# Dot by OpenAI 10 Hacker News commenters recommended Dot by OpenAI and 8 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months. **Verdict:** People recommend it as an always-on assistant that does research, fills web forms and runs computer tasks on request. Critics mention uneven output quality. ## Why people recommend it - Handles web research and forms (2 comments): "Predominantly it does a metric crapton of research and is able to fill out contact forms directly on webpages" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50201661)) "Can't imagine doing all that research on my own" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50201747)) - Performs tasks on request (3 comments): "the value for me is an always-on agent conversation, where you can tell it to perform tasks and ask it questions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50303237)) "I trusted it to do every task better than I would trust any but the absolute best personal assistants" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50187357)) "Press Right Option and Dot does work on your computer for you." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49220178)) ## What people warn about - Unclear what it does (2 comments): "a paragraph or two (either here or on the page itself) explaining what it is I'm looking at is essential" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47204578)) "Is it that hard to clearly explain what it is that you've built and are now showing us?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47208112)) - Output quality often disappoints (2 comments): "It's crazy how bad Dot has been with stuff like this." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50189433)) "I just have not been to happy with the output" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50186331)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Claude](https://hackerapproved.com/p/claude.md): 5175 recommend - [Google Gemini](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gemini.md): 2195 recommend - [ChatGPT](https://hackerapproved.com/p/chatgpt.md): 2186 recommend - [Grok](https://hackerapproved.com/p/grok.md): 727 recommend - [Microsoft Copilot](https://hackerapproved.com/p/microsoft-copilot.md): 139 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Dot by OpenAI", https://hackerapproved.com/p/dot/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).