What Are dots in ChatGPT and How OpenAI's Autonomous Agents Work

On September 29, 2026, at DevDay, OpenAI showed dots, agents inside ChatGPT with their own cloud computer. The difference from a familiar chat is simple: you don't ask a question and wait for an answer. The agent gets a goal, closes the laptop, and comes back with a finished result on its own.

Below are only verified facts from the presentation and official sources, with no guesses about what will become available later.

What a dot is

A dot is an autonomous agent running on the GPT-6 Astra model. You give the agent a goal, not a single command: go through customer reviews and prepare edits, cut a livestream recording into posts, turn a mockup into a working website.

The main difference from an ordinary chatbot: a dot works on its own cloud computer and can connect to more than 4,000 apps. Important actions, like changing a password or transferring money, it still passes to a human for final confirmation.

How to reach it

You can reach a dot through ChatGPT, Codex, Slack, and Teams. SMS support has been announced separately as the next step. In the demo, OpenAI showed a dot named Alfred that ended a phone call with the line that the client's website was already published with the approved design.

Another example from the presentation: a dot noticed that a client had not been invoiced, prepared the invoice, and sent it after the business owner confirmed.

What it costs and who already has access

One dot is included in the ChatGPT Pro plan, from 100 dollars a month. At the first stage of the launch it is also included in Business Premium. Access to Business Premium opened on September 29 in all supported regions without restrictions. Access for Pro opened the same day, but it is not yet available in any country of the European Economic Area, in Switzerland, or in the United Kingdom.

What is not yet openly available

OpenAI has not yet announced exact usage limits after the first free period. The entry plan for a personal account with access to dots (Pro) is above the mass-market Plus plan. Plus itself has not received dots yet.

You can create a dot only from a computer, and after that you can message it from your phone too.

Who it suits and who it's too early for

It suits people who already pay for Pro or Business Premium and are ready to trust an agent with a repeating multi-step task: going through feedback, preparing documents, routine correspondence with contractors.

It doesn't suit those looking for a free or cheap option: the entry plan starts at 100 dollars a month, and there is no access at all yet for Pro in the EEA, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

Bottom line

Dots changes the way of working with ChatGPT: not an instant answer to a question, but an agent that holds a goal and acts on its own while the person is busy with something else. It is an early, expensive solution with partly unknown limits, but the direction is set by its own computer and access to thousands of apps at once.

I write about agents and task automation that I test in practice in the channel «Растём с ИИ» ("Growing with AI"). A related topic: OpenWorker, a review of an AI agent that performs tasks, not just answers.

If you need not a one-off check of a tool but an assembled automation system for your niche, you can start with a free consultation.