ChatGPT dots vs Pally (2026)

A dot uses the ChatGPT plugins a user has installed and enabled, with their connected accounts and existing permissions, for example Gmail to find email, Google Drive to work with documents and GitHub to investigate code and prepare changes. Each plugin must be connected and permitted for the action requested, and admins set app access and action restrictions in plugin controls. When a website needs a login, the dot sends a private sign in request and then works in that session.

Sourcelearn.chatgpt.com/docs/dotsread 2026-10-12

Pally connects to Gmail, Outlook and iCloud mail, Google and iCloud calendars, WhatsApp through Linked Devices, iMessage through its Mac app, Slack, Google Drive, Docs and Sheets, Notion, Linear, GitHub, Jira, Todoist, Granola and X, with app authorization handled by Composio and room for custom integrations.

It acts in them, sending WhatsApp and iMessage messages and email, forwarding mail, creating calendar invites and editing a Google Doc in place once the user approves. Sites without an integration are reached through browser errands that sign in with saved logins, and a bank account can be linked read only for recurring charges.

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A dot runs background agents to work on several things in parallel while the user keeps talking to it, starts new cloud threads, and creates ChatGPT Work or Codex tasks on a connected computer or in a Codex cloud environment. It checks the results of tasks it created and sends them follow up instructions, and the Activity view lists each delegated task with its progress, results and requests for input.

Sourcelearn.chatgpt.com/docs/dotsread 2026-10-12

Background tasks carry an errand across messages, email, the browser and calls, retry after a brief model error and pick up new choices from the chat while they run. Automations are written in a sentence and can carry conditions, such as nudging a friend who still owes money once three days pass. Through the trusted network, a user's Pally hands parts of a job to the Pallys of a partner, friends or colleagues, each acting under its own owner's sharing choices, and in a group chat each member's request runs on that member's own Pally and accounts.

Sourcepally.com/trusted-networkread 2026-10-12

Between conversations a dot decides on its own when to pause and wake up to continue work, and saved schedules cover work that repeats at fixed times. Where a connected service supports event monitoring it responds to specific events, such as new bug reports in a Slack channel, once it is told which channels to watch, what to look for and when to notify, since adding it to a channel alone sets up no monitoring. Users reach the same dot in ChatGPT on mobile, desktop and web, in Slack by direct message or mention, in Microsoft Teams, and by phone call.

Sourcelearn.chatgpt.com/docs/dots/tasks-and-memoryread 2026-10-12

Automations fire the moment something happens, such as an email from a landlord, or on a schedule, and email triggered rules read new Outlook and Gmail messages as they arrive. Morning briefs, alerts on important messages across every connected account, flight day changes and price drop or restock watches arrive unprompted. People reach Pally by text, voice note or a call to its number, and in an iMessage or Telegram group it answers when someone names it or replies to one of its messages.

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A dot works from the source material a user shares, the files on its cloud computer and a connected computer, and connected apps such as Google Drive, and it researches that connected information read only to suggest next steps. The context for any interaction is a selection of this material. No indexed knowledge base that a team maintains for its dot is part of the product.

Sourcelearn.chatgpt.com/docs/dots/tasks-and-memoryread 2026-10-12

Connected mail, calendars, chats, Drive files and Notion pages are read when a question needs them, and web research runs through Exa. From each connected inbox Pally also keeps structured records of receipts, order confirmations and renewal notices from about the past 12 months, with merchant, items, amount, date and repeat cycle, alongside recurring charges from a linked bank account. Outside those purchase records, documents are read at request time instead of being indexed into a lasting knowledge store.

Sourcepally.com/privacyread 2026-10-12

Each dot starts with relevant ChatGPT memory and keeps its own notes on preferences, decisions and ongoing work, separate from ChatGPT's saved memory, which it updates as priorities change and carries across ChatGPT, Slack, Teams and calls. Switching channels never resets those notes, and deleting a dot covers its conversations, memories and scheduled tasks, with the details shown at confirmation. A user gets no retention period for the notes, and changing a ChatGPT memory setting does not necessarily change notes already made.

Sourcelearn.chatgpt.com/docs/dots/tasks-and-memoryread 2026-10-12

Memory is built around people, not files, covering who the user talks to, what they last discussed and what was promised, such as a friend's dietary needs or a deck owed to an investor. Pally tidies it every night, and the user can ask what it remembers, edit it, tell it to forget something, which then stays out after the nightly update, download it or delete the account. Memory is held per user, a group chat's history and memory belong to the group, and both are kept while the account is active.

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Before an action affects the user's accounts or shares information, an automatic review checks it against the user's instructions, permissions, custom rules and built in safety requirements, then lets it proceed, asks for approval or hands the step to the user.

Custom rules come in four kinds, take action without asking, take action only when told, ask before taking action, and hand off to the user, so a team can require a check before messages go to customers or keep file deletions in human hands.

Workspace admins decide who may add rules, a dot checks privately before sharing anything from a private conversation in Slack, and Pause stops its current main task.

Sourcelearn.chatgpt.com/docs/dots/controlsread 2026-10-12

Pally checks with the user before it spends or sends anything not already asked for or approved, and sends on its own only within limits the user sets, such as messages to a named group. A purchase lays out the exact items, seats, fees and total for a single approval, stops if any of them change, and follows the wallet's own approval settings.

Drafts appear before they go and expire after seven days unapproved, approvals can be given by voice during a call, approvals in group chats happen privately in each person's own thread, and the user can take over a live browser session and hand it back.

