What Is Poke AI and What Does It Cost?

Poke AI is a personal artificial intelligence (AI) assistant that you text to handle email, calendar and reminders. At Layer3Labs, we build workflow automations for small-business teams, so we read a text-message assistant for what it can reach in your accounts and what it costs.

Plans range from a free tier to $19 per month for Pro and $199 per month for Ultra, and the yearly price is not readable on the static pricing page.

Poke's maker agreed in July 2026 to be acquired by Cognition, and Poke keeps running as normal through the end of 2026.

What Poke Is and How It Works

Poke is made by The Interaction Company of California and works over text and voice messages, with no app to install.

According to TechCrunch, you visit Poke's website, select Get Started, and enter your phone number.

Poke pitches itself as your new favorite contact that stays proactive, private, personal, and right in your texts.

Under the hood, Poke operates across text channels using specialized messaging infrastructure, as reported by TechCrunch.

TechCrunch reported that Poke picks a model for each task, either an open-source model or one from a major AI provider.

Supported channels depend on your region. Poke's homepage lists Messages, WhatsApp, and Telegram, allowing users to submit requests via text or voice message.

TechCrunch reported support across iMessage, short message service (SMS), Telegram, and limited WhatsApp availability because of platform restrictions on chatbots.

On June 4, 2026, Poke became the first AI agent approved on the Apple Messages for Business platform, according to TechCrunch.

• Zero application installation required on your mobile phone
• Text and voice message input through existing chat apps
• Dynamic model routing between open-source and commercial foundation models
• Official approval on Apple Messages for Business with Apple Pay support

Poke AI Pricing and Subscription Tiers

Poke AI provides three published subscription tiers on its pricing page.

The Free plan costs $0 per month, is labeled Free Forever, and requires no credit card upon signup. The Pro tier costs $19 per month billed monthly.

Poke Ultra costs $199 per month billed monthly, adding pay-as-you-go usage beyond allocated credits alongside the Poke Human service.

Subscription rates can change over time. Always verify current figures on Poke's pricing page.

The tiers separate software access from human assistance.

Per Poke's FAQ, most features in Poke are free; the pricing page does not itemize what Pro adds over Free.

Ultra incorporates Poke Human, which delegates real-world tasks like dining reservations, phone calls, delivery orders, and rides to real human assistants.

Human assistants fulfill these offline requests with expenses billed at cost without markup, and operators cannot view user chat histories, memories, or connected integrations.

Earlier pricing operated on a different framework.

During its early beta, Poke allowed users to negotiate their monthly price directly with the agent, with rates ranging from $10 to $30 per month.

TechCrunch reported in April 2026 that pricing was based on how Poke was being used, before fixed tiers appeared on the site.

The current site features a yearly billing toggle, but the exact annual rates are unreadable on the static page.

Check the toggle on Poke's pricing page to see the yearly price.

• Free: $0 per month, free forever without requiring a credit card
• Pro: $19 per month billed monthly
• Ultra: $199 per month billed monthly with pay-as-you-go overages and Poke Human real-world task delegation
• Poke Human tasks: offline expenses billed at cost with zero operator markup
• Beta history: early users negotiated rates between $10 and $30 per month

Supported Integrations and Workflow Recipes

Poke connects with work productivity tools, calendar systems, and external services to coordinate daily routines.

For inbox management, Poke provides full support for Gmail and Outlook inboxes, calendars, and contact sync, according to Poke's FAQ.

Poke currently maintains no immediate plans for iCloud or Yahoo Mail integration.

Poke's homepage displays searching, drafting, and sending messages directly from conversational chat threads.

Pre-built automation workflows operate as recipes.

As reported by TechCrunch, these recipes connect with email providers, online calendars, productivity workspaces, fitness devices, and smart home hardware.

The homepage also displays importing action items from note-taking applications directly into your calendar.

For technical teams, developer integrations reported by TechCrunch support web analytics, cloud databases, deployment backends, and coding agents.

Users can build custom connections beyond standard recipes.

Per Poke's FAQ, individuals can assemble custom connections using the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

Poke also lets users build and publish a personal website hosted at yourname.poke.site.

TechCrunch reported that Poke pays recipe creators between 10 cents and one dollar for each user who signs up through their recipe, depending on location.

• Email and calendar: full support for Gmail and Outlook inboxes, calendars, and contact sync, with no immediate plans for iCloud or Yahoo Mail
• Pre-built recipes: integrations with productivity platforms, note tools, wearable fitness hardware, and smart home appliances per TechCrunch
• Developer tools: recipes for cloud databases, hosting infrastructure, code agents, and analytics per TechCrunch
• Custom integration: custom agent connections authorable using Model Context Protocol (MCP)
• Personal publishing: website building and instant hosting at yourname.poke.site

Company Background and Cognition Acquisition

The Interaction Company of California developed Poke in Palo Alto under co-founders Marvin von Hagen and Felix Schlegel.

