The best AI assistants you can text

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 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 want an assistant in their text messages that watches email and calendar.

Poke is the most natural agent to live with: you text it like a friend, and it keeps an eye on your inbox and calendar. The free plan is real. It doesn't browse or buy for you, and the human errand service is on the $199 Ultra plan.

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.

Busy families who want one shared agent for the household.

Ollie is the strongest family agent here: it goes beyond reminders to booking, ordering and cancelling, and it's SOC 2 Type 1 compliant with no ads. Message-based pricing gets expensive for heavy use ($25 for 150 messages a month).

Busy professionals who want an assistant for inbox, calendar, meetings and calls.

Lindy is an excellent AI executive assistant for a busy professional's inbox, calendar, meetings and calls, with top G2 ratings and strong compliance. It's more of a work assistant than a life assistant, credits drain fast when it makes mistakes, and nothing is refundable.

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 want subscriptions cancelled, bills lowered and refunds chased by text.

Boski is the most focused money-saver here: text it a bill or a broken purchase and it does the tedious part. The free allowance refills weekly, and Regular is $5 a week. It launched in 2026, so there are no independent reviews or reported savings yet, and it isn't built for booking, shopping or research.

People who want calls and follow-ups handled for free during the preview.

szn focuses on the part of errands most agents skip: calling businesses and chasing follow-ups. It's free while in preview, but it's very new and hasn't published pricing or usage numbers yet.

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.

Families who want calendars, school emails and meals organized in one place.

Ohai is the best organizer for a busy family's schedule, with a real free tier and premium from $9.99. It organizes rather than acts: it won't book, buy or call for you.

People who want an assistant they can call or text about their calendar and inbox.

Martin is a capable texting assistant with the widest set of ways to reach it, including a phone call. It's one of the pricier options, the Basic plan is limited to two tasks at a time, and App Store reviews mention slow support and unreliable texting.

Parents drowning in school emails who use Gmail.

Fambot does one job very well: turning a flood of school email into a clear plan for tomorrow. It never sends email for you, which is reassuring but also means it doesn't run errands, and it only works with Gmail today.

People who want an encouraging assistant in iMessage, including in group chats.

Tomo is the friendliest agent here and the best one to add to a group chat. It's more of a coach and organizer than an errand-runner, and reviewers complain that the $19.99 price only appears after a long onboarding chat.

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.