desktop app or ChatGPT in a desktop browser, and also by voice and in Slack. Microsoft Teams is in an invite-only alpha. Grok Bot lives in its own app for macOS, Windows, Linux, iPhone, iPad and Android, and a Team Bot can get its own Slack app.

Duet lives in an app separate from the regular Claude app, for iOS and Android, and on claude.ai on desktop. It has no dedicated desktop app. It doesn't call or text other people, and it sends email from your connected accounts, with your approval. Slack shows up for it as a connected app, not as a place to talk to it. WhatsApp and Telegram aren't an official channel in any of the four, except WhatsApp for Muse.

Connections: what each one can open

If your business lives on Instagram and Facebook, Muse has the edge. If it lives in Gmail, Drive and Slack, dots do. If part of the work sits on sites with no integration, that's where Grok Bot puts its emphasis. And if it lives in bookkeeping, contracts and invoices, Duet comes with those connections.

According to Meta, Muse for Small Business connects to Asana, Canva, HighLevel, QuickBooks, Klaviyo, Notion, Shopify, Slack, Stripe and more, and to business accounts on Facebook and Instagram. dots use the plugins installed in your ChatGPT account, such as Gmail, Google Drive and GitHub. The "more than 4,000 apps" figure appears in MacRumors and BGR reports, not in the documentation. Grok Bot connects through plugins, such as Gmail and Google Calendar, and through the browser, with your login, to sites that have no proper integration.

Duet inherits the connectors from your Claude account. Anthropic writes that it works with more than 6,000 connectors and plugins, and at launch mentions Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Slack, QuickBooks, Stripe, Gusto, HubSpot, Docusign, Canva and Shopify. The catalog page itself currently shows about 1,000 connectors and about 340 plugins, so the 6,000 is Anthropic's number. You turn on each connection yourself, and you can disconnect at any time. For sites with no connector, it has its own browser. For shopping it uses Stripe's Link and Shop Pay: you approve an amount, and each purchase goes out on a one-time virtual card. With Link, this requires a US payment method, and there are no recurring payments.

And what about WordPress and Google Ads? In Muse and dots we saw no ready-made connection to either. Grok Bot has an official guide showing a bot building campaign structures in Google Ads, with no spend until approved. According to TechCrunch, the Claude catalog has a read-only WordPress connector, and there's a third-party connector for Google Ads and Meta Ads. Anthropic hasn't said whether they work in Duet, and we haven't tested it ourselves. Either way, none of the four manages a WordPress site out of the box.

How much it costs: free, $20, $30 or $100

Muse is far cheaper to get into. Duet comes with a $20 plan, but only in the US. Grok Bot starts at $30, and dots come as part of a pricier plan. In every paid case, the plan covers more than just the agent.

Sources: Meta's help page, OpenAI's help pages, Cursor's pricing pages (as of October 13, 2026), and Anthropic's pricing page and help center (as of October 22, 2026). Prices are before tax, billed monthly.

Muse: the Power plan at $20 includes 500 million "Muse tokens" a week, and Max at $100 includes 3 billion. Muse for Small Business is free for most uses. According to TechCrunch, Meta plans to keep Muse free for most users and take a cut of purchases made through it.

dots: Pro plans cost $100, $200 or $500 a month, and dots are also included in Business Premium and Enterprise. One dot is included, and the price of additional dots hasn't been published. "$100 for an agent" is an inaccurate description: it's $100 for ChatGPT Pro, which has an agent inside.

Grok Bot: on October 12, the Grok, Cursor and X Premium subscriptions were merged into one. According to Cursor, Grok Bot is included in Premium at $30, Super at $100 and Ultra at $200, and in Teams from $30 per user. You can also link a SuperGrok or X Premium+ subscription. There's a free trial in the form of credit, with a seven-day window. The $120 from the launch headlines was, at the time, the price of a Premium seat in Cursor Teams.

Duet: included in Claude Pro, at $20 a month ($17 billed annually), and in Max, from $100, at no extra cost during the research preview. The catch: it shares your plan's usage limits, both the five-hour and the weekly ones, at the same rate as chat. The background checks count too, and a big task, like a financial model, uses more. Engadget noted that the allowance is also shared with Claude Code, and Anthropic itself writes that limits may run out faster than with chat alone. In dots, by contrast, OpenAI writes that conversations with a dot don't count toward ChatGPT's usage limits. Everyone let in gets one full reset of their limits, until November 30, 2026.

Scorecard: how we see it

Muse leads on price, channels and Meta's tools. dots on rules and team tools. Grok Bot on device range and sites with no integration. Duet on small-business paperwork, but only if you're in the US. This is our own overall assessment, not a measurement or a performance test. The view is that of a small business in Israel.

Note the last row: all four score low there. Grok Bot gets slightly more thanks to an official guide for Google Ads, and we'll come back to that later.

The race: ten weeks, four agents

Grok Bot arrived first, Duet last, and between August 11 and October 21 the standing agent went from experiment to category. SpaceXSI went first, Meta set the pace of announcements, OpenAI came in all at once at DevDay, and Anthropic closed the round.

