OpenAI's Dots agents reach 4,000 apps but start at a $200-a-month plan; Meta's Muse is free with 15
OpenAI unveiled always-on "dots" agents and a $500 Pro tier at DevDay, hours after Meta pitched Muse to small businesses. For an owner, the choice comes down to price, reach and what each agent can do without asking.
OpenAI on Tuesday introduced dots, "always-on" AI agents that users assign work to by message and that carry it out across the apps they are allowed to reach, at its DevDay developer conference in San Francisco. The company showed more than 20 products to about 2,500 attendees, CNBC reported. Dots run on OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra model, get their own cloud computer, can connect to more than 4,000 apps and learn from feedback over time.
The launch landed on the same day Meta opened its Muse agent to small businesses, which we covered this morning. Fortune framed dots as a direct rival to Muse. Put side by side, the two are aimed at quite different owners.
Side by side
| OpenAI dots | Meta Muse for Small Business | |
|---|---|---|
| Who can use it now | ChatGPT Pro and Business Premium, in eligible markets | Free with usage limits |
| Known entry price | $200 a month (Pro), one dot included | $0 |
| Apps it connects to | More than 4,000 | 15 third-party connectors plus Facebook, Instagram and Meta ads |
| Guardrail | Asks before sensitive actions such as changing a password, deleting data or installing software | "Nothing publishes, sends, or spends without your approval" |
Business Premium pricing was not in the coverage we read, so the $200 Pro plan is the lowest confirmed price of entry. That is $2,400 a year for one dot, against nothing for Muse. OpenAI said more dots will be available later as paid add-ons at a price it has not named, and that teams of dots will eventually work together.
The detail that matters most for owners
Look at the two guardrails again. Meta's rule is broad: nothing goes out, and no money is spent, without a click from the owner. OpenAI's, as Fortune described it, is a list of sensitive actions that need approval, plus custom rules users can set. An agent that follows up on a to-do list across 4,000 apps can do far more on its own. That is the point of it, and also why an owner should write their own rules on day one, especially around email to customers and anything touching payments.
Dots are also not available in the European Economic Area, Switzerland or the UK, Fortune reported. That matters for a U.S. seller with European customers, but not for most Main Street firms.
Who gets what
- An office-based firm already paying for ChatGPT Pro, such as a small accounting practice or agency that lives in Slack or Teams, gets a dot at no extra cost and the widest reach.
- A shop or service business that finds customers on Facebook and Instagram has little reason to pay $2,400 a year when Muse covers the ads, posts and QuickBooks side for free.
- A restaurant or salon is the open question for both. Muse launched without booking or ordering software on its list. Dots' 4,000 apps may cover more of it, but OpenAI did not publish the list in what we read. CheckThisBiz counts 605,380 independent restaurants and 339,519 independent salons. For phone-heavy trades, the AI answering-service startup Instinct is chasing the same customers, as we reported yesterday.
The pricing shuffle around it
OpenAI also launched Pro 500, a $500-a-month tier with its highest usage allowance and a new "Ultrafast" speed tier across ChatGPT and its Codex coding tool. Fortune reported that the $200 Pro plan's included usage is being cut, though it drops its five-hour usage limit, and that conversations with dots do not count toward ChatGPT usage limits. For developers, the new GPT-6.1 Sol model costs $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens.
OpenAI said 1.2 billion people use ChatGPT each week, along with 2.5 million businesses, Fortune reported. CNBC confirmed separately that the company is in early talks to raise about $30 billion; our story on that round is here.
Sources: CNBC; Fortune; Meta; business counts from CheckThisBiz. Annual cost is our calculation.
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