Grok Bot Alternatives: Open Source, Business and Team Options

Published November 8, 2026 · by the AQ team

The best Grok Bot alternative depends on what you used it for. If you want an always-on bot with its own computer that you can host yourself, look at the open source projects Rakazo, Hermes Agent, OpenMausBot and OpenBot. If you want a hosted assistant for business work like mail, research and scheduling, look at OpenAI Dots, Perplexity Teammates, Lindy and Manus. If your team wants bots that run routines and also do real coding work on the model and subscription of your choice, look at AQ.

AQ is where a team builds named bots that run up to 50 routines each on schedules and events, keep a library, and start real coding work with any coding agent, on a machine that is yours and on your own Claude or OpenAI subscription or AQ models at published prices. Start free, or read how AQ bots work.

Why people are looking, as of November 8, 2026: paying Grok Bot users reported hitting their weekly usage limit days before it reset. On November 1, 2026, replying to one of them, Elon Musk wrote that "the cost of serving Grok Bot was unsustainably high relative to revenue", as reported by Yahoo Finance on November 2. Per xAI's Grok Bot docs, Grok Bot draws from the same weekly usage pool as Cursor and the Grok apps, and stops when that pool runs out unless on-demand usage is turned on. More in our guide to Grok Bot usage limits.

What Grok Bot does today

So you know what you are replacing: per xAI's Grok Bot docs, checked November 8, 2026, Grok Bot is "your proactive AI teammate", an agent with a persistent cloud computer (browser, files and terminal) that all of one person's Bots share. It connects to apps like Gmail, Google Calendar, Slack and Notion and to custom MCP servers, runs up to 50 routines per Bot on schedules or events (Slack, GitHub, Linear, Sentry, PagerDuty, email and webhooks), keeps a memory per Bot, can be shared with a team on Teams plans, and hands coding work to Cursor Cloud Agents. There is no model picker: Grok Bot chooses the model for each task. It is included in X Premium ($30 a month), Super ($100) and Ultra ($200), not in Plus ($8), and in some Cursor plans (xAI pricing).

How to compare Grok Bot alternatives

• Where the agent runs: your laptop, a server you host, the vendor's cloud computer, or a machine that belongs to your team.
• Whose model bill: the vendor's own models and usage pool, your own API keys, or a subscription you already pay for.
• Computer and browser use: whether the agent can drive a desktop or browser for sites with no app or API.
• Schedules and triggers: what can wake the bot without you: times, mail, calendar, issues, repositories, webhooks.
• Team sharing: whether colleagues can use the same bot, and who can read whose conversations.
• Coding work: whether the bot can change a real repository and hand back something a teammate can review.

Grok Bot alternatives at a glance

Every cell is as published on the vendor's own site, checked November 8, 2026. Sources are linked in each section below. These are the vendors' claims; we have not tested the other products.

Open source and self-hosted Grok Bot alternatives

These keep the shape of Grok Bot, a bot with a computer of its own, and let you choose the model and the machine. Each was checked against its own repository or site on November 8, 2026.

Rakazo

Rakazo (github.com/elie222/rakazo, rakazo.com) describes itself as an "open-source Grok Bot alternative. Choose your own model and sandbox." It is Apache 2.0 and in beta, with about 7,500 GitHub stars. You self-host it with Docker or on a VPS, or rent a Rakazo cloud computer. Bots sign in with a Claude or ChatGPT subscription, an API key, or local models through Ollama or LM Studio, and get browser, terminal, file and graphical desktop access. Routines run on a schedule, a webhook, a GitHub event or a watched change, and teams can share computers. Self-hosting is free; hosted plans start at $15 a month for 25 computer hours (pricing). Best for: the closest open source match to Grok Bot. Limits: beta software, and hosted plans meter computer hours.

Hermes Agent

Hermes Agent by Nous Research (GitHub, site), "the agent that grows with you", is MIT licensed and runs on your machine, a small VPS, Docker, SSH or cloud sandboxes, or as a hosted agent. You bring your own model provider. It has a built-in cron scheduler that can deliver to Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal or email, browser automation, and agent-curated memory. The agent is free; Nous Portal model plans run from $0 to $200 a month. Best for: one person who wants a capable personal agent on infrastructure they control. Limits: its docs do not describe shared team workspaces or per-bot access control.

OpenMausBot

OpenMausBot (GitHub, mausbot.com) calls itself the "open-source Grok Bot alternative with a virtual machine that bots can use". It is Apache 2.0 (an enterprise folder is source-available) and runs bots on the agent CLIs you already have signed in, such as Claude, Codex, Grok, Cursor and Kimi. A bot can use a cloud Linux desktop, a local VM, or your own computer once you opt in, and runs on schedules, intervals, webhooks and app events. Free on your own computer; cloud plans start at $15 a month, and shared bots are on Team ($169 a month) and Business (pricing). Best for: running bots on CLI subscriptions you already pay for. Limits: team sharing is a paid plan.

OpenBot

OpenBot (getopenbot.com, listed on Product Hunt) now calls itself "your chief of staff. The staff does the work." Its GitHub repository was MIT licensed through release 0.5.3 and is archived; newer work is not published there, and the current product is a cloud service that keeps working when you log off. It runs coding work through Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and OpenCode. Free includes a small machine and 500 credits a month; Cloud is $60 a month for up to 3 members (pricing). Several unrelated projects share the name, so check you have the right one. Best for: a hosted chief-of-staff bot with credits included. Limits: the open source code is no longer updated.

