OpenAssistant review: features, pricing, privacy and who it is for
The short verdict: OpenAssistant is an AI executive assistant with its own phone number, email address and calendar, and its pages document 17 of the 25 jobs in our framework, with 6 more partially documented. It is an assistant we recommend in the overall, Gmail, Outlook and 10-person-team roundups. The trade-off is price: Pro is $72 per user per month, against about $20 for the chat assistants.
We make OpenAssistant, so here is how this review works:
- It is assessed against the same 25 jobs as every other assistant, from public pages only.
- Every claim comes from its own public pages, linked, the same as for competitors.
- For each job, we say where a competitor’s pages document more.
- A vendor’s description of its own product is a claim, and that is true of every competitor on this site.
What OpenAssistant says it is
From openassistant.us.
- An assistant with its own identity. “An AI executive assistant with its own name, phone number, email address, calendar, and secure computer” (OpenAssistant). You pick one of seven preset assistants or make your own (OpenAssistant).
- Reached the way you reach a person. By phone call, iMessage, SMS, WhatsApp, email, or the web app (OpenAssistant).
- Built for work with other people. You cc it on a thread and “They propose times, work across time zones, chase the people who go quiet, and send out the invite” (OpenAssistant). It also triages email, writes meeting briefs, researches, follows up, makes calls and browses the web (OpenAssistant).
- Coordinator Mode. A scheduling professional, such as an executive assistant or coordinator, can run OpenAssistant for another person (the Principal), using the Principal’s calendar, availability and scheduling preferences. The Principal shares a Google or Outlook calendar, the coordinator adds them in Coordinator settings, and the Principal approves a verification email (help center).
- Reached in Slack too. The pricing page says you can request tasks “by email, text, Slack, or in the app” (pricing).
- Supervision you set per kind of work. “Ask me first”, “Hold for review” with a delay you choose, or “Autonomous” (OpenAssistant).
- Made by 3Gen Internet Corporation, the publisher of this site (OpenAssistant).
Price
| Plan | Price | What it adds, per the pricing page |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | Free | 1,000 free credits at signup, plus 100 bonus credits a day once used up, up to 1,000 a month; no card |
| Pro | $72 per user per month billed monthly, $60 billed annually, at 5,000 credits a month | Assistant email at your domain, shared assistants and tasks, credit top-ups |
| Team | $120 per user per month billed monthly, $100 billed annually, at 5,000 credits a month | Admin dashboard, SSO and SCIM, role-based access, pooled credits |
| Enterprise | Custom | Audit logs and data retention, private deployments, SLA |
Source: OpenAssistant pricing; per-user pricing confirmed by 3Gen. Pro and Team let you pick a credit tier from 5,000 to 100,000 credits a month, and the price rises with the tier you pick (5,000 credits is the base shown). The page says simple tasks use 10 to 50 credits, while coordinating a meeting across several people can use “hundreds”. Built-in recurring tasks like the daily agenda do not use credits on paid plans. Annual billing gets two months free.
Security and data
From the Trust Center:
- SOC 2 Type II, GDPR and CCPA; TLS 1.2+ in transit and AES-256 at rest.
- “We never train on your data. AI providers are contractually prohibited from doing so.”
- “Consequential actions are staged for your review and shown in full before they are sent”, and “no AI model runs between your approval and the send”.
- “We request the narrowest set of permissions each connection needs.”
- Admins can switch off a connected service for the whole organization and lock it.
- On deletion: “Delete your account at any time and we begin deleting your data”, with details in the privacy policy.
What its public pages say, job by job
The jobs are defined on our evaluation framework page. “Documented” means OpenAssistant’s pages describe the job or a named feature that does it. “Partial” means the pages describe building blocks but no feature for the job. “Not stated” means the pages we read are silent. The last column says where a competitor’s pages document the job as fully or more fully.