The raceAug 11 to Oct 21

• Aug 11 · Grok Bot launches first, in beta
• Sep 8 · Muse launches in the US
• Sep 21 · Amazon blocks Muse from its site
• Sep 28 · OpenAI halts GPT-6.1 Astra
• Sep 29 · DevDay: dots launch
• Oct 21 · Meta: over 10 million Muse users
• Oct 21 · Anthropic launches Claude Duet

Four moments on this timeline stand out. First: Grok Bot was out almost a month before Muse, and has since opened up to cheaper plans and more devices. Second: on September 21, according to TechCrunch, Amazon blocked Muse from its site. Websites are still deciding how to treat agents, and that goes for all four: OpenAI, SpaceXSI and Anthropic all write that sites may block automated work or payment.

Third: the day before DevDay, according to an OpenAI statement published by CBS News, the company decided not to release GPT-6.1 Astra, because it tended to overstep the bounds of the task and its permissions. dots came out the next day with a detailed rules system. Fourth: on the same day Meta reported more than 10 million users, Anthropic launched an agent aimed at a completely different audience: not shopping and home life, but the business owner's paperwork. Within ten weeks, each of the four companies picked a different place to live.

What about open-source agents like Hermes Agent and OpenClaw?

The four tech giants didn't invent the category. Open-source agents you install on your own server came first. The best known are OpenClaw and Hermes Agent, both under the MIT license, meaning free to use and modify.

OpenClaw was written by developer Peter Steinberger, who joined OpenAI in February 2026 and moved the project to an independent foundation. Meta's Nat Friedman wrote, according to TechCrunch, that Muse was built from scratch, but that as a product it drew heavy inspiration from OpenClaw. Hermes Agent is developed by Nous Research. According to its documentation, it works with models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and others, and you can talk to it on more than 20 channels, including Telegram, WhatsApp, Slack and email.

Why does this matter for a business in Israel? Because right now, two of the big agents aren't available here, and none of them talks on Telegram. Open source solves both problems, and pays for it in security. In February 2026, according to The Hacker News, security firm Koi Security examined 2,857 skills in OpenClaw's store and found 341 malicious ones, most of them stealing data from Macs. Hermes Agent has also had vulnerabilities found and fixed, for example CVE-2026-9366, rated medium severity. That doesn't mean open source is inherently more dangerous. It means someone on your side has to do the work the big companies do for you.

And the price question: the software is free, but you pay for the model and the server. Also worth knowing: since April 4, 2026, according to InfoWorld, a Claude subscription no longer covers use through third-party software like OpenClaw, and that use is billed separately. In other words, Anthropic includes its own agent in the subscription, not other people's.

Again, the disclosure: we usually build our clients' agents on Hermes Agent, and Platin Digital is an OpenAI Select Partner. If one of the four big agents works for you, that's usually the simpler and cheaper route. What we build when it doesn't, we explained in our guide to building an AI agent.

Muse, dots, Grok Bot or Duet: who needs what?

There's no single winner. There's a fit for your situation. Here's how we sort it:

To make it concrete, pick the character most like you. These are illustrative characters we wrote, not clients or real users.

Quick checklist: Muse, dots, Grok Bot or Claude Duet?

Check every statement that's true for your business today, not what might be. The list with the most checks is your starting point. Nothing is saved.

A tie? That's a sign to start with one small task and see where it lives. And if most of your work is in WordPress and Google Ads, the next section matters more than any list.

What none of them does for a small business yet

All four agents are good at what they were built for. But they were built as personal agents or general team agents, not as an employee wired deep into a specific business's systems. That's not a criticism; it's how the product is defined. A few things we didn't find in any of them, as of today:

This is where a dedicated business agent comes in. It runs in a separate environment, connects directly to WordPress, Google Ads, Meta and Analytics with a dedicated user and permission for each system, and follows rules written for the business. The full details are on our AI agent for business page.

And in fairness: for a business that runs entirely on Instagram and Facebook, Muse may be all it needs once it opens in Israel. For a business whose work is email, documents and Slack, a dot may be enough already today. For a business with legacy systems in the browser, Grok Bot is worth a try. And for a US business owner drowning in paperwork, Duet is a natural starting point. A dedicated agent earns its place when the work sits in systems that off-the-shelf agents can't reach deeply, or when you need full separation between systems.

What to do this week

1. If you're in Israel and have Pro or Business Premium, check your account to see whether the option to create a dot has appeared. Start with one app and an "ask first" rule.
2. If you're considering Grok Bot, start with the free trial, one bot and a read-only task, and add an Ask first rule for every send, post and purchase. Don't sign in on the shared computer to any account you wouldn't hand to every bot.
3. If you're waiting for Muse or Duet, don't work around the restriction. Muse requires you to be in a country where it's available, and Duet requires a US Claude account and an invite tied to your email address. We gathered what's known about Muse here in Muse in Israel.
4. If you're in the US and have Claude Pro or Max, join the Duet waitlist. Once you're in, connect only email and calendar at first, and see whether the morning summary is worth the usage it eats.
5. Either way, write down three tasks that recur every week, and next to each one, the system it lives in. That list will tell you more than any comparison.

Want to go deeper? We have full guides on Meta Muse, OpenAI's dots, Grok Bot and Claude Duet.

Platin Digital is an OpenAI Select Partner, and we set up agents for businesses with whichever models and tools fit each business best, from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and others. They run on a separate cloud server, connect to WordPress, Google Ads, Meta and Analytics, and take tasks over Telegram. Publishing, budget changes and sensitive actions always wait for your approval. If Muse, a dot, Grok Bot or Duet fits some of your tasks, we'll tell you.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

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