The best AI agents for research

Most people who want one agent to handle real errands, especially in WhatsApp.

Muse is the most complete personal agent you can get today: it books, buys, handles email and forms, and it's free to start. It also has the strongest published safeguards here: approvals before sending or buying, a full audit trail, and a separate agent that checks anything it sends out. The catch is trust: it wants deep access to your email, calendar and payments, it's run by Meta, and reporting found that some of its beta phone calls were completed by human workers.

People with an invite who want errands, especially travel, done end to end by text.

Instinct is the most capable errand-runner you can text, and it really does pay and book for you, using virtual cards you approve. You need an invite to get in, prices haven't been published, and reviewers have raised privacy and liability questions, so check what you're agreeing to.

People who want a proactive agent that can order, pay and book, for free to start.

Hark Pro is one of the strongest new agents: Handoff works through real websites, every feature is in every plan, and the free tier is generous. It's brand new, it asks for email, calendar and card access to work well, and it can't make phone calls yet.

People who want a capable agent in their texts without paying.

Pally is the best free agent you can text: it books, calls and chases refunds, and it asks before anything consequential. It plans to earn fees from merchants when you buy through it, though it says merchants can't pay to change its picks, and working through websites needs the $95-a-month Cloud Mac add-on.

People who want several agents handling recurring jobs, and who already pay for X or Grok.

Grok Bot is a powerful, flexible agent, especially for recurring jobs you can teach it once. It's not cheap ($30 a month and up), its usage pool is shared with Grok and Cursor, all your Bots share the same logins, and xAI's own pages couldn't be checked, so plan details come from third-party reports.

Technical people who want a private, always-on agent in their own chat apps.

OpenClaw is the most powerful agent here for people willing to set it up: it lives in your chat apps, remembers everything locally, and acts on its own schedule. It's free, but you pay your AI provider. And you're giving an AI real access to your computer and accounts, so it needs care and some technical comfort.

People who want an open-source agent without the setup of OpenClaw.

Comma is the easiest open-source agent to try: there's a hosted free tier and apps, not just a terminal, and you can self-host when you want full control. It leans toward work tasks, and heavier use on its Pro plan costs $80 a month.

People who coordinate plans with others and want their agents to talk to each other.

Rene's standout idea is agent-to-agent coordination: your Rene can arrange plans with a friend's Rene. It's free to start, asks before booking or sending, and uses delegated access so it never sees your password. It's new, and paid pricing isn't published.

Professionals who want an agent for their work inbox, calendar and follow-ups.

Town is a polished, secure agent for your working life, with SOC 2 Type 2, approvals by default and a real free plan. It's built for work rather than personal errands, so it won't book your dinner or chase a refund.

People who hand off long research or build tasks and check back later.

Manus is strong at long, multi-step research and building tasks it can run on its own. For personal errands it's less practical than the top picks: it doesn't live in your inbox or messages, credits are spent on failed work, and its Trustpilot reviews are among the worst here, mostly over billing and support.

Tinkerers who want an agent across their computers, with the option of a dedicated device.

rabbit has rebuilt itself as an agent platform: OS3 runs background jobs, works across your computers and has a free tier with phone minutes. Its r1 device had a rough launch, so judge OS3 on its own, and expect it to suit tinkerers more than most people.

People who want an agent that can also phone businesses for them.

Genspark is a capable all-purpose agent, and its phone calls are a genuine errand-runner feature. Credits go fast (a single call costs 500 or more), the credit rules changed for new members in September 2026, and unused credits don't roll over.

Most people who want one agent that can do a bit of everything.

ChatGPT is the most capable personal agent you can buy today. It researches, fills forms, works in your email and calendar, and runs scheduled tasks, on every platform. Real agent use starts at Plus ($20); the always-on dot needs Pro at $100 or more and wasn't offered in the UK or EU at launch. OpenAI retired its Atlas browser in August 2026 and moved that work into the ChatGPT desktop app.

People whose email, calendar and phone already run on Google.

If your life runs on Google, Gemini is the most connected assistant: Task mode keeps working in the cloud after you close your laptop, and it already knows your Gmail, Calendar and Maps, for less than its rivals charge. Task mode isn't available in the UK, EU or Switzerland, and auto browse only works in Chrome.

People who want a careful agent working in their own browser and files.

Claude is the most careful of the big agents. It works inside your own Chrome with per-site permissions and asks before risky steps, and Cowork handles longer jobs on your computer. It has no always-on agent you can text, and agent work draws down the same usage pool as chat, faster.

Windows and Edge users who want a free agent built in.

Copilot is a solid free agent for Windows and Edge users: Actions can work through bookings and unsubscribe flows, asking you first. Actions is still a US preview tied to Edge, and Copilot does less on its own than ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini.

People who want an AI browser on every device for free.

Comet is the best AI browser for most people: it's free on every platform and excellent at research, and it can work through sites for you. Frequent agent work needs Pro, and security researchers have shown prompt-injection attacks against AI browsers including Comet, so be careful when it's logged in to sensitive accounts.

Desktop users who want a browser built around an agent.

Neon is the most capable dedicated agent browser on the desktop, and scheduled tasks are a real plus. It's $19.90 a month for the agents, has no phone app, and a review reports agent data is kept on Opera's servers for a year.

People who want an AI browser for reading and research, not errands.

Dia is a pleasant AI browser for reading and research, with good personal memory. As an agent it does the least here: it doesn't click through sites to finish errands, its free plan has no AI, and its focus is shifting to business use.

Tinkerers who want to try multi-site browser workflows.

Fellou can work through multi-site tasks and schedule them. Paid plans buy few tasks per dollar, the free credits are one-time, reviewers dispute its platform support, and a prompt-injection flaw reported by Brave was never publicly confirmed as fixed.