Dot vs Grok Bot vs Muse for overnight work

If you already pay for ChatGPT Pro or a Cursor seat and you want an agent that keeps working after you close the laptop, pick by desk. OpenAI's Dots, xAI's Grok Bot, and Meta's Muse all sell the same job: leave a goal, it keeps going, and it asks before a sensitive step. They do not sit in the same apps.

Dot lives in ChatGPT, Slack, and Microsoft Teams. Grok Bot is its own teammate app, with a roster of bots on a shared cloud computer. Muse talks like a person in the Muse app or WhatsApp. The overnight question is which of those desks you already sit at, not which launch post sounded friendliest.

Same job, three desks

The shared shape is easy to miss because every vendor now says "agent." All three run on a cloud computer of their own. Work can continue after you shut your machine. Sensitive steps go through an ask-first path.

OpenAI, via TechCrunch's DevDay write-up, calls Dots "remarkably capable, always-on agents built to handle everything." Each Dot gets its own cloud computer and a browser. The same coverage, plus The Verge and 9to5Google, attributes the model to GPT-6 Astra. You reach the same Dot in ChatGPT, Slack, and Teams, with context carried across those surfaces. Text-message support is described as coming later, not as a day-one channel.

Grok Bot is the older teammate in this set. The live x.ai/bot page still leads on a computer you log into once, bots that sign into the apps and sites you already use, and work that continues when the laptop is closed. You can run several bots at once, drop them in one thread, and teach a routine by doing the job once. Our August 17 guide covered the early-beta gate. The product itself has not changed its pitch. Access has.

Muse is Meta's personal agent, launched September 8, 2026. Meta's own launch post says it runs on Muse Secure VM, "a dedicated, virtual machine (VM) that houses both the agent and a person's data," and that you talk to it in the Muse app or directly in WhatsApp. The line that matters for overnight work is this one: "For tasks that take more time, Muse keeps working after people close the app, and comes back when something changes or when it needs approval, like before it sends an email or makes a purchase."

Tom's Guide put Muse and Dots next to each other the same week and landed on the useful split: they look similar on paper and aim at different customers. Muse is the personal desk. Dots is the ChatGPT-and-work-chat desk. Grok Bot is the third desk in that same job, the one that already sold "a new kind of colleague" in August.

Who you'd hand the overnight to

Read the last row as the source of truth we will keep current. This post is the comparison. Those pages are the directory notes.

A Slack-bound brief on Dot

Hand Dot the overnight if the work already lives in ChatGPT and will get picked up in Slack or Teams in the morning. That is the surface OpenAI is selling. TechCrunch's account of the announcement says users can message Dots through Slack, Teams, and other organizational platforms. Our Dots page records the same three desks, with shared context, from that day's Verge / TechCrunch / 9to5Google set.

OpenAI's own examples, as TechCrunch summarized them, are work-shaped: a developer Dot watching customer feedback, a scientist Dot rerunning analysis as new data lands. Treat those as vendor scenes, not as jobs we ran. They tell you the overnight OpenAI is imagining. A Friday handoff that fits the published product is a research brief you start in ChatGPT, leave running, and expect to continue in a Slack thread tomorrow without re-explaining the goal.

Access, as of the September 29 coverage we used on the tool page: one Dot included to start for ChatGPT Pro and Business Premium in eligible markets. OpenAI has not published a separate Dots price in those stories. 9to5Google also reports an Enterprise path when a workspace admin turns it on. That is a different door from self-serve Pro or Business Premium. I am not adding dollar amounts, monthly work caps, or country lists that do not sit on a live OpenAI page next to this sentence.

If you are on ChatGPT Plus, or you only have the free app, the published day-one path does not include a Dot. Stay on the other two desks, or wait for OpenAI to name a wider SKU.

A parallel queue on Grok Bot

Hand Grok Bot the overnight if you want more than one teammate, and if those teammates should sign into real apps instead of living inside a chat host. The live product page is blunt about the computer: bots work inside your apps and tools, they run in parallel, and they keep working when the laptop is closed. You message them the way you would text a colleague. Show a bot a workflow once and it can save a routine.

xAI's own overnight example on that page is a sales queue. A bot "researches accounts, scores contacts with intent, drafts email and LinkedIn in your voice, and leaves a review list for you to approve." That is a vendor story. It is also the clearest published picture of what "leave it overnight" means here: several named jobs (outbound, inbox, bugs, a chief of staff) on one shared computer, with you approving the pile in the morning.