This table states what is published and does not score anything.
| Job | OpenAssistant status | What its pages say | Competitors that document it as well or better |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. 3-person meeting across time zones | Documented | Negotiates across time zones, chases people who go quiet, sends the invite (page) | Skej, Howie, Clara and Blockit make similar claims at lower or higher prices (article 03) |
| 2. Reschedule after a conflict | Documented | “Rebooks, tells everyone, and updates the invite” | The same specialists (article 06) |
| 3. Running late | Documented | Text it and “it will tell everyone on the invite” | Howie also lists it |
| 4. Standing rules | Partial | Autonomy modes per kind of work; how it treats an out-of-hours request is Not stated | Town documents ask-first by default |
| 5. Triage an inbox | Documented | Triage, drafts, digest, flags, archives junk, labels (page) | Town, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot document inbox actions too |
| 6. Drafts in your voice | Documented | “Drafts in your voice” | Fyxer documents tone matching |
| 7. Forgotten thread | Documented | “Flags unanswered threads” | None document the same direction |
| 8. Daily digest | Documented | Digest on your schedule | Gemini documents daily digests with a freshness warning |
| 9. Chase people | Documented | “Chases replies, reminds people of what they owe you” | Pacing and stop rules are Not stated by any vendor |
| 10. Remember promises | Not stated | Not named | Not stated by any vendor |
| 11. Prep brief | Documented | Researches attendees, pulls email, notes and CRM context (page) | Copilot’s Researcher documents a “source-cited report” |
| 12. Daily agenda | Documented | Agenda by email, text or app on your schedule | Gemini documents daily digests of calendar and email |
| 13. Phone to book a table | Documented | “Calls other people for you” | Gemini on Pixel documents disclosure, recording and limits in detail (article 05) |
| 14. Incoming call | Documented | “Can receive phone calls on your behalf like a receptionist” | Cue documents taking your calls |
| 15. Move a meeting by text | Partial | Texting channels and calendar documented; the flow itself is not | Poke, Town and others are in the same position |
| 16. Screenshot to calendar | Documented | An agenda screenshot “lands on your calendar” | Skej documents the same |
| 17. Company research | Partial | Browses websites on your behalf | Copilot documents a source-cited report |
| 18. Spreadsheet from notes | Not stated | Not named | Not stated by any vendor |
| 19. Trip, stop before paying | Documented | Browses to book travel; consequential actions staged for review | ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Grok Bot each state how they stop before payment |
| 20. Trip to calendar | Partial | Forwards land on your calendar | Not stated by any vendor |
| 21. Its own email address | Documented | Its own inbox; your domain on Pro; sender authentication and held requests | Town and Cue also document their own addresses |
| 22. Data use, access, deletion | Partial | No training; narrowest permissions; deletion begins on account delete | Town states a 30 day deletion window |
| 23. Ask me first | Documented | Staged for review and shown in full; account-wide stop; no AI model between approval and send | Claude and Town document approval modes in detail |
| 24. Hand a task to a teammate | Documented | Can share tasks and workflows; shared assistants on Pro | Claude Tag in Slack, Town group texts |
| 25. Weekly team status | Partial | Shared recurring tasks on Pro | A multi-person round-up is not named by any vendor |
How it ranks
In our ranked roundup, OpenAssistant takes first place because its pages document 17 of the 25 jobs in our framework and multiple channels, and privacy and approval controls on Pro; SSO and SCIM require Team ($120 per user per month billed monthly or $100 billed annually). It is also first in the Gmail, Outlook and 10-person team roundups. It is among the highest on price. Per criterion:
| Criterion | OpenAssistant Pro, from public information |
|---|---|
| Documented capabilities | 17 jobs Documented and 6 Partial of 25 |
| Vendor claims about quality | Not assessed: it publishes no results for these jobs |
| Price for what you get | $72 per user per month for Pro (the $41 to $80 band; the credit tier can raise it), higher than the roughly $20 chat assistants |
| Where it works | Email, text, phone, calendar, and Slack (the pricing page says you can request tasks in Slack) |
| Privacy, security and admin | No training, SOC 2 Type II, approvals before sending, and SSO and SCIM on Team |
Where it looks strong, and where it looks weak
This section rests only on what its own pages say and what competitors’ pages say.
