OpenAI Dots vs Grok Bot: Always-On AI Agents Compared

Feature	OpenAI Dots	Grok Bot	Runtime
What it is	Always-on agent in ChatGPT	Always-on AI teammates from xAI	Agent harness for payment and fintech teams
Agent computer	OpenAI-hosted cloud computer	Cursor-hosted cloud, US only	Isolated, in your cloud
Model	OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra	Not published	Any model, with fallbacks
How many agents	One per user at launch	Several, with a coordinator	Many, across teams
Learn by demonstration	Learns from feedback	Watch once, save as routine	Built from your SOPs
Where you reach it	ChatGPT, Slack, voice	Desktop, iOS, Slack	Slack, Teams, email, SMS, voice
Team features	Enterprise admin controls	Team Bots, public beta	Shared agents, templates, memory, RBAC
Approvals	Automatic checks, custom rules	Approvals and Auto Review	Before payouts and ledger entries
Pricing	First dot in Pro, Business Premium	In SuperGrok and Cursor plans	Free, Teams from $99/seat

OpenAI Dots and Grok Bot launched weeks apart and look alike on paper: always-on agents, each with its own cloud computer, that keep working while your laptop is closed. The differences are in how many agents you get, how they learn, and which ecosystem they belong to.

OpenAI Dots vs Grok Bot at a glance

OpenAI Dots are always-on agents in ChatGPT, announced at OpenAI DevDay on September 29, 2026. Each dot runs on GPT-6 Astra with its own cloud computer and browser, works through the plugins you have connected (OpenAI cites more than 4,000 apps), and remembers context across sessions. You reach the same dot in ChatGPT, in Slack, and by voice call, and it can work on your laptop if you connect it.

Grok Bot is xAI's always-on AI teammate product, launched in beta on August 11, 2026. Each person's bots share a persistent cloud computer with a browser, filesystem, and terminal. Bots sign into your apps and websites, can learn a workflow by watching you once and rerun it on a schedule, and can work in parallel with a coordinator bot managing specialists.

How they work

OpenAI Dots. A dot takes ongoing responsibility for a goal, does read-only research when idle to suggest next steps, and sends updates and questions back to you. It learns your preferences from feedback. You can watch its cloud browser, take over, and return control. One dot per user at launch, with more planned.

Grok Bot. Grok Bot's standout is learning by demonstration: show it a workflow once, correct it, and it saves the steps as a routine. Running several bots at once, with one coordinating the rest, suits people juggling research, inbox, and app tasks in parallel.

Teams and enterprise

OpenAI Dots. Available on ChatGPT Business Premium worldwide and as a beta on Enterprise, Edu, and Healthcare, off by default until a workspace admin enables it and sets permissions. OpenAI also describes specialist agents with dedicated credentials for single tasks on enterprise plans.

Grok Bot. Team Bots, in public beta since late September, share files, plugins such as Salesforce, Notion, and GitHub, credentials, and memories across a team, and can be called from Slack. Individual conversations stay private even on a shared Team Bot.

Security and data

OpenAI Dots. Dots inherit your existing ChatGPT app permissions, apply automatic approval checks, and accept custom rules, such as reviewing drafts before sending. Sign-ins happen in private browser sessions separate from your own device.

Grok Bot. Enterprise controls include per-user isolation, network allowlists, Auto Review before shell commands and writes, audit logs, ISO 27001 and ISO 42001 certification, and Zero Data Retention with model providers. It runs only on Cursor-hosted cloud computers in the US, with no on-premises option.

Pricing

OpenAI Dots: your first dot is included in ChatGPT Pro or Business Premium at no extra cost. Pricing for additional dots is not published.

Grok Bot is included with SuperGrok, SuperGrok Plus, SuperGrok Heavy, Cursor Pro, Pro+, Ultra, and Cursor Teams plans, with its own usage that resets weekly. Enterprise pricing is not published.

Where Runtime fits

Both are strong general-purpose agents, and both put you on one vendor's cloud. Dots run on OpenAI's model and infrastructure; Grok Bot runs on Cursor-hosted computers in the US.

Runtime is the third option for team operations on regulated payment data. It has no single-vendor dependency: agent computers run in your AWS, GCP, or Azure account or fully self-hosted, you bring your own sandbox provider, and you choose models from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, or open-weight models in your cloud, with harness routing across Claude Code, Codex, and OpenCode. If a provider has an outage, changes pricing, or deprecates a model, your agents keep running. Your team sets the guardrails: read-only by default, approvals before a payout, reserve, or ledger entry, RBAC, masked credentials, card numbers and SSNs stripped from prompts and logs, and every run recorded end to end for your sponsor bank. And it is built for teams: a stuck payment that touches support, payment ops, finance, and risk becomes one investigation with one record, with shared agents, templates, and memory. A forward-deployed AI engineer builds the first agents with you. Rain replaced $250k in vendor spend with Runtime.

Many teams will use a personal agent for individual productivity and Runtime for the operations that touch money.

Which should you choose

Choose OpenAI Dots if your team already works in ChatGPT and wants one always-on agent per person across apps and Slack.
Choose Grok Bot if you want several bots that learn routines by demonstration, and you already pay for SuperGrok or Cursor.
Choose Runtime if agents need to work card data, PII, ledgers, or payouts across several teams, with guardrails you set and no dependency on one cloud or model vendor.

See Runtime on your busiest queue

Bring one SOP. A forward-deployed AI engineer builds the first agent with your team, inside your cloud.

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Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between OpenAI Dots and Grok Bot?

Both are always-on agents with their own cloud computer. Dots live inside ChatGPT, run on GPT-6 Astra, use your connected ChatGPT plugins, and start with one dot per user. Grok Bot comes from xAI, runs on Cursor-hosted cloud computers in the US, lets you run several bots with a coordinator, and can learn a workflow by watching you once.

Which is better for teams, OpenAI Dots or Grok Bot?

Grok Bot has Team Bots in public beta, which share files, plugins, credentials, and memories across a team. Dots are available on ChatGPT Business Premium and as an admin-enabled beta on Enterprise, with workspace admin controls. For regulated operations across several teams, Runtime is built for the job.

Can OpenAI Dots or Grok Bot run in my own cloud?

No. Dots run on OpenAI-hosted cloud computers, and xAI says Grok Bot runs only on Cursor-hosted cloud computers in the US. Runtime runs agent computers in your AWS, GCP, or Azure account, or fully self-hosted.

How much do OpenAI Dots and Grok Bot cost?

Your first dot is included in ChatGPT Pro or Business Premium. Grok Bot is included with SuperGrok, SuperGrok Plus, SuperGrok Heavy, and Cursor Pro, Pro+, Ultra, and Teams plans, with its own usage. Runtime has a free tier, Teams from $99 per seat per month, and custom Enterprise pricing.