AI coworker agent comparison
Last updated: October 23, 2026.
AI coworker agents take work from your team where it already happens, a Slack thread, an issue, a schedule, and run it without someone watching each step, then hand back a pull request, a message or a document. Most of the products here started as coding agents that run in a cloud VM and open pull requests (Devin, GitHub Copilot cloud agent, Cursor Cloud Agents, Codex Cloud, Claude Code, Jules, Factory). Others aim at knowledge work across business apps (Claude Cowork, Copilot Studio, Lindy). Mintive Coworker Agents (beta) keep their instructions and memory in your GitHub repository and run on Mintive's hosted runner, and every tool call goes through the Mintive gateway under the agent's own identity, so the controls you already use for people apply to agents too.
How we compared these AI coworker agents
The facts come from each vendor's public documentation and pricing pages, checked on October 23, 2026. Several products were renamed this year, so the table uses each vendor's current name. A cell says "not documented" when we couldn't find the fact on the vendor's own pages, which doesn't mean the capability is missing. There is no ranking column: each row ends with when it fits best.
AI coworker agent triggers, output and pricing
| Agent | Type | Triggers | What it ships | Pricing | Best fit when |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mintive Coworker Agents | Hosted agents with instructions and memory in your GitHub repository, governed by the Mintive gateway (beta) | Slack mentions, DMs and threads; schedules, which the agent can set itself | Commits in its own directory, pull requests otherwise; Slack replies | Beta; contact Mintive to enable it | You want agents in Slack whose tool calls run through the same governance as your people |
| Devin | Autonomous software engineer | Slack, Teams, Linear, Jira, GitHub, schedules, webhooks, API | Pull requests, chat replies | From $20/month; Teams $80 plus $40 per seat | You want a dedicated autonomous engineer started from chat, tickets or schedules |
| GitHub Copilot cloud agent | GitHub-native coding agent (formerly Copilot coding agent) | Issues, pull requests, the agents panel, automations, Slack, Teams | One draft pull request per task | Copilot Pro $10, Pro+ $39, Max $100 per month | Your code and reviews live on GitHub and you want issue-to-PR delegation |
| Cursor Cloud Agents | Cloud VMs for Cursor agents (formerly Background Agents) | Slack, Linear, GitHub, web, API, automations | Pull requests with artifacts | Included on Premium and higher individual plans, Teams and Enterprise | Your developers already use Cursor and want parallel cloud work |
| OpenAI Codex Cloud | Cloud coding tasks in ChatGPT | ChatGPT apps, CLI, Slack | Diffs and pull requests | ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise | Your team works in ChatGPT and wants cloud coding tasks there |
| Claude Code (cloud sessions and GitHub Actions) | Claude Code in the cloud and in CI | Web, CLI, scheduled tasks, API, GitHub events and @claude mentions, Slack | Branches, pull requests, comments | Plan usage; API plus Actions minutes | Your developers use Claude Code and want the same agent on schedules and pull requests |
| Claude Cowork | Knowledge-work agent | Manual, Dispatch, schedules | Documents and files | Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans | You want non-coding knowledge work done with your files and apps |
| Copilot Studio autonomous agents | Low-code, event-driven agents | Event triggers, recurrence | Connector actions, Teams messages | Copilot Credits ($200 per 25,000) | Your workflows run on Microsoft 365, Dataverse and Power Platform |
| Google Jules | Experimental asynchronous coding agent | Web, CLI, API, scheduled tasks | Plans and pull requests | Free; Google AI Pro and Ultra plans | An individual developer on GitHub wants Gemini-powered async coding tasks |
| Factory | Agent development platform (Droids) | CLI, web, Slack, Teams, Jira, Linear, CI, schedules, webhooks | Pull requests, reviews, replies | From $20/month; Teams $60 plus $40 per seat | You need agents across many surfaces with hybrid or airgapped deployment |
| Lindy | Business "AI employee" | Slack, email, iMessage, schedules | Emails, documents, slides | Team $49.99/month | You want a business-side assistant for inbox, meetings and app workflows |
AI coworker agent memory, sandboxing, tools and models
| Agent | Instructions and memory | Runtime and network | Tool access | Models | Deployment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mintive Coworker Agents | AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md, progress.md and an inbound/ folder, all in the repository | Ephemeral Mintive-hosted sandbox; egress limited to defaults plus your allowed domains (security) | MCP connectors through the Mintive gateway, with an optional allowed_tools list (all tools until you add one), rules and middleware | Claude Agent harness (Claude models through Anthropic or Amazon Bedrock) or Codex (OpenAI); optional routing through the LLM gateway | Managed service in the US or EU; instructions and memory live in your GitHub repository |
