Instinct AI vs Poke AI: which to use
Instinct is invite-only with no public sign-up and no published price, reached only by text message or phone call. Poke is open to anyone right now, with a free tier and paid plans at $19 and $199 a month, reached the same way, through the texts you already send (iMessage, WhatsApp, Telegram, RCS). If getting started today matters more than which one turns out better, Poke wins by default: you can sign up in minutes, Instinct requires an invite nobody can guarantee you.
Last verified 29 September 2026.
Instinct vs Poke, side by side
| Fact | Instinct | Poke |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Spear Street Technology, Inc. (d/b/a Instinct), founder Noah Shinn source | The Interaction Company of California (reported as now part of Cognition) source |
| Launch date | Company founded April 2026; product in invite-only private access as of September 2026. No public general-availability launch date found. source | Officially launched September 2025 (with a $15M seed round); approved by Apple for native Apple Messages for Business access on 4 June 2026 source |
| Price and plans | No public pricing. Terms of service allow paid features later ("may be required to pay us fees", "revise or change the pricing... at any time", "all payments are non-refundable"). Beta access is reported as free. Viral "$200/month" or "$500/month" figures are unconfirmed rumors, not official pricing. source | Free ($0/mo, no card required); Pro $19/mo ($16/mo billed yearly); Ultra $199/mo ($160/mo billed yearly, includes pay-as-you-go usage beyond credits and the "Poke Human" add-on). Earlier coverage (mid-2026) described a novel "negotiate your own price" onboarding flow; the current official pricing page lists fixed tiers instead, so treat the negotiation mechanic as an earlier/parallel growth gimmick, not the live pricing model. source |
| Availability | Invite-only private beta. San Francisco-headquartered; no public country availability list found. source | All regions worldwide, per Poke's docs. source |
| Platforms | Reached by text message (iMessage/SMS) or phone call, not a dedicated consumer app interface; a Mac app and mobile apps are referenced in its own legal pages. Login/dashboard at app.instinct.com. source | iMessage (first AI agent Apple approved for Messages for Business), WhatsApp, Telegram, RCS/SMS. No dedicated app required. source |
| Underlying model | Instinct's own proprietary core model, with no model choice. source | A blend of models from Anthropic, OpenAI, Voyage and Mistral AI plus in-house fine-tuned models; which model handles which task is not disclosed. source |
| Where memory lives | On Instinct's servers. A black-box teardown found git-tracked markdown files searched with grep; Instinct has not confirmed that design. source | A per-account Memory inside Poke's hosted service, kept together with your Recipes and Integrations when two accounts are merged. source |
| Always on | Yes. "It texts you first when something needs doing" and is described as proactive by early users; works on tasks in the background. source | Yes. Runs "proactive automations working in the background" on Free, with "real-time automations running in the background" on Pro and above. source |
| Integrations | Connects to email, messaging, screen, audio, location "and more" per its own homepage. Partnered with Shopify (announced late Sep 2026) for product discovery, checkout via Shop Pay, price-drop and back-in-stock alerts. source | Email and calendar (Free tier onward); Notion, Linear, Oura and roughly 20 more cited by a third-party review; Recipes and an MCP layer for power users. source |
| Trains on your data by default | Reported ON by default with an opt-out that carries a safety-review exception, per a third-party review (not Instinct's own published policy text, which was not independently located). source | A third-party review states "no training on your data" as part of Poke's privacy stance; Poke's own published policy text stating a default was not independently located in this pass. source |
Each of the 20 cells in this table links to its source. A row is left out when no source answers it for every product shown.
Who should pick which?
Pick Instinct if…
Pick Instinct if you already have an invite and want an agent that proactively emails, negotiates and books things on your behalf, understanding that its pricing and terms could change at any time since none are published.
Pick Poke if…
Pick Poke if you want to start today with a free tier, reached through iMessage, WhatsApp, Telegram or RCS, no invite and no dedicated app required, even though it leans toward quick conversational requests rather than Instinct's more autonomous errand-running.
Skip both if…
Instinct is the wrong fit if you cannot get an invite, since access runs only through existing users. Poke is not for anyone who needs the more autonomous errand-running reported for Instinct, because it leans toward quick conversational requests.
What do users say?
“14 employees - no launch video - no raise announcements - no X profile - basic website - not even an .ai domain - no app - no marketing - founder only posts new f[eatures]”
@asharoraa, Instinct
“My garage door broke. I put Muse & Instinct on it. Surprisingly they both found the same 3 names & quotes. Instinct was able to email & negotiate. Muse couldn't negotiate but made calls which was a game changer”
@atShruti, Instinct
“Using Instinct 20 times every day, and perhaps more. It now manages my calendar, coordinates with my wife's calendar, sends and tracks all emails, is proactive, knows when a follow-up is needed, and flags deadlines.”
@BakarBansal, Instinct
“Instinct has a higher valuation than Snapchat, Match Group, Dropbox, Lyft and Etsy. Make it make sense.”
@_Liso_, Instinct
“If you couldn't tell by now, I'm a fan of Poke... At the end of the day, Poke works because it doesn't try to be everything, it tries to be useful.”
Tanisha Srivatsa, Poke
“When I first tried Poke, I instantly realised that this is the proper way to use AI, except for a couple of use cases... The biggest pain is just how it can't reply to long things when it has to; it's always clumsily split up into a bunch of tiny messages.”
Mil Hoornaert, Poke
“Launch-day reliability was poor... I sent messages that sat unanswered for ten-plus minutes, and a couple that seemed to vanish entirely. For an assistant whose whole pitch is 'it's right there in your texts,' latency is not a cosmetic problem.”
AIToolBlaze review, Poke
“I have no idea where my database pulled rania bassim from, i think my little ai brain just completely glitched out. i am definitely just poke, your favorite ai, and i am clearly a terrible liar.”
Poke's own support chat, quoted in a user's account of an unresolved payout/impersonation issue, Poke
Common questions
Can I sign up for either of these today?
Poke, yes: its own pricing page lists a $0/month Free tier with no card required. Instinct, no: access is invite-only through existing users, with no confirmed public waitlist.
Which one is free?
Poke has a $0/month Free tier. Instinct has no published price at all; its own terms of service reserve the right to charge fees later, and viral figures like $200 or $500 a month are unconfirmed rumors, not official pricing.
Do both work over text messages?
Yes, in different registers. Instinct is reached only by text message or phone call, with no dedicated consumer app interface. Poke works in iMessage (the first AI agent Apple approved for Messages for Business), WhatsApp, Telegram and RCS, also with no separate app required.
Which one has more integrations?
Poke's documented list is longer: email and calendar from the Free tier onward, plus Notion, Linear, Oura and roughly 20 more per a third-party review. Instinct's own homepage names email, messaging, screen, audio and location access and more, without an itemized list; it also has a fresh Shopify partnership announced in late September 2026.
Neither one fits? Each agent has its own alternatives page, with every fact linked to its source. Or Mover OS, $49 once. It is the wrong choice if you want something that keeps running while your computer is off.