Grok Bot alternatives: which one removes the limit that bugs you

Grok Bot's alternatives fall into two camps: hosted agents you never maintain (ChatGPT dots, Claude, Manus) and self-hosted platforms where you pick the model and own the hardware (OpenClaw, Hermes Agent, Rakazo, MausBot, gawkbot). Choose by the single constraint you want gone. Whatever you pick, plan to carry over your written brief, because no product imports Grok Bot templates.

We built this from each product's own docs, README, license and pricing page, as of October 29, 2026. We have not run the same task in all of them, so read it as a map, not a leaderboard.

At a glance#

Match your frustration to a product#

Most people shopping for an alternative are escaping one specific limit. Find yours in the left column.

The hosted camp#

ChatGPT dots and Work#

OpenAI describes a dot as an always-on agent that keeps work moving across your tools. It runs on GPT-6 Astra in the cloud with its own computer and browser, and you reach it in ChatGPT, Slack, Microsoft Teams or a call. It is on the Pro 100, 200 and 500 plans outside the EEA, UK and Switzerland, and rolling out on Business Premium and Enterprise, where an admin must switch it on.

Before a dot acts on your accounts, a review decides whether to proceed, ask you, or hand the step back. Chatting with a dot does not count against ChatGPT limits; tasks it launches in Work or Codex do. ChatGPT agent has been retired in favor of ChatGPT Work, which our three-way comparison covers in depth.

Claude with Cowork#

Anthropic folded Cowork into Claude on September 16, 2026, starting with Pro and Max. Each cloud session runs in its own sandbox on Anthropic's servers and is destroyed when the session ends. Scheduled tasks keep running with your computer off.

Manus#

Manus is a hosted agent for tasks and workflow automation. Its help center lists a free plan with 300 daily refresh credits and two scheduled automations, and Pro from $20 a month with 20 concurrent tasks; it calls its pricing page authoritative. Always-on work uses Manus Cloud Computer, a persistent machine with Basic, Standard and Advanced tiers.

Manus 2.0 (September 28) added automations triggered by a new email, Slack message or Notion update. Manus Flex (September 29) lets you bring your own key from OpenRouter, Fireworks or Modal; the provider bills inference and the rest still uses Manus credits. Manus says it resumed independent operations on September 1, 2026.

The self-hosted camp#

OpenClaw#

OpenClaw runs on your computer and meets you in Discord, iMessage, Microsoft Teams, Signal, Slack, Telegram, WhatsApp and 20-plus other chat apps, with native apps for macOS, iOS, Android, Windows and Linux. It is MIT-licensed under the OpenClaw Foundation, and its README says there is no paid tier or hosted service. Models are swappable plugins.

Watch the defaults: a workspace is a working directory, not a hard sandbox, and sandboxing is off out of the box. Optional Cloud Workers push a session's coding work to a disposable remote machine. It had about 393,000 GitHub stars on October 29. See our Grok Bot vs OpenClaw breakdown for more.

Hermes Agent#

Nous Research's MIT-licensed, self-improving agent runs on your machine, a server or a sandbox backend, works with any model, and talks through Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal and a CLI from one gateway. It ships a scheduler and six built-in terminal backends (local, Docker, SSH, Modal, Daytona, Vercel Sandbox) plus plugin backends.

Its default approval mode has a second model score risk, auto-deny clearly dangerous commands and escalate uncertain ones; timeouts fail closed. Nous Portal lists Free, Plus ($20), Super ($100) and Ultra ($200), and every paid plan now includes one always-on Hermes Cloud agent (up to 4 GB memory on Plus and Super, 8 GB on Ultra). It had about 258,000 stars on October 29.

Rakazo, MausBot and gawkbot#

These three copy Grok Bot's shape on your own terms.

• Rakazo bills itself as an open-source Grok Bot alternative: persistent Bots with memory, routines, Bot-to-Bot delegation, and browser, terminal, file and desktop access across web, desktop and mobile. Tools arrive via Composio, Pipedream, Treg, remote MCP and OpenAPI. Hosted Rakazo Cloud is in beta.
• MausBot (formerly OpenMausBot) gives each Bot a CLI agent you already have, with per-Bot model choice and 500-plus apps through Composio. It documents schedules (once, chosen weekdays, or every 5 to 1,440 minutes), webhooks and app-event triggers. Cloud workspaces cost $15 (Starter), $49 (Pro) and $99 (Max) a month; team plans are $169 (up to five people), $599 (up to 20) and $299 self-hosted. Its README says API keys sit in plaintext in a private config file.
• gawkbot runs Bots on a CLI you already pay for and holds every send, commit, purchase and delete for approval; reads are free. First committed in March 2026, its README still marks the packaged routine runner as to come.