| Devin | Knowledge, playbooks and AGENTS.md; memory kept as Markdown in a Git repository | Linux VM per session | MCP and a marketplace | Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Cognition and open models; enterprise restriction | Multi-tenant cloud or single-tenant VPC |
| GitHub Copilot cloud agent | Custom instructions, custom agents, skills, Copilot Memory | GitHub Actions environment with a firewall | MCP per repository | Claude, GPT, Gemini and Microsoft models, limited by policy | GitHub-hosted |
| Cursor Cloud Agents | Repository hooks | AWS VMs or self-hosted; allowlist-only network mode | Team MCP servers | Curated model selection | Cursor-hosted VMs or self-hosted workers |
| OpenAI Codex Cloud | AGENTS.md | VM per task with allowed domains | Not documented | OpenAI GPT-6 family | OpenAI-hosted |
| Claude Code | CLAUDE.md, skills and subagents in the repository | Anthropic VM or self-hosted environment | MCP connectors; allowed-tools lists | Claude models; Actions also through Bedrock, Google and Microsoft Foundry | Anthropic-hosted or self-hosted; Actions on GitHub runners |
| Claude Cowork | Plugins that bundle tools, knowledge and workflows | Local VM or Anthropic cloud | Connectors and plugins, with tool rules per role | Claude models within the organization's allowlist | Desktop app with a local VM, or Anthropic cloud |
| Copilot Studio autonomous agents | Agent instructions plus per-trigger instructions | Microsoft cloud | MCP tools and connectors governed by data policies | GPT and Claude; other providers with admin approval | Microsoft cloud (Power Platform environments) |
| Google Jules | AGENTS.md in the repository root | Short-lived VM | MCP with named partners | Gemini | Google-hosted |
| Factory | AGENTS.md and skills | Cloud, hybrid or airgapped | MCP allowlist and permission rules | Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, xAI and open models; bring your own key | Cloud-managed, hybrid or airgapped |
| Lindy | Versioned memory and skills files at personal, team and system scope | Not documented | 1,500+ integrations and MCP | Model choice per task on the Team plan | Lindy-hosted |
AI coworker agent identity, audit and admin controls
| Agent | Agent identity and credentials | Audit trail | Admin controls |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mintive Coworker Agents | Its own agent identity, connector bundle and Slack app; encrypted secrets | Gateway audit log, Agent Monitor session capture, run transcripts and the agent's own activity log | Manage permissions for agents and Virtual MCPs, Slack access lists, block or flag rules; SSO and SCIM |
| Devin | GitHub App; pull requests as Devin or the user | Enterprise audit log and audit log API | SAML or OIDC SSO, SCIM, custom roles, IP access lists on Enterprise |
| GitHub Copilot cloud agent | Commits authored by Copilot, co-authored by the requester | Session logs and audit log events | Off by default on Business and Enterprise; organization and enterprise policies; firewall lock |
| Cursor Cloud Agents | Commits as Cursor Agent; team secrets | Enterprise admin audit log; automation runs not logged | Network policy lock, retention cap, team follow-ups on Enterprise |
| OpenAI Codex Cloud | Secrets injected through a proxy | Compliance API | Off by default on Enterprise; environment permissions; RBAC |
| Claude Code | Acts as you; Claude GitHub App for Actions | Session transcripts; Actions run logs | Owner toggles for cloud sessions and scheduled tasks; custom roles |
| Claude Cowork | Uses the member's connectors | Compliance API; OpenTelemetry to a SIEM | Organization and cloud-run toggles, custom roles, SSO and SCIM, spend limits |
| Copilot Studio autonomous agents | Entra Agent ID per agent; event triggers use the maker's credentials | Purview audit events | Data policies can block event triggers; Conditional Access |
| Google Jules | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented |
| Factory | You or a service account | Organization audit log on Enterprise | Organization-enforced model, MCP and command policies; SSO and SCIM |
| Lindy | Connected account permissions | Audit logs on Enterprise | SSO and SCIM on Enterprise |
How to choose an AI coworker agent
Governing AI coworkers that use company tools
An agent that reads tickets, queries data and posts in Slack holds real credentials to real systems, so check that it has its own identity rather than a person's, that its tool access is an explicit allowlist, and that every call lands in an audit log your security team already reads. Mintive Coworker Agents get their own agent identity and connector bundle, and their calls go through the same MCP gateway, rules and SIEM export as your people's.