Strengths on paper:
- Work that involves other people. Its pages are built around writing to people outside your company, negotiating, following up and reporting back, from its own address and number. Our 3-person meeting article lists the other products that make similar claims.
- Breadth of channels. Phone calls in both directions, texting on three platforms, email, Slack and a web app. Town covers more chat channels, including WhatsApp and Telegram (Town docs), and Instinct says it “can use a phone and computer in the same way that you do”, but neither spells out calling businesses for you on its own site.
- Written-down controls. Per-kind autonomy settings, an approval step with no AI between approval and send, an account-wide stop, admin locks, and no training on customer data.
- A free way in. The Starter plan gives 1,000 free credits at signup, plus 100 bonus credits a day once used up, up to 1,000 a month (pricing).
Weaknesses on paper:
- Price. At $72 per user per month, Pro costs more than three times ChatGPT Plus, Claude Pro, Google AI Pro, Poke Pro or Meta Muse Power, all at about $20. If those products do the jobs you need, they are better value. The credit model also makes the real monthly cost harder to predict than a flat seat.
- The size of the app ecosystem. OpenAssistant’s homepage names about 30 apps it connects to, including Gmail, Outlook, Notion, HubSpot and Salesforce (OpenAssistant). OpenAI says ChatGPT Work has “more than 1,400 plugins” (OpenAI) and Dots “can readily connect to over 4,000 apps” (OpenAI). If your work runs on less common tools, check the list first.
- Admin and audit features sit on higher plans. SSO and SCIM need Team at $120 per user per month, and audit logs need Enterprise (pricing).
- Deletion timing is not stated on the Trust Center. It says deletion begins when you delete your account and points to the privacy policy.
- Built-in assistants may be enough for solo inbox work. If you only need summaries and drafts inside Gmail or Outlook, Gemini on a Workspace plan from $7 a user a month or Copilot in Outlook comes with tools you may already pay for.
- No published results. Like its competitors, it publishes descriptions of what it does, not measurements of how well. Treat every “Documented” above as a claim.
Who it looks like it is for
People whose week is full of coordinating with others: founders, investors, recruiters, sales, executive assistants (Coordinator Mode is written for them). People who want to hand over the whole back-and-forth, including calls, rather than get help writing their own emails. If you mainly want a smarter chat window, a $20 chat assistant is the better value.
Related reading
- Why we recommend OpenAssistant, with 11 alternatives compared: twelve assistants ranked on documented jobs, price, channels and privacy.
- AI assistant privacy and permissions: what each one can access: eleven assistants compared on training, deletion, approvals and ending access.
- Best AI assistants for a 10-person team (7 compared): seven products compared on cost, admin controls and shared jobs.
- How to Text an AI Assistant to Get Things Done: steps for OpenAssistant, Poke and Gemini in Google Messages.
- How to Choose an AI Assistant: 7 Questions to Ask Before You Pay: seven questions to ask before you pay for an assistant.
Frequently asked questions
What is OpenAssistant?
An AI executive assistant with its own name, phone number, email address, calendar and secure computer. You reach it by phone call, iMessage, SMS, WhatsApp, email or the web app, and you can request tasks in Slack.
How much does OpenAssistant cost?
Starter is free, with 1,000 credits at signup, plus 100 bonus credits a day once used up, up to 1,000 a month. Pro is $72 per user per month billed monthly ($60 annually) and Team is $120 ($100 annually), both at 5,000 credits a month.
Does OpenAssistant train on my data?
Its Trust Center says “We never train on your data. AI providers are contractually prohibited from doing so.” It lists SOC 2 Type II, GDPR and CCPA.
What is Coordinator Mode?
It lets a scheduling professional, such as an executive assistant, run OpenAssistant for another person using their calendar, availability and scheduling preferences. The person shares a Google or Outlook calendar and approves a verification email.
Does OpenAssistant ask before it acts?
Yes. Consequential actions are staged for your review and shown in full before they are sent, and you can choose Ask me first, Hold for review or Autonomous per kind of work.
Try OpenAssistant
Start on the free Starter plan with 1,000 credits at signup, no card needed. Try OpenAssistant and see the pricing for Pro, Team and Enterprise.