The real cost of self-hosting#

Self-hosting swaps a subscription for chores. You keep the process and sandbox healthy, manage model keys and their spend, upgrade fast-moving code, and watch an approval queue. In return you can read every action, switch models per task and keep data on infrastructure you control.

Grok Bot inverts that deal. Setup takes minutes and mobile is built in, but all your Bots share one computer and one set of logins, Cursor picks the model, and usage beyond the weekly allowance is paid via top-ups (or on-demand billing on legacy Cursor plans, up to a monthly cap that does not halt a run in progress). Our shared-computer guide and usage limits guide cover both sides.

Reasons to stay on Grok Bot#

Stay if you want a job running today without a terminal, Bots that work with your laptop closed, and mobile apps on the same Bots. October releases closed several gaps: Pages, video creation and Shop Pay in 0.75.2 (October 22); a Vault for logins, cards and contact details plus email forwarding in 0.75.5 (October 23); and in 0.71.2, up to 200 plugin skills per Bot (from 24) and routines up to 300 runs an hour in total, 200 each.

Saved cards raise the stakes on the shared computer, so lock that down first. And if an outage sent you looking, check Grok Bot status before switching; several September and October incidents resolved on Cursor's side.

Switching checklist#

Run through this before you migrate anything:

1. Name the one constraint you are leaving for. If you cannot, stay put.
2. Write down every login, card and connector your Bots use today.
3. Export each Bot's job as a brief: outcome, sources, steps, acceptance checks. Our workflow brief guide has a format.
4. Freeze one test document and write an answer key before trying any candidate.
5. Run the same brief in two products. Record setup, run and review time.
6. Rebuild tools and permissions in the winner by hand. Do not paste secrets into chat.

Migration brief

Outcome: [what a finished run delivers, and to whom]

Sources: [files, sites, accounts the job reads]

Steps: [ordered method, including decision rules]

Must ask first: [sends, purchases, deletes, publishes]

Acceptance checks: [3–5 tests a correct result passes]

Known edge cases: [empty input, missing source, conflicting data]

Our take#

Most people should not switch; they should fix the one thing bothering them inside Grok Bot. If that thing is model choice or data residency, OpenClaw and Hermes Agent are the serious options. If you want hosted and already pay OpenAI or Anthropic, test dots or Claude on one frozen task before you move a single login.

Frequently asked questions#

What is the best Grok Bot alternative?#

There is no single winner because each one removes a different constraint. If you want an always-on agent you never maintain, look at ChatGPT dots, Claude or Manus. If you want model choice and data on your own hardware, look at OpenClaw or Hermes Agent. If you like Grok Bot's named-Bots design but want to self-host it, look at Rakazo, MausBot or gawkbot. None has been tested head to head here.

Is there a free alternative to Grok Bot?#

The software is free for OpenClaw and Hermes Agent (MIT), Rakazo (Apache 2.0), MausBot's local app (Apache 2.0 outside its enterprise folder) and gawkbot (free for internal or personal use). You still pay for the model, either through API keys or a subscription you already hold, and for any machine that must stay switched on.

Can I use Grok models inside an alternative?#

Yes, in some of them. SpaceXSI announced on May 19, 2026 that SuperGrok or X Premium subscribers can sign in inside OpenClaw, and on May 15 that a Grok account can connect to Hermes Agent. MausBot can drive the grok command-line tool. That gives you Grok the model, not Grok Bot the product with its hosted computer.

Can I move my Grok Bot templates to another agent?#

Not directly. None of these products imports Grok Bot templates or skills, and Grok Bot does not import theirs. The official Marketplace lists Import Bot, a community-made template that says it brings setups from other agents into Grok Bot, but it is untested here. The reliable path is to move the written brief and rebuild tools in the new product.

Is gawkbot open source?#

Not in the usual sense. Its README calls it an open-source Grok Bot, but the LICENSE file is the Sustainable Use License, which limits use to internal business or non-commercial personal purposes and is not OSI-approved. Read it before building a paid or resold service on top of gawkbot.