ChatGPT Dots Explained: What They Do, Who Gets Them and How Usage Works

Dots are always-on agents in ChatGPT that OpenAI introduced on September 29, 2026. A dot is powered by GPT-6 Astra, works on its own cloud computer with its own browser, connects to the apps you allow through ChatGPT's plugin ecosystem, and keeps working on goals between conversations. You reach it in ChatGPT, Slack or Microsoft Teams, and it messages you with progress, questions and decisions that need you.

This guide covers what a dot does, who can get one today, how its usage is counted, and when an existing tool such as Codex, a scheduled task or the Agents API is the better fit.

What a dot does

A dot is designed to take ongoing responsibilities rather than single requests. You give it a goal, connect the apps it needs, and set what it may do on its own. OpenAI's examples include watching customer feedback and preparing tested fixes as pull requests, revising launch materials when a product's scope changes, rerunning an analysis when new data arrives, and drafting show notes and social posts from a new interview transcript for approval.

Key traits OpenAI describes:

• Its own computer. Each dot works on an OpenAI-hosted cloud computer and browser. You can open that computer at any time to inspect the work, and you can give the dot permission to use your own laptop as well.
• Parallel projects. A dot can run several projects at once without you juggling separate threads.
• Memory of preferences. The more you work together, the more it learns how you work and what good output looks like to you.
• Proactive research. When you are not actively working with it, a dot looks for ways to help using your connected apps through read-only tools, which cannot send messages, change app content or control your browser or computer.

Today you start with one primary dot that you name. OpenAI says it plans to let you add more dots and scale each one by speed or monthly workload, but it has not announced prices for that.

Who can use dots

Dots are available to eligible users aged 18 and over. You create your dot in the ChatGPT desktop app or a desktop browser, connect apps, and can then message it from the ChatGPT mobile app. Messaging in Slack and Teams is available now, with text messaging listed as coming soon.

How usage is counted

The first dot is included in Pro and Business Premium at no extra cost. Usage follows three rules OpenAI has published:

1. Conversations with your dot do not count toward your ChatGPT usage limits.
2. When your dot starts or manages tasks in Codex or ChatGPT Work, those tasks count toward your usage limits as usual.
3. For the first month after launch, dot usage does not count toward eligible Pro, Business and Enterprise plan allowances. OpenAI says it will share usage terms for each plan after that period.

In practice, budget a dot's Codex and Work tasks the same way you budget your own. If your dot regularly launches coding tasks, the plan's Codex allowance, or credits after it runs out, is what limits it.

Safeguards and control

Dots build on ChatGPT's existing protections with extra controls for the work they can do:

• Separate environment. Your own computer and its files stay separate unless you choose to connect them.
• Permissions and Custom Rules. You choose which apps a dot may access, and Custom Rules let you allow specific actions, require approval or block them. Built-in safety requirements always apply.
• Action review. Dots use auto-review to check actions that could affect your accounts or share information against your instructions, rules and safety requirements. Some sensitive tasks, such as changing a password, always stay with you.
• Credentials. For supported websites a dot can use saved passwords without exposing them to the model.
• Monitoring. Safety monitoring can pause or stop a dot's work, and Activity View shows progress, including background work.

On data use, OpenAI does not use content from Business, Enterprise or Edu workspaces to improve its models by default. On personal plans you control whether dots' conversations and work are used, and OpenAI says it does not train directly on proactive research or a dot's notes to itself.

Dots compared with other ChatGPT and Codex automation

A dot can start Codex or Work tasks itself, so the choice is not exclusive. The difference is who decides what happens next: with a dot, the agent plans the next step toward a goal; with the other options, you or your code define each run.

Specialist dots for organizations

Separately from personal dots, OpenAI is previewing specialist dots: agents with their own identity, credentials and access to company systems, set up to own well-defined responsibilities such as procurement, invoice processing or customer support. They start as focused enterprise pilots run with OpenAI's engineering teams, and OpenAI is working with Microsoft to manage them through Agent 365. They are not a self-serve plan feature.

Bottom line

A dot is worth trying if you are on Pro or Business Premium in a supported market and have ongoing work that spans several apps. Start with narrow permissions and approval rules, watch which tasks it launches in Codex and ChatGPT Work, since those draw on your normal allowance, and revisit your plan choice once OpenAI publishes usage terms after the first month.