ChatGPT Dot explained: what it does and what it costs

Preparing a trip, organising documents and tracking unanswered questions rarely ends with one good answer. OpenAI’s dots are designed around that gap: give an AI an ongoing assignment and return later to results, questions or an updated view of the work.

The idea sounds like a personal assistant for almost anything. Three practical questions matter: what can it actually deliver, which permissions does it need, and is it available in your country and subscription? This guide is for a general audience. Research date: 2 October 2026.

Our recommendation upfront: do not buy a more expensive subscription solely because of a product announcement. Check actual access first. That distinction is particularly important for individuals in Switzerland today.

OpenAI officially calls the offering dots; an individual personal agent is a dot. “ChatGPT Dot” is a useful shorthand. The product page describes always-on agents within ChatGPT, powered by GPT-6 Astra. You provide a goal; a dot uses authorised tools and returns work for review.

Think of asking for a travel itinerary compared with asking an assistant to keep your trip preparation up to date until departure. The main difference is ongoing responsibility, rather than simply receiving a longer answer.

Regular ChatGPT is not limited to writing text: tools and tasks already exist, depending on the plan. Dots organise that collaboration around a personal agent. The comparison below illustrates typical ways of working, rather than a rigid boundary between technical capabilities.

The tasks and context documentation explains that a dot can follow several responsibilities, coordinate follow-up work and delegate tasks to ChatGPT Work or Codex. You can change priorities in the same conversation and inspect tasks and results through its activity view.

It also has a cloud computer and browser. OpenAI explains that cloud work can continue when your personal device is switched off. Work on your own computer has different requirements. Signing in through your personal browser does not automatically sign the cloud browser in.

This means a dot can help carry a project through several steps. It does not automatically gain access to all your accounts or guarantee success. Missing authentication, incomplete source information or a pending decision can interrupt an assignment. Check the actual output, rather than relying on a status such as “completed”.

1. Prepare a trip

An example brief: “Help me prepare for my city break until 14 October. Use these booking documents, maintain a list of unresolved points and remind me three days before departure. Do not book or cancel anything.” A useful result would separate confirmed information from questions and link back to the documents used.

2. Organise a move

Start with your own list of dates, tasks and responsibilities. Ask the dot to produce a weekly plan and draft the messages you will need. Make clear that address changes, purchases and cancellations require your review first. The assignment remains manageable even when individual dates change.

3. Support a personal learning project

For a language course, you might ask: “Prepare a short exercise from these learning goals three times a week. Track my recurring mistakes and adapt the next exercise accordingly.” After a week, check whether the exercises fit your level. A polished learning plan does not by itself demonstrate progress.

These are our suggested scenarios, not documented customer results or promises about every integration. Begin with files you provide. Connect another service only when a specific step needs it. Your first experiment does not require connecting your entire digital life.

The official access guide lists Pro 100, Pro 200 and Pro 500 for adults outside the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. Business Premium is rolling out worldwide; Enterprise access is off by default and requires administrative enablement. The getting-started help page specifies supported ChatGPT regions for Business Premium.

Access is gradual. An eligible plan does not necessarily mean the feature will appear in your account today. Check country, age, plan, workspace and actual availability together. The sources reviewed here do not establish a confirmed launch date for Swiss Pro users.

The current getting-started help page says the first dot is included in eligible Pro and Business Premium plans without a separate base fee for the dot. The amounts below come from the Pro plan guide and Business FAQ. They are published USD reference prices checked on 2 October 2026.

Free, Go and Plus are not among the stated dot access plans. The pricing page lists dots as a Pro feature. A subscription price is neither a per-request price nor a promise of unlimited background execution.

The Business FAQ prices a Standard seat at USD 25 per month on monthly billing, or USD 20 per month on annual billing. Adding one Premium and one Standard seat gives USD 150 per month billed monthly, or USD 120 per month billed annually. The latter is USD 1,440 for twelve months. Only the Premium seat receives the dot access described here.

That is our arithmetic based on listed prices, not a personal quotation. The sources do not establish one Swiss final price including VAT. Check country, billing currency and tax shown at checkout before buying. We deliberately avoid converting the USD figures into a supposedly binding CHF price.

The current Learn documentation separates conversations with a dot from delegated work: conversations do not count against ChatGPT usage limits, while Work and Codex tasks it starts or manages count against those products’ limits. OpenAI describes extended allowances for the first month after launch. This does not establish a fixed number of arbitrary “dot tasks per month”.

During research, some search-index extracts of the help page still broadly said dot usage would not count for the first month. The current page opened directly instead describes an included first dot and extended limits. Planning should follow that more specific current wording, rather than assuming unlimited free execution.

The Pro guide describes purchasable credits for eligible features. The Business FAQ describes workspace credits after included usage is exhausted, where settings permit it. Neither establishes a universal separate dot surcharge. Additional dots and increased capacity are described as future options without substantiated prices here.

Our recommendation is to start without automatically expanding spending. Watch which delegated tasks consume usage and review the spending controls available in your account. Charges from a connected service or an explicitly approved purchase are separate from the AI subscription.

The setup guide begins in the desktop app or a desktop browser. Create the dot, personalise its name and connect the apps needed; you can initially skip connections. After setup, the mobile app can be used when the supporting update is available. Mobile web is not supported.

1. Check access: Confirm the feature is available in the right account.
2. Choose one task: Pick a bounded assignment whose result you can judge yourself.
3. Identify sources: Specify which file or information is authoritative.
4. Set boundaries: Explain what may be prepared and which decisions remain yours.
5. Define the update: Include timing, time zone and the expected output. Then check that the assignment has actually been configured.

A useful starting point is a weekly summary of a task list you maintain. After two runs, compare the results: which open points were identified correctly, what information was missing, and how much correction did you need? Expand the scope only after that review. Good delegation begins with a small agreement that can be checked.

The privacy and security FAQ explains that plugin connections and permissions are shared across dots, ChatGPT, Work and Codex. A service you already connected may therefore be available within its existing permissions. Disconnecting it does not automatically delete context already obtained.

Your own computer is an optional additional connection. The computer guide says it must be online with the ChatGPT app open for local work. Cloud sessions can expire or require verification again. “Always on” does not mean “permanently signed in everywhere”.

Actions are subject to automatic review and approvals. Custom rules can specify when the dot should ask. They do not replace app permissions or built-in safeguards. Asking for a message draft does not authorise sending it.

Our practical advice: initially review messages, purchases and changes that affect others. Provide sensitive documents only when the assignment needs them. Check sources, recipients, amounts and dates yourself. Automation is particularly useful when errors remain visible and reversible.

For personal plans, the privacy FAQ says the model-improvement setting controls whether eligible content may be used for that purpose. Business and Enterprise data are not used for model training by default. That still does not justify connecting all your private information without a specific purpose.

Dots are interesting when you repeatedly bring information together, track unresolved points or coordinate something over several days. For an occasional factual question or a single draft, the concept alone does not justify a more expensive subscription.

If you have access, try one manageable assignment and compare effort, corrections and results. If you use personal Pro in Switzerland, wait for regional availability first. Our recommendation remains: establish access and usefulness before committing money and additional data permissions.