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Workspace owners grant dots through workspace defaults and custom roles assigned to groups, with group membership synced by SCIM, and separately allow Slack participation, custom rules, password manager use and cloud browser, network and computer use. Business and Enterprise data is encrypted in transit and at rest and is not used to train OpenAI models by default. OpenAI keeps its attestations in a separate trust portal.

Sourcelearn.chatgpt.com/docs/enterprise/dots-admin-guideread 2026-10-12

Each person in the trusted network picks, one capability at a time, what their Pally may share with each circle, starting from just a name and contact card, and in a group chat a personal request never runs on another member's accounts. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest with access limited inside the company, website logins sit in an encrypted vault run by Kernel that Pally itself never sees, and content arriving from outside is treated as information, never as instructions. Pally holds no SOC 2 or ISO certification and offers no team administration or single sign on.

Sourcepally.com/trusted-networkread 2026-10-12

In the desktop app, a dot's Activity view opens each task, including background work and the Work and Codex tasks it delegated, to show progress, files, results and any pending decision, sign in or approval, and the Scheduled view lists recurring work that can be disabled or deleted there. Workspace audit records cover some capabilities, depending on data category, storage location and product configuration. A per step trace of the dot's own actions for an admin to export is not part of the product.

Sourcelearn.chatgpt.com/docs/dots/controlsread 2026-10-12

Browser errands run with a live view and screenshots the user can watch, paused while a card number is entered, and a stopped session comes back with an accurate account of what happened. Users can ask what changed in their automations, rules and saved preferences, group automations show their latest real results, and recalled activity appears in the user's own time zone. A log of every step and tool call behind a task, ready for export or review, is not part of the product.

Sourcepally.com/changelog.mdread 2026-10-12

A dot's cloud computer runs on shared, OpenAI managed infrastructure in VM backed sandboxes tied to the signed in user, and it can also work with one personal computer the user connects. No region choice for the dot's computer and no private deployment come with the product.

Sourcelearn.chatgpt.com/docs/enterprise/chatgpt-work-cloud-securityread 2026-10-12

Everything runs on AWS in the US, with iMessage, RCS, phone and email delivery through US providers and Telegram traffic passing through the UAE. Cloud Mac instances are dedicated macOS machines on AWS in the US. A user cannot choose a region, and there is no private deployment or self hosting.

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Each user has one dot that takes on whatever responsibility it is given, from keeping a sales proposal current to drafting show notes from interviews or following up on software feedback. Those examples come as guidance on how to brief it, and there is no catalog of ready made dots or task templates to adopt.

Sourcelearn.chatgpt.com/docs/dotsread 2026-10-12

Ready made recipes start from one message and each does a whole job. They include Inbox triaged, Morning brief, The friendly nag, WhatsApp and iMessage catch up, Flight finder, Flight day, Price drop and restock watch, Buy it for me, Pre meeting briefs, A memory for your people, Receipt keeper, Your Mac from anywhere, Call Pally and Quote hunter. A machine readable catalog lists every guide and recipe entry point with its opening message.

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Dots run on GPT-6 Astra, OpenAI's own model. The user has no choice of another maker's model for a dot.

Sourcelearn.chatgpt.com/docs/dotsread 2026-10-12

Pally picks the model for each turn. Most turns route through OpenRouter to hosts that do not train on user data, running Google Gemini, OpenAI and Anthropic Claude models, with open weight models served by Phala, Novita, Together AI, Modal and Baseten for some steps, and OpenAI also handles phone calls, transcription and memory search. A user cannot choose the model, and routines that pass the usage limit keep running on a lighter one.

Sourcepally.com/subprocessorsread 2026-10-12

Dots are reached through ChatGPT, Slack, Microsoft Teams and calls, and they reach out through plugins and a connected computer. Outside software has no API or MCP server for creating a dot, sending it work or reading its results.

Sourcelearn.chatgpt.com/docs/dotsread 2026-10-12

Pally runs its own MCP server over streamable HTTP, secured with OAuth 2.1, dynamic client registration and PKCE, and it connects from Claude, ChatGPT in developer mode and Cursor once the user sends a single use code in the Pally chat. It exposes two tools, message_pally to send a message and get the reply and check_pally to collect the result of a long job, under the same approval rules as the chat. There is no public API or SDK for managing tasks, automations, memory or connections directly.

Sourcepally.com/mcpread 2026-10-12

Users start a dot on one responsibility, review its first result and correct missing details before widening the job, and because a dot can make mistakes its important results come back with their sources for checking. That checking is manual, with no test cases, quality checks or comparison of a dot's output across changes.

Sourcelearn.chatgpt.com/docs/dotsread 2026-10-12

An automation starts work as soon as it is written, with no test run, quality check or side by side comparison beforehand. Pally reports changes to a user's setup once and explains them on request, which keeps configuration visible without measuring how well the assistant performed.

Sourcepally.com/changelog.mdread 2026-10-12

Each dot has its own computer and browser in the cloud for research, files and running software, with browser sessions of its own and optional saved logins. The user opens the dot's computer and selects Take over to inspect a page or do a step, then Return control. A connected personal computer lets the dot work with its local files and apps while the ChatGPT app is open, and admins switch cloud browser use and cloud computer use on per role.

Sourcelearn.chatgpt.com/docs/dotsread 2026-10-12

Browser errands run in a hosted browser on Kernel that signs in with saved logins or Google, reads one time codes from email or messages, fills checkout forms, takes seat holds and completes orders on sites such as Amazon and Instacart, stopping to tell the user what a site needs when it gets stuck. The user can watch the live view, take control and hand the session back. The Pally Mac app lets Pally see the user's own Mac screen, find a file and run the next step, and Cloud Mac, sold separately, gives it a dedicated macOS machine in the cloud.

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