Poke review, pricing and verdict

Choose Poke if you want an assistant you text instead of an app you open. It messages first, follows up on tasks and connects to Gmail, Outlook and Notion. Cognition's own announcement says people exchanged more than 100 million messages with it in three months, though that figure comes from the vendor side, not an independent audit.

Poke is a personal AI agent from The Interaction Company of California that works inside Apple Messages, Telegram, WhatsApp and RCS. It reads and drafts email, manages calendars, sets reminders and runs recipe-based automations. Cognition, the maker of Devin, announced on 23 July 2026 that the company is joining it, and Poke keeps running as before.

Maker: The Interaction Company of California · Autonomy: semi autonomous · Maturity: GA

About Poke

Poke is a personal AI agent from The Interaction Company of California that you talk to by text. Instead of opening an app, you message it in Apple Messages, Telegram, WhatsApp or RCS, and it replies like a contact in your phone. Its docs list email, calendar, reminders and web search as the basics, and it is built to message you first: it follows up on tasks, sends updates and keeps working in the background. That proactive habit is what separates it from a chatbot that waits for a prompt. Poke's docs say it is available in all regions worldwide.

The agent side comes from connections and automations. Poke reads, searches and drafts email in Gmail and Outlook, manages calendars, and reaches services such as Notion, GitHub, Linear and Oura through its Recipes directory. Recipes are shareable setups that wire an integration or a scheduled automation together, and you can add your own tools over MCP. Poke does not name the models it runs on. Its pricing page only says the paid plans use "frontier models" for harder tasks, so treat the engine as undisclosed.

In 2026 the product widened quickly. Recipes opened to everyone on 19 March with no waitlist, Poke reached Apple Messages on 4 June, and a @poke.com email address followed on 8 June. Ultra launched on 18 June, and Poke Human arrived on 25 June: it sends a real person to make restaurant bookings, phone calls, orders and rides. On 23 July Cognition, the maker of Devin, announced that The Interaction Company was joining it. Both companies say Poke continues as before, with Cognition's models and infrastructure meant to make it faster over time.

Poke suits people who live in their messages and want an assistant without a new interface: busy professionals, freelancers who juggle several inboxes, and anyone who wants reminders and email triage by text. Compare it with other personal agents such as Muse, Cue, Grok Bot, Gemini Spark, ChatGPT Work and OpenAI dots. If you want delegated research in the cloud, look at Manus. If you would rather run your own agent, see OpenClaw or Hermes Agent. Plans start free, and the cost FAQ below has the tiers.

Two caveats matter. Poke's own terms warn that output can be wrong and that you remain responsible for actions taken on it, and I found no public description of a send-approval step for email, so check how it behaves on your account before letting it write to other people. Privacy is also a setting: the policy says data from users who select Maximum Privacy is not used for model training, while other users' data can be.

Pricing

Poke has three plans, per its pricing page. Free is $0 with no credit card, connects apps, email and calendar, and keeps responding in a lighter mode once its usage allowance is spent. Pro is $19 a month and adds frontier models for complex tasks, background automations, higher rate limits and priority support. Ultra is $199 a month and adds frontier models on every action, the highest limits and highest-priority support. Ultra runs on a monthly pool of credits (1 credit = $1 of usage); if the pool runs out it falls back to the Pro experience or you can top up. Poke Human is included with Ultra, with real-world costs such as a ride or coffee order charged at cost. Tiers are quoted monthly; the page also offers yearly billing. See [Manus](/hub/tools/manus) and [Gemini Spark](/hub/agents/gemini-spark) for other personal-agent pricing.

Key Features

• Messaging-native interface: Works through Apple Messages, Telegram, WhatsApp and RCS, so there is no separate app to learn.
• Proactive follow-ups: Texts you first with updates and follow-ups on tasks, and runs scheduled automations in the background on Pro and Ultra.
• Email and calendar: Reads, searches and drafts email and manages calendars across Gmail and Outlook accounts.
• Recipes and MCP: Recipes set up integrations such as Notion, GitHub, Linear and Oura, and custom tools can be added over MCP.
• Poke Human: Sends a real person to handle bookings, phone calls, orders and rides, included with Ultra and charged at cost for expenses.
• Website building: Can design and publish a personal site for you after you claim a handle, announced on 18 June 2026.

Strengths

• Needs no new app: it works in the message threads you already use on Apple Messages, Telegram, WhatsApp and RCS.
• Free plan needs no credit card and keeps responding after the allowance is used, only in a lighter mode.
• Poke Human extends it into real-world tasks such as calls and bookings, and operators see only the details a task needs, per the FAQ.
• Open to your own tools through MCP and a published API, beyond the Recipes directory.

Weaknesses

• Does not name the models it runs on, so you cannot judge capability or data handling from the model.
• No public per-action approval step for sending email was found, which raises the risk of a wrong send.
• Ultra costs $199 a month and heavy use can add pay-as-you-go credits beyond the included pool.
• Email support covers Gmail and Outlook only, with no plans for iCloud or Yahoo Mail per the FAQ.

Visit Poke Official Site