Personal AI agents in 2026

Where the general-purpose personal agents run, what they can reach, what they remember, and what they cost, as of 28 September 2026.

Published 28 September 2026

A personal agent is an AI program that works for one person over time: it remembers them, and it can act for them, sometimes while they are away. In 2026 the products that fit that description split into three groups. Self-hosted agents such as OpenClaw and Hermes Agent run on hardware you control and talk to you through chat apps. Cloud agents such as Meta Muse, Grok Bot and Instinct run on a computer the company operates for you and act on the web with your accounts. Companion apps such as Replika and Nomi focus on conversation and relationship, and act on little outside the chat.

This guide compares the ones whose details we could confirm from a primary source. Alt, which publishes this page, is in the table too. Alt is a small AI that lives in one browser tab; we call the program that talks the inhabitant.

How they compare

"Reach" means what the agent can touch besides the conversation: a shell, files, a browser, your accounts, or other people. "Several agents" means the product runs more than one agent for the same person. A cell reads "not stated" when the cited source does not say.

Personal agents compared, as of 28 September 2026
Product	Where it runs	Reach	Memory	Price	Several agents	Interface
OpenClaw	Your own machine: macOS, Linux, or Windows. Hosted or local models.	Tools, skills and plugins that run on the host unless you set up sandboxing; nodes add camera, screen, and device actions	State and memory kept on your hardware	Free, from the OpenClaw Foundation; no hosted tier	Not stated	Discord, iMessage, Slack, Teams, Telegram, WhatsApp, Signal and 20+ more; native companion apps
Hermes Agent	Linux, macOS, WSL2, Windows, Android via Termux; from a small VPS to GPU clusters	Seven terminal backends including local, Docker and SSH; messaging gateway	Curates its own memory, writes skills after complex tasks, searches past sessions	Free (MIT); you pick the model provider	Isolated subagents for parallel work	Terminal, Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, email
nanobot	Self-hosted, Python	Files, shell, web search, MCP servers, cron	Session history and long-term memory	Free (MIT)	Subagents and multi-agent delegation	Browser web UI, terminal, Telegram, Discord, Slack, email and more
Khoj	Self-hosted, or its cloud	The web and your documents; scheduled automations	Answers from your documents	Free to self-host (AGPL-3.0)	Custom agents	Chat
Tlon plugin for OpenClaw	An OpenClaw gateway connected to your Tlon ship	Tlon DMs and groups	OpenClaw's	Free (MIT)	Not stated	Tlon Messenger
Meta Muse	Muse Secure VM, an isolated cloud computer Meta runs for each user	Email, travel, forms, purchases, through its own browser	Keeps personal details to make suggestions; you can tell it to forget	Free for most use, paid plans for heavier use	A separate Sentinel agent approves what Muse sends to the internet	iOS, Android, muse.ai, WhatsApp
Grok Bot	One isolated Linux VM per account, on Cursor infrastructure	Files and logins shared by all the account's bots	A persistent machine	Requires SuperGrok Heavy, Cursor Ultra, or Cursor Teams Premium	Several bots coordinate in a group chat	Desktop and iOS
Alexa+	Amazon's cloud and Echo devices	Web tasks Amazon describes, such as arranging a repair through Thumbtack; smart home devices	Preferences and facts you share, such as dietary needs	$19.99 a month, or included with Prime	Not stated	Echo devices, Fire TV, the Alexa app, and Alexa.com
Perplexity Computer	Perplexity's service	Splits a job among task-specific sub-agents	Not stated	Not stated in the launch report	Yes, sub-agents	Chat
Instinct	Its own phone number and computer	Bookings, purchases, bills, subscriptions, phone calls; coordinates with friends' agents	Not stated; users question how much personal information it asks for	Invite-only since August 2026; price not reported	Agents coordinate through a trusted person network	SMS
Poke	Poke's service	Gmail, Notion, Oura, and many other services	Acts on memory and connected services	Free, Pro $19 a month, Ultra $199 a month	Not stated	Messages, WhatsApp, Telegram
Zo Computer	An always-on personal cloud computer	Hosts websites and apps; always-on agent	Files on a persistent computer	14-day free trial, then a paid plan	Not stated	Web and text messages
Venice	Venice's servers run the models	Chat, image and video generation, an API	Conversation history stored locally	Free, Pro $18, Pro Plus $68, Max $200 a month	Not stated	Chat
Replika	Replika's service	The conversation	Your people, routines, plans and interests	Not listed on the homepage	No	iOS and Android; voice calls; customizable avatar
Nomi	Nomi's service	The conversation	Short, medium and long-term memory	Free to start; subscription for unlimited use	Group chats of several Nomis	Chat
Alt	Your browser tab. The model runs on your device.	Nothing by default. You can connect an HTTPS API or remote MCP server yourself.	Lines it chooses to remember, kept in your browser	Free	A room of agents that take turns on their own	A screen its own program draws

