OpenAI's new dots are AI agents that keep working when you log off

At DevDay on 29 September, OpenAI launched dots: agents inside ChatGPT that have their own computer and browser and work on your goals around the clock. The first one comes with Pro and Business Premium plans.

OpenAI used its DevDay event on 29 September to launch dots. A dot is an AI agent that lives inside ChatGPT and keeps working after you close the app. Each one runs on OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra model and has its own cloud computer and browser. You can talk to it in ChatGPT on desktop, web or mobile, or in Slack and Microsoft Teams, and OpenAI says texting is coming soon.

A dot can connect to more than 4,000 apps through ChatGPT's plugins, and it learns your preferences as you correct it. When you haven't given it anything to do, it researches in read-only mode across the apps you've connected. In one example OpenAI gave, a tester's dot noticed an invoice that needed sending and drafted it for approval. Chatting with a dot doesn't count toward your ChatGPT usage limits.

The first dot is included in the Pro and Business Premium plans at no extra cost. Business Premium customers get it in every region ChatGPT supports. Pro subscribers in the European Economic Area, Switzerland and the UK can't use it yet. For a midsize business, the obvious use is the follow-up work that falls between people, like the invoice nobody sent or the supplier email nobody chased.

Before you connect one to your accounts, decide what it may do on its own. Dots start with built-in rules about when to act and when to ask. You can add your own rules to allow an action, block it or require your approval. Password changes and other sensitive actions always need a person, and OpenAI says a monitoring system can pause or stop a dot if it detects a safety problem. Start with read-only access to one or two apps and approve every action for the first few weeks.

An agent that works overnight is only as safe as the permissions you give it. Give it one small, boring job, read what it does for a while, and widen its access once you trust the results.