Launch reporting contains contested dates. TechCrunch reported that Poke launched publicly in March 2026, while earlier coverage in TechCrunch described an email assistant built roughly a year prior.

Before the acquisition, The Interaction Company operated with a team of ten people.

Early venture backing financed product development.

As reported by TechCrunch, The Interaction Company raised $10 million on top of an earlier $15 million seed round at a $300 million post-money valuation.

Funding figures can change, so check TechCrunch's April 2026 report before you cite them.

Cognition acquired The Interaction Company of California in July 2026.

TechCrunch reported that the deal valued the startup in the low nine figures and that Cognition plans to bring Poke's personality to its developer tools.

TechCrunch reported that Poke handled more than 100 million messages over three months among hundreds of thousands of users.

TechCrunch also reported that Poke had been expensive to run.

Nothing immediately changes for Poke users through the end of 2026 under Cognition ownership.

Data Privacy and Security in Poke AI

Connecting an artificial intelligence assistant to personal inboxes and text messaging threads introduces distinct security considerations.

Security protections remain company-stated.

According to TechCrunch, Poke runs regular penetration testing and applies limited operational permissions for employees and agents.

Poke also says that, by default, its team cannot see inside users' tokens unless the user opts in.

TechCrunch reported these as the company's own claims and did not verify them.

Model training policies depend on your account configuration.

Under Poke's privacy policy, user data may be used to train artificial intelligence models.

However, data from users who select Maximum Privacy will not be used for model training.

Google user data adheres to Limited Use requirements and is never sold or used for advertising.

Account removal follows a designated deletion path.

Per Poke's FAQ, you can delete your account at poke.com/settings/privacy, and deletion can take up to 24 hours.

A personal assistant tied to one employee's phone number gives an employer no central view of which work accounts it can reach.

Poke's pricing and FAQ pages list no admin console, audit logs or third-party security audit report.

Organizations needing strict compliance controls can review our shadow AI agents risk mitigation guide to govern informal employee tool usage.

• Model training: user data trains models unless you activate Maximum Privacy
• Google Limited Use: Google account data is never sold or repurposed for commercial ads
• Staff visibility: the team cannot see inside tokens by default, per Poke's own claim to TechCrunch
• Account removal: deletion requested at poke.com/settings/privacy with completion within 24 hours
• Enterprise compliance: no published administrator console, audit logs or third-party security audit report

Evaluation of Poke AI for Daily Workflows

Deciding whether Poke fits your daily routine depends on how you balance mobile speed against workspace oversight.

Poke fits solo founders and executives who manage their daily coordination primarily through SMS, iMessage, or Telegram.

Poke handles calendar updates and quick email replies inside the chat thread you text it from.

Poke's pricing and FAQ pages list no multi-user admin controls, so enterprise security teams that need them should look elsewhere.

If your firm requires formal audit trails or strict data isolation, evaluate business platforms reviewed in our small business AI agents guide instead.

Professionals who rely exclusively on Apple iCloud Mail or Yahoo Mail also face direct integration roadblocks.

If Poke introduces an organization administrator portal with team-level role enforcement, audit logging, and certified security reports, enterprise teams could reconsider adoption.

Until then, Poke operates best as an individual productivity tool rather than corporate workflow infrastructure.

For broader personal options, review our best personal AI assistant guide.

Alternative Personal Assistants and Next Steps

Several conversational agents offer alternate architectures for handling daily calendar and inbox tasks.

Instinct is another assistant you reach by text.

You can read our Instinct AI vs Poke comparison to see how Poke and Instinct differ on channels, access and data terms.

Instinct is invite-only, according to PYMNTS, while anyone can sign up for Poke on its website.

Other personal options prioritize different technical environments.

Teams seeking self-hosted or terminal-first agents can review our OpenClaw analysis or explore our Hermes Agent guide.

Poke prioritizes native mobile chat over standalone application windows.

Compare core attributes across options before connecting sensitive personal accounts.

Choose Poke AI if you want immediate calendar and inbox coordination directly through your native phone messaging app without configuring developer tools or awaiting waitlist approval.

To test these workflows, visit Poke, submit your phone number, enable Maximum Privacy, and evaluate poke ai with non-critical calendar reminders.

Brand Disambiguation and Naming

The word Poke appears across several unrelated industries and digital services.

Poke AI refers strictly to the text-based personal assistant created by The Interaction Company of California.

It has no link to Pokémon.

It also has nothing to do with poke, the Hawaiian raw-fish dish.

In the technology sector, do not confuse Poke with pokee.ai, which operates as an unrelated third-party software product.

To try the right product, go to poke.com and sign up with your phone number.