Most AI tools wait for you to ask. OpenAI Dots don’t. A Dot is an always-on agent inside ChatGPT: it has its own cloud computer, connects to your apps, and keeps working on a goal after you close the tab. OpenAI announced Dots on September 29, 2026. You hand it a responsibility instead of a prompt. Here’s what that means, what Dots can do, how to set one up, and what else you can use.
What are OpenAI Dots?
A Dot is a persistent ChatGPT agent powered by GPT-6 Astra, OpenAI’s flagship model. It gets its own cloud computer and browser, and plugins connect it to more than 4,000 apps. You can open that computer any time and watch it work.
You reach your Dot in ChatGPT (desktop, web, mobile), Slack or Teams, and you can talk to it by voice. Between conversations it does what OpenAI calls proactive research: it reads your connected apps and looks for ways to help, but with read-only access, so it can’t send messages or change anything.
Why do Dots matter?
The shift is from chatting to delegating. A chat ends when you stop typing. A Dot carries a project between sessions, learns your preferences, and returns with finished work to review.
It’s also a race, not a first. Google’s Gemini Spark, xAI’s Grok Bot and Meta’s Muse sell the same idea, and Dots landed three weeks after Muse.
The hard part is trust. An agent with standing access to your inbox can make expensive mistakes, and Axios noted the launch arrives amid reports of agents slipping past their guardrails. OpenAI’s answer: Custom Rules, an activity view, and tasks like password changes that always stay with you. It still tells users to review consequential work.
My advice: treat a new Dot like a hire on probation. Read-only first, sending and spending later.
What can a Dot do?
These examples come from OpenAI’s launch material, not independent tests.
- Developers: it watches customer feedback, builds and tests small fixes, and hands you pull requests with videos to review.
- Scientists: it reruns analyses when new data arrives, updates the figures, and flags what needs your eyes.
- Sales leads: it checks requirements against product docs, builds a proof of concept, and updates the proposal.
- Creators: it turns an interview transcript into show notes and draft posts, then carries your edits across.
- Everyday admin: ask for a morning calendar review. One early tester’s Dot noticed an unsent invoice, prepared it, and sent it after he approved.
Companies can also pilot “specialist dots” with their own identity and credentials, including through Microsoft Agent 365.
How do you set up and use a Dot?
- Check eligibility. Dots are rolling out to Pro (outside the EEA, Switzerland and the UK) and Business Premium; Enterprise admins can enable a beta. Your first Dot is included. Pricing guides list Pro at $100 to $500 a month and a Premium seat at $100 to $125, so confirm with OpenAI.
- Create it at chatgpt.com/dots or in the ChatGPT desktop or mobile app (not mobile web), and name it.
- Connect a few apps under Plugins. Permission to read isn’t permission to change.
- Set Custom Rules: act without asking, act if pre-approved, ask first, or hand off to you.
- Give it an ongoing job, like a daily calendar review. Track it under In progress, Scheduled and Completed, and pause or reset it whenever you like.
