Three weeks after Meta shipped Muse, OpenAI answered with dots. The announcement went out during the DevDay keynote on September 29, and the rollout started the same day. Here is what is actually known, from OpenAI's own materials, and what it means if you were hoping to try one.
What a dot is
A dot is an always-on agent that lives inside ChatGPT. OpenAI's help center draws the line plainly: a normal ChatGPT conversation waits for your next message, while a dot takes on ongoing responsibility and keeps making progress between conversations. It runs on GPT-6 Astra, has its own cloud computer with its own browser that you can open and watch, and connects to the apps you choose through the new plugin ecosystem, which OpenAI puts at over 4,000 apps.
Three things make it more than a chat with memory. It schedules work, so a morning calendar review or a weekly check runs without you asking. It does what OpenAI calls proactive research: read-only background work on your connected apps while you are away, which can turn into memories and suggestions. And it follows you across channels, so you can message the same dot in ChatGPT, Slack or Teams and it carries the context.
Who gets one
This is where most people will stop. Your first dot is included at no extra cost with ChatGPT Pro (the $100, $200 and new $500 tiers) and with Business Premium at $125 a seat. Enterprise, Edu and Healthcare workspaces get a beta that is off until the admin turns it on. Free, Go and Plus do not include a dot at launch. OpenAI says it plans to expand dots to more users, without a date.
Region matters as much as plan. Pro subscribers in the European Economic Area, Switzerland and the UK are excluded for now. Business Premium is available everywhere ChatGPT is supported. The rollout is gradual, so even an eligible account can take several days to see the option. Sundog tracks this country by country on the dots availability page, with an alert you can join for the excluded markets.
There are no invite codes. That is the biggest structural difference from Muse, where a community pool of codes is the way most people get their tokens. With dots, the plan is the gate.
Setting one up
Creation is desktop-only: the ChatGPT desktop app or ChatGPT in a desktop browser. You name the dot (its handle goes from @yourname-dot to @yourname-agentname), pick a character or a pet as its avatar, connect apps under Customize and Plugins, and set Custom Rules for what it may do alone, what needs your approval and what it hands back to you. After that you can talk to it from the mobile app. The full walkthrough is on the setup guide.
The rule worth setting first is the boring one: payments, sending messages and deleting anything on ask before taking action. OpenAI's own auto-review checks consequential actions against your rules, and a few sensitive steps, such as changing a password, always stay with you.
What to hand it first
OpenAI's examples are a developer whose dot turns customer feedback into tested pull requests, a scientist whose dot reruns the analysis when new data lands, a launch lead whose dot revises the materials when scope changes, and a creator whose dot clips transcripts and drafts show notes. The help center's own first suggestion is smaller and better: have it review your calendar every morning and tell you what is coming.
That is the pattern for a good dot job. A standing brief, a schedule, a format you want back, and a clear line about what it must not do on its own. Sundog's ten use-case guides each start there, with starter workflows written that way and tagged for dots.
Dots or Muse
If you already pay for Pro, a dot costs nothing extra and sits inside the tools you use. If you are in the US and want a free agent that makes phone calls and lives in WhatsApp and Instagram, Muse is the one to try. The side-by-side comparison covers price, regions, apps and controls. Outside the US the choice is made for you: Muse is not available, and dots depend on your plan.