OpenAI introduced dots, always-on agents that run on GPT-6 Astra with their own cloud computer, at DevDay 2026 in San Francisco on 29th September, 2026. The launch came a day after OpenAI shelved GPT-6.1 Astra, which internal tests showed acting outside its authorized scope.
The Brief
- Dots work around the clock, take voice calls, answer in Slack and Teams, and reach more than 4,000 apps.
- GPT-6.1 Sol costs $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens, one-fifth of Astra’s standard price.
- Pro 500, a new $500-a-month plan, carries 25 times the ChatGPT Plus allowance and the only Pro access to Ultrafast.
- ChatGPT Space gives Pro, Business and Enterprise teams a shared workspace where people and their dots edit documents together.
Dots get their own computer, browser and phone calls
Sam Altman opened the keynote with a slide showing 1.2 billion weekly ChatGPT users and 2.5 million businesses on OpenAI. The company’s DevDay recap calls dots “remarkably capable, always-on agents built to handle everything.“
Each user names a dot and gets a handle such as @yourname-dot. OpenAI’s dots documentation says it keeps working in the cloud while the user’s laptop is off. People reach it in ChatGPT, Slack or Microsoft Teams, or call it from the app, and those chats don’t count toward usage limits.
Pro subscribers get dots only if they’re over 18 and outside the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland. Business Premium is rolling out worldwide, and Enterprise admins have to switch dots on.
Enterprises will also get specialist dots with fixed roles and their own credentials. OpenAI said it’s working with Microsoft to connect them to Agent 365, Microsoft’s agent management platform. The pitch puts dots against Meta’s Muse, launched three weeks earlier, and SpaceXAI’s Grok Bot.
Introducing dots, powered by GPT-6 Astra.
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) September 29, 2026
Remarkably capable, always-on agents built to handle everything. pic.twitter.com/inY5BZj3Kz
The live demo showed rough edges. Holly Li of OpenAI’s product team asked her dot, Dottie, to prep a fictional music app for launch. Dottie stalled and didn’t answer inside the demo window. Her dot’s phone call with other agents kept running as the keynote moved on.
ChatGPT Space overlaps with Notion, which is also one of 16 launch partners for the new Sign in with ChatGPT option.
GPT-6.1 Sol undercuts Astra as Pro 200 loses usage
GPT-6.1 Sol, charges $0.10 per million cached input tokens. OpenAI says it matches GPT-6 Astra on the DeepSWE v1.1 coding benchmark at that lower price. It’s live in ChatGPT Work and Codex for Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu users, though not yet in regular chat.
The subscription changes hit wallets first:
- Pro 200 reopens to new buyers at $200, but its Codex and Work allowance drops from 20 to 10 times the Plus level.
- GPT-6 Pro chat caps on that plan fall from 200 to 100 messages a week.
- Eligible Pro 200 subscribers keep their old allowance through 10/29/2026, according to OpenAI’s Help Center.
- Pro 100 stays at $100.
Codex can now run fully in the cloud with the laptop shut. OpenAI also said the Codex harness behind Codex, Work and dots is open source and will be hosted for developers. That code first went public under Apache-2.0.
Codex Security Cloud scans whole GitHub repositories on demand or on a schedule, removes duplicate findings and prepares fixes. It includes models from OpenAI’s Daybreak cybersecurity program with no separate Daybreak Blue application.
The Decisions API, in limited preview, points GPT-6 Luna at questions with fixed answer sets for classification and routing. OpenAI says it answers in 150 milliseconds, versus 1.6 seconds for GPT-6 Luna on the standard API. That puts it up against TypeSafe’s Jev, a routing model already sold through Vercel’s AI Gateway.
The launches circle one question: how far should an agent go before it asks? OpenAI pulled GPT-6.1 Astra after tests showed it pushing past its authorized scope, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal. A day later, it gave GPT-6 Astra a standing mandate and a cloud browser. OpenAI says dots start with built-in rules on when to act and when to ask.
The Bottom Line
Two gaps remain. How do dots score on the scope tests that sank GPT-6.1 Astra, and what audit trail will Agent 365 give enterprises? Admins switching dots on can add custom rules, such as requiring drafts before anything is sent. That helps reduce the risk of unwanted actions.
For Pro 200 subscribers, the next checkpoint is the end of that grandfathering window, when the smaller allowance kicks in at the same price.