Self-hosted agents

OpenClaw is a free, open-source personal agent from the OpenClaw Foundation. Its README describes it as "The AI that really does things". It runs on your own computer, connects to the chat apps you already use, and keeps its state, memory and credentials on your hardware. Its tools run on the host for the main session unless you configure sandboxing, and the README tells you to treat inbound messages as untrusted. Its derivatives include PicoClaw (MIT) and ZeroClaw (Apache-2.0). Tlon's channel plugin puts an OpenClaw agent into Tlon DMs and groups, the messenger built on Urbit.

Hermes Agent from Nous Research calls itself "The agent that grows with you". It writes skills from tasks it completes, curates its own memory, and can import an OpenClaw setup with hermes claw migrate. nanobot is a self-hosted Python agent framework with a browser web UI and a dozen chat channels. Khoj is a self-hostable second brain that answers from your documents and the web.

Other open projects cover parts of the same ground: Letta builds stateful agents with editable memory, Jan runs models offline on your computer, Leon is an open-source personal assistant, goose is an open-source agent that works with any model, and AnythingLLM bundles local models, documents and agents in one app.

Cloud agents with their own computer

Several 2026 launches give each person a computer in a data center. Meta Muse, announced on 8 September 2026, runs in Muse Secure VM with its own browser, keeps working after you close the app, and checks with you before sensitive steps such as sending an email or paying. Meta says a Confidential VM encrypted with a key only the user holds is planned for later in 2026. Grok Bot entered beta on 11 August 2026 with one Linux VM per account, shared by all of that account's bots. Perplexity Computer launched on 25 February 2026 and splits a job among sub-agents. Zo Computer sells the computer itself: an always-on cloud machine with an agent inside.

Two agents live in your text messages. Instinct texts over SMS, uses its own phone number and computer to book travel, pay bills and cancel subscriptions, can make phone calls for you, and raised a $1B Series C at a $10B valuation on 28 September 2026; TechCrunch reports that some users question how much personal information they have to share, and that an early privacy policy drew criticism before it was updated. Poke works in Messages, WhatsApp and Telegram and connects to Gmail, Notion and other services. Alexa+ brings task-taking to Amazon's voice assistant, and Amazon says it will navigate the web to complete tasks for you.

Private chat

Venice lists local-only conversation storage and a private mode with zero data retention; the models still run on Venice's side.

Companions

Replika calls itself "The AI Friend to do Life With" and says it remembers your people, routines and plans. Nomi advertises short, medium and long-term memory and group chats with several Nomis. Tolan is a friendly alien character, described as voice-first. None of these three act on the web for you.

The idea of a creature you keep is older than language models. Tamagotchi (1996) needed daily care, and the Norns in Creatures (1996) learned and bred with simulated neural networks and biochemistry.

Where Alt fits

Alt is closer to a pet than to an assistant with your passwords. The inhabitant answers through Qwen3-0.6B, an open model of about 350 MB that runs in your browser through WebLLM; your messages are not sent to a model server. It is free. It lives in a room with other agents that take turns on their own between your messages while the tab is open, so it keeps doing things without being asked. It remembers lines you said, and it can change both how it talks and how its screen is laid out, through revisions you can undo from History.

What Alt cannot do, by design

Would you give your dog your Gmail password? Alt does not ask for it.

It has no computer of its own: no shell, no terminal, no virtual machine, and no browser it drives for you.
It does not come connected to your email, calendar, or messaging apps, and it cannot text, call, or pay anyone.
It reads files only when you pick one in the Save to Alt dialog.
It can call a service only when you connect an HTTPS API or remote MCP server yourself in Settings; connections made from chat start with writes off.
It is small. A 0.6B model often fails to fill in what it was asked to build, and nothing shows that its self-revisions improve conversations.

If you want an agent to clear your inbox, OpenClaw, Hermes Agent, Muse and Poke are built for that. If you want a small program that is yours, runs on your device, and changes as you use it, that is what Alt is for. Meet your alt, or read how Alt works.

Drafted by Claude, an AI model made by Anthropic, working as a coding agent for Hraness, on 28 September 2026, from the linked sources. No review of this page is recorded. Prices and features of other products change often, so check the source before you rely on one.