Business assistant alternatives

These are hosted agents from larger vendors, aimed at mail, research, scheduling and office work. Each was checked on the vendor's own pages on November 8, 2026.

OpenAI Dots

OpenAI describes Dots as "remarkably capable, always-on agents built to handle everything" (announcement). Each dot works on its own cloud computer with its own browser and your connected apps, carries memories from ChatGPT, can set reminders and recurring checks, and can create Codex cloud tasks for coding. It runs on OpenAI models. Your first dot is included in ChatGPT Pro (from $100 a month) and Business Premium, with one personal dot per member (help article). Best for: people already on ChatGPT Pro. Limits: OpenAI models only, still rolling out, and Pro excludes the EEA, Switzerland and the UK.

Perplexity Teammates

Perplexity says teammates "coordinate AI agents, manage ongoing projects, and follow through across ops, marketing, and more" (announcement, November 2026). Each teammate runs in its own cloud environment with its own browser session, remembers project goals and files across runs, takes scheduled jobs and condition-based triggers, works in Slack channels, and can be given chosen GitHub repositories. It is initially for Perplexity Max subscribers, $200 a month (Max). Best for: research-heavy ongoing projects. Limits: the most expensive entry plan here, and new as of November 2026.

Lindy

Lindy calls itself "the AI employee that plugs into your tools, learns how you work, and takes real work off your plate" (lindy.ai). It works in Slack, email, text and calendar with 1,500 integrations plus MCP, runs routines on schedules and on mail, Slack and calendar events, keeps versioned personal and team memory, and can drive a browser on Pro and Max. A team shares one Lindy with pooled credits. Its own pages list the Team plan at $49.99 a month on the pricing page and $29.99 on the homepage. Best for: operations and inbox work across many SaaS tools. Limits: credit-metered, and its pages do not describe bringing your own model.

Manus

Manus describes itself as "an autonomous general AI agent designed to complete tasks and deliver results" (docs). Tasks run in a cloud sandbox, with an optional persistent Cloud Computer for 24/7 bots and scripts, and automations run on a schedule or a signal. A beta called Manus Flex runs Manus on your own API key from providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI. Free gives daily credits; Pro starts at $20 a month and Team at $20 per seat a month (pricing help). Best for: one-off research and build tasks you hand over and come back to. Limits: credit-metered, and bring-your-own-key is in beta.

For teams whose bots should do real coding work: AQ

AQ (aq.dev) is the multiplayer coding harness, and bots are one of its two halves. An AQ bot is a named agent with a role and instructions. Each person who uses it has one ongoing chat with it, with threads for side discussions. A bot runs up to 50 routines, each with its own instruction and one trigger: a schedule, a monthly date, an interval, a Linear label, unread Gmail, a Google Calendar meeting, a GitHub event, or a webhook. Every run has its own record, each routine decides what reaches the chat, and the bot keeps a library of files, pages and links.

When the answer is code, the bot starts a work item: its own branch and worktree, any coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode and others) or a crew, and a diff your team reviews and merges. A bot runs on a machine that is yours, with the accounts you connected. The agent runs on your own Claude, OpenAI or other subscription, which AQ never marks up, or on AQ models at the per-token price shown before you pick one. A bot can be shared with your team on the Pro plan, with each member's chat private by default.

Price as published on aq.dev/pricing, November 8, 2026: a Free plan for one person, and AQ Pro at $50 per user per month (promotional; standard $200). Best for: teams whose recurring work ends in code changes, and who want to choose the model. Limits: AQ's public pages do not list computer or browser use for bots, so a bot that mostly operates websites with no API is a better fit for Grok Bot, Rakazo, Dots or Manus. How routines, sharing and limits work is in the bots docs.

Moving from Grok Bot

As of November 8, 2026, xAI's Grok Bot docs describe no export of Bots, instructions or routines; the closest options are sharing a Bot as a template link and asking the Bot to recite its instructions and memory in chat. To move a Bot to AQ by hand (the full walkthrough, with a prompt that gets your Bot to write out its own setup, is in our guide move a Grok Bot to AQ):

1. Copy each Bot's instructions. Ask the Bot in Grok to list its instructions, rules and what it remembers about you, and keep the answer.
2. List its routines. For each one, write down the trigger (time and time zone, or the event) and what it does.
3. Create the bot in AQ. Give it a name and role, and paste the instructions.
4. Connect the accounts it needs. Gmail, Google Calendar, Slack and Linear connect once in Settings, with Allow, Ask or Off per tool, and GitHub connects from the same page.
5. Recreate the routines by asking. Tell the bot in its chat what should run and when; it sets each routine up in your time zone. Use Test to run one live before it starts on its own.
6. Turn the Grok Bot routines off once the AQ ones have run cleanly, so nothing runs twice.

If you want to keep Grok Bot and give it a team coding workspace instead, see connect Grok Bot to AQ.

How to choose

If you liked Grok Bot's own computer and want to own it, start with Rakazo, then Hermes Agent or OpenMausBot. If you want a hosted assistant and already pay one of the big vendors, the closest fit is the one on your plan: Dots on ChatGPT Pro, Teammates on Perplexity Max; Lindy and Manus fit if you want credits instead of a subscription. If your bots' work ends in pull requests and your team wants to choose the model and pay for it on subscriptions it already has, try AQ.