The August 17 guide is still the right explainer for what a bot is and how it differs from Grok chat and Grok Build. Do not use that guide's early-beta plan list as today's checkout screen. On September 30 the x.ai/bot page lists Grok Bot on Cursor, Grok, and Cursor Teams plan families, and it says Enterprise is generally available. It also lists a "Get started for free" path. I am not restating dollar figures from the August guide or from our August 27 tool-page snapshot, because the live page I re-checked did not put a number next to those plan names in a form I could quote.

Confirm the current plan names and any weekly usage line on x.ai/bot, or on our Grok Bot page, before you assume the teammate is sitting on a seat you already pay for.

A personal goal on Muse

Hand Muse the overnight if the goal is personal and the desk is not Slack. Meta's launch post is written for errands and long-horizon life admin: send an email, book travel, turn a goal into a plan, keep going after you close the app. Talking to it is supposed to feel like messaging a person, in the Muse app or in WhatsApp. Muse Spark is the model Meta names for that work.

The approval story is more specific than the other two. Meta says Muse checks with you before sensitive actions such as sending mail or making a purchase. A separate Sentinel agent, on the same secure VM, is described as the gate for internet actions. People choose which apps connect and how much access each one gets. That is the consumer-trust pitch, and it is why Tom's Guide treated Muse as the everyday desk and Dots as the premium work-chat desk.

Meta says Muse is rolling out in the US on iOS, Android, and muse.ai, "free for most of what people need, with subscription plans for people who want to do more." Our Muse tool page recorded plan names in mid-September and marked pricing as not re-verified. I am not repeating those numbers here. Check muse.ai or that page if you need a current SKU.

This is the short version of the social beat from this week, not a recap of it. Same job as Dot. Different desk. Muse is the one you leave a personal goal on. Dot is the one you leave a Slack-bound project on.

Sourced facts, open blanks

Verified against pages we can point at:

• Dot is an always-on agent on its own cloud computer, powered by GPT-6 Astra, reachable in ChatGPT, Slack, and Teams. One Dot for ChatGPT Pro and Business Premium to start. No separate Dots price in the Verge / TechCrunch / 9to5Google set. Details on theaidude.net/tools/dots.
• Grok Bot signs into real apps, supports multiple bots and learn-by-demo routines, and is listed on eligible Cursor and SuperGrok (Grok) plans on the live x.ai/bot page. Product explainer: What Grok Bot Is and Who Can Use It. Directory note: /tools/grok-bot.
• Muse is Meta's always-on personal agent on Muse Secure VM, in the Muse app and WhatsApp, with an ask-before-email-or-purchase path. Primary source: Meta's September 8 launch post. Muse-versus-Dot framing: Tom's Guide.

Left blank on purpose:

• Any standalone Dots dollar price, usage cap, or regional block that does not appear on a live OpenAI page cited here.
• Current Grok Bot list prices. The live product page names plan families. It did not give me a quoteable number today. Our August snapshots are dated, not live.
• Current Muse subscription amounts. Meta's post describes a free-for-most-needs tier plus paid plans. Our mid-September figures were not re-checked for this piece.
• Hands-on quality. Nobody here ran an overnight job on any of the three. The Friday scenes above are built from vendor and press examples, labeled as such.

The desk you already sit at

If the project has to survive Friday night, stay on the desk you already pay for.

Already on ChatGPT Pro or Business Premium, and the morning recap will happen in Slack or Teams? Start with the one included Dot. Create it in ChatGPT, give it the goal, and keep the same thread on the work chat. That is the product OpenAI shipped on September 29.

Already on an eligible Cursor or SuperGrok plan, and the job looks like a queue you would hand a junior teammate (research, drafts, a bug to reproduce, a list to approve at 8am)? Open Grok Bot. One bot for the first week. Add a second only when the first one has a named lane. The August guide is still the map of the product. The live x.ai/bot page is the map of who can sign in.

The goal is personal, and you do not want it living in the company Slack? Muse. Leave the goal in the Muse app or WhatsApp and expect an approval ping before mail goes out or money moves.

If you sit on two of those desks already, do not merge the projects. Put the Slack-bound brief on Dot. Put the multi-step app work on Grok Bot. Put the personal goal on Muse. The computers are separate. The approvals are separate. Mixing them is how you lose the thread you meant to pick up in the morning.