Background coding agents compared
GitHub Copilot cloud agent, Cursor Cloud Agents, Codex Cloud, Claude Code, Jules, Devin and Factory all run coding tasks in a sandbox and return pull requests. The deciding factors are usually where your developers already work (GitHub, Cursor, ChatGPT, Claude Code), where the agent can run (vendor VM, GitHub Actions, self-hosted or airgapped), and how network egress is restricted.
AI coworkers for business workflows
Claude Cowork, Copilot Studio and Lindy aim at documents, inboxes and app workflows rather than repositories. Copilot Studio fits Microsoft 365 shops, and Cowork and Lindy work across connected apps. Check how each one scopes credentials, since some act with the person's or maker's own connections.
AI coworker agent memory and instructions
Look at where memory lives and who can review it. Mintive keeps instructions and memory as files in your repository (AGENTS.md, progress.md), so every change is versioned in git history and anyone with repository access can review it, and Devin and Lindy also keep memory as versioned files.
AI coworker agent FAQ
What is an AI coworker agent?
An AI coworker agent is an autonomous agent your team hands work to where it already works, such as a Slack thread, an issue tracker or a schedule, and that delivers results back as messages, documents or pull requests. It runs without someone watching each step, usually in a hosted sandbox with its own tool access.
What is the difference between an AI coworker and an AI assistant?
An assistant answers the person in front of it, one session at a time. A coworker agent is started by events such as a Slack mention, a schedule or a new issue, keeps instructions and memory between runs, and ships work for review, such as a pull request.
What are the alternatives to Devin?
Coding-focused options include GitHub Copilot cloud agent, Cursor Cloud Agents, OpenAI Codex Cloud, Claude Code cloud sessions and GitHub Actions, Google Jules, Factory and Mintive Coworker Agents. They differ in where they're triggered, where they run and which models they offer.
How do background coding agents compare?
Most run each task in an isolated cloud VM and return a branch or pull request. Copilot cloud agent opens one draft pull request per task, Cursor returns pull requests with artifacts, and Claude Code pushes branches. Network controls range from GitHub's default firewall and Cursor's allowlist mode to Codex's allowed domains and Factory's airgapped deployment.
How do you govern autonomous agents?
Give each agent its own identity, a narrow tool allowlist and restricted network egress, and keep an audit trail separate from the people who created it. Mintive routes Coworker Agent tool calls through its gateway under the agent's own identity, Copilot Studio provisions an Entra Agent ID per agent, and Factory enforces organization-level model, MCP and command policies. See Coworker Agents security.
Can AI coworker agents work from Slack and Microsoft Teams?
Slack is widely supported: Mintive, Devin, GitHub Copilot cloud agent, Cursor, Codex, Claude Code, Factory and Lindy all document it. Microsoft Teams triggers are documented by Devin, GitHub Copilot cloud agent and Factory, and Copilot Studio agents publish to Teams. See Connect a Coworker Agent to Slack.
Related
- Coworker Agents overview: how Mintive coworker agents run
- Agent gateway comparison: governing agents with their own identity and tools
- AI agent monitoring tools comparison
- AI coworkers on the blog
Sources
Every competitor fact on this page comes from that vendor's own public documentation, pricing pages or repository, checked on October 23, 2026.