OpenAI launches Dots: Astra-powered always-on agents
Sam Altman introduced Dots, GPT-6 Astra-powered agents that keep working in the background, free for Pro and Business users in the first month.
Sam Altman introducing Dots: “You can delegate ambitious pieces of work the way you would to a high-agency engineer or a chief of staff that you work with.” OpenAI says Dots are designed to take on persistent responsibilities, keep working in the background, and return with completed work rather than waiting for another prompt. Dots will reportedly have their own cloud computer and browser, inherit your connected apps and permissions, and eventually communicate outside ChatGPT through text and phone calls. OpenAI also says users will later be able to work with entire teams of Dots at once! For people who still don’t really understand Dots, it’s essentially an Astra-powered orchestrator running in the background and managing all of your Codex threads for you. If you’re on one of the $100–$500 plans, Dots are effectively free for your first month and won’t count against your normal eligible usage allowances during that period. Dots can still spin up Codex tasks, though, and OpenAI hasn’t clearly spelled out yet whether those downstream Codex tasks are metered separately.
This post quotes another post: “Leak: OpenAI Dots has its own cloud computer and password storage”