Instinct pricing, plans and limits

Instinct suits people who want a text-message agent to run errands and are comfortable handing it account access. It is invite-only with no mobile app and no published plans. Read the privacy terms first: the 26 August revision allows training on your materials by default, with a settings opt-out.

Instinct is an invite-only personal AI agent that launched in August 2026 and takes errands by text message or phone call. TechCrunch reports it uses its own phone number and computer to book travel, order groceries and make purchases. Its terms, revised on 26 August 2026, let users opt out of model training.

Maker: Spear Street Technology, Inc. (Instinct) · Autonomy: semi autonomous · Maturity: ALPHA

About Instinct

Instinct is a personal AI agent from Spear Street Technology, Inc., which operates as Instinct, with Noah Shinn as founder. You reach it the way you reach a person: by text message or phone call, with no new interface to learn. Its own site says it can order the ingredients for a recipe, book a train home for the weekend, send flowers to a friend or find a court for the weekend, which is what separates an agent from a chatbot that only answers questions.

TechCrunch reports that when it is given a task, Instinct uses its own phone number and its own computer. The terms of service authorize it to interact with connected services on your behalf, including making purchases, and to index data from those services, for example your Google Workspace accounts if you link them. Two features reported by TechCrunch in September 2026 are a concierge that makes phone calls for you, for appointments at places with no online booking, and a trusted person network that lets your agent coordinate plans with the agents of your friends. The company has not said which AI models run behind it.

It suits people who want errands, travel and bookings handled by text and are comfortable giving an agent access to their accounts. The closest alternatives on HokAI are Poke, which also lives in your text messages, Meta's Muse, OpenAI dots, ChatGPT Work and Grok Bot. OpenAI builds dots and ChatGPT Work into ChatGPT, and xAI offers Grok Bot alongside Grok. Cue, Gemini Spark and Alexa+ are other personal agents listed on HokAI, and Manus, OpenClaw, Hermes Agent and Perplexity Comet are broader agent products worth comparing. Muse and the OpenAI agents sit inside larger apps, while Instinct has no mobile app and talks to you over SMS and calls.

Access is invite-only. TechCrunch said the service launched in August 2026 and, on 28 September 2026, that Instinct had raised a $1 billion Series C at a $10 billion valuation from investors including Sequoia Capital, Benchmark Capital and Coatue. The company has not shared user numbers, and its site and terms publish no plans or prices. The terms say fees for paid services are non-refundable and that pricing can change.

Privacy is the part to read before you sign up. TechCrunch called the first version of the privacy policy overreaching, and both the policy and the terms were revised on 26 August 2026. The current terms let Instinct use your materials to train AI models unless you opt out in settings, exclude anything you store in its Vault, and still allow training on material flagged for safety review. They also warn that actions may not always be reversible and that you carry the consequences of what the agent does.

Pricing

No plans or prices were published as of 22 October 2026. The terms mention paid services billed in US dollars, with fees non-refundable unless law requires otherwise, and say prices may change at any time.

Key Features

• Text or call interface: You reach the agent by text message or phone call, so there is no app to install and nothing new to learn.
• Own phone and computer: TechCrunch reports that Instinct performs tasks using its own phone number and its own computer rather than inside your device.
• Actions on connected services: The terms authorize it to act on services you connect, including making purchases, with the purchase made by you and not by Instinct.
• Concierge phone calls: A concierge feature, reported by TechCrunch in September 2026, calls businesses for you to book appointments where there is no online booking.
• Trusted person network: Your agent can coordinate plans with the agents of friends you add, according to TechCrunch's report of the feature.
• Vault storage: Materials you add to the Vault are used only to provide the service to you and are excluded from AI model training under the current terms.

Strengths

• Works over plain SMS and phone calls, so someone who never installs an app can still use it.
• The terms exclude Vault materials from model training and let you opt out of training for other materials in settings.
• Anything pulled from a linked Google account is kept out of model training, and the company states it does not sell user information.
• The first privacy draft was criticized in the press and the company revised both documents rather than leaving them as written.

Weaknesses

• Access is invite-only and no plans or prices are published, so you cannot judge cost before joining.
• Training on your materials is on by default, and the opt-out applies only going forward and not to models already trained.
• The terms say actions may not always be reversible and put the consequences of every action on the user, which matters when the agent can buy things.
• There is no mobile app, and the company has shared no user numbers or growth figures.

Visit Instinct Official Site