# Best AI agents for Slack in 2026: which Slack AI bot should your team tag? Source: https://maito.app/blog/best-slack-ai-agents Date: 2026-10-21 Author: Dmitry Dubovetzky The best Slack AI agents in 2026 compared: Maito, Slackbot, Claude Tag, ChatGPT in Slack, Viktor, Runbear, Lindy, and Slack Code. What each AI bot does in Slack, who can use it, what it costs, and which one fits your team. ## What's the best AI agent for Slack in 2026? **Of the Slack AI agents in 2026, Maito is the best when the whole company, from support to engineering, should hand real work to one AI employee. Slackbot is the best pick for personal help on Slack Business+, Claude Tag and ChatGPT in Slack for companies already paying for Claude or ChatGPT, and Viktor or Runbear for usage-priced agents that also work in Microsoft Teams.** | | Best pick | | ---------------------------------------------------- | ---------------- | | A customer bug taken from report to pull request | Maito | | One flat price for any number of people | Maito | | Personal answers from your own Slack history | Slackbot | | A company that has already chosen Claude | Claude Tag | | A company already on ChatGPT Business | ChatGPT in Slack | | Slack and Microsoft Teams with models in the credits | Viktor | | A separate named agent for each department | Runbear | | Help with each person's inbox and meetings | Lindy | | A shared room for a coding agent you already pay for | Slack Code | "AI agent for Slack" now covers very different products. Some answer one person's questions. Some take a request in a channel and do the work. One is a channel where someone else's agent works. I'm the founder of Maito, so weigh my first pick with that in mind. For the other seven, I say where each one is strong and what I'd check before buying. Prices checked October 2026. ## Key takeaways - **Decide who the agent works for.** Slackbot works for the person asking. Maito, Claude Tag, Viktor, and Runbear work for the team, in the channel where everyone sees the thread. - **Check who can ask.** Some products need a paid seat for every person who tags the bot; others let anyone in an invited channel ask. - **Count the usage, not only the subscription.** Claude Tag, ChatGPT, Viktor, Runbear, and Lindy all add usage or credits on top. Maito's AI provider bills models directly. - **Ask for a finished result.** A summary is easy. A sent reply, an updated record, or a tested pull request tells you whether the agent can carry a job. - **Find the setup owner.** Claude Tag needs a Claude Owner and a Slack admin together; Maito needs whoever creates the workspace; Slackbot comes with the plan. ## What is a Slack AI agent? **A Slack AI agent is an AI you mention or message inside Slack that answers, takes actions in connected tools, and posts the result back to the conversation. The useful ones do the steps of a job, not only reply to a question.** Slack AI agents come in four shapes. Slack's own Slackbot is built into paid plans and answers from what each person can see. AI vendors put their assistants into channels: Claude Tag from Anthropic and @ChatGPT from OpenAI. Agent products like Maito, Viktor, Runbear, and Lindy add their own agent with its own tools, memory, and recurring work. Slack Code is the fourth shape: a temporary channel where a coding agent you install works on one task. Slack lets members add agents from the Marketplace, open them in a split view, or add one to a channel and @mention it there. Guests can't use AI apps or agents. [Work with AI agents in Slack](https://slack.com/help/articles/33076000248851-Work-with-AI-agents-in-Slack). ## Want it done for you? We connect Slack, your AI provider, repositories, and tools. Then we go through your team’s recurring work with you, turn the processes Maito should own into skills and Loops, and set up the reports and alerts your channels need. Your team starts with an AI employee that’s already doing useful work. $2,999 one time, on top of your $149 monthly workspace. [Book a setup call](mailto:support@maito.app?subject=Maito%20setup) ## How we picked the best Slack AI agents I've been a developer and founder for 15 years, and I built Maito for companies where business people, operations, and engineers all ask for work in Slack. For this list, I read each product's own help center and pricing page in October 2026 and compared five things: 1. **Who can ask:** paid seats, guest rules, and whether a request in a channel belongs to one person or the team. 2. **What comes back:** an answer, an action in another tool, a recurring report, or a code change. 3. **Context:** what the agent knows the next time someone asks. 4. **Recurring work:** schedules, triggers, and run limits. 5. **Cost:** subscription, seats, and usage, for a team of ten. ## The best AI agents for Slack in 2026 Eight products, each with the job it does best in Slack. Narrow the list by who should ask and what should come back, then give two finalists the same request. ### 1. Maito, best AI employee for business work and code in Slack **Maito is an AI employee your company tags in Slack, emails at its own workspace address, or reaches from Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Codex, Grok, and Muse.** Anyone in an invited channel can ask without a Maito account, and teammates join the thread to add context or take over. [AI employee](/product/ai-employee), [Team collaboration](/product/team-collaboration). It handles research, reports, customer follow-ups, and work in connected tools. For code, it's the agent the whole company shares: support asks for a fix in #support, Maito reproduces the bug, records a video, writes the fix and tests in its own sandbox, opens a pull request with your checks, and drafts the customer reply. Engineers review the pull request as usual. [Maito FAQ](/faq). _Illustrative conversation:_ > **Nadia:** @Maito three customers say the invoice PDF shows last month's tax rate. Ticket #6214. > > **Maito:** Reproduced on staging. The PDF reads the cached rate from the 1st instead of the invoice date. Recording attached. > PR #772 reads the rate for the invoice date and adds a test for a mid-month change. Checks pass. Customer reply drafted below. > > **Omar:** Ship it after Lena reviews. Also add this to the Friday billing report. > > **Maito:** Will do. I added the tax-rate check to the Friday billing Loop. Maito remembers what the company teaches it and saves good methods as skills; private conversations stay private. Loops run recurring work on a schedule, from a webhook, or on request. [Company knowledge](/product/company-knowledge), [Skills](/product/skills). Maito is **$149 per workspace per month**, unlimited people, with **$20 in monthly credits** for coding sandboxes and web search. The AI provider you connect bills model usage. Optional setup is **$2,999 once**. There's no free plan and no SOC 2 report yet. [Maito pricing](/pricing). **Best suited for:** Companies where support, sales, operations, and engineering should all hand work to the same agent in Slack and by email, on the AI provider they choose. ### 2. Slackbot, best for personal AI help built into Slack **Slackbot is Slack's built-in AI assistant, a personal agent that searches what you can see in Slack, summarizes conversations and meetings, drafts documents, and runs research across channels, files, the web, and connected apps.** You open it from the top right of Slack, and it never shows anyone something they don't have permission to view. [How to work with Slackbot](https://slack.com/help/articles/202026038-How-to-work-with-Slackbot). It also runs recurring tasks and saved skills, connects to other apps through MCP, and can bring in agents such as Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor. On Salesforce, it reads and updates records within each person's permissions. [Slackbot](https://www.salesforce.com/slack/slackbot). Slackbot comes with **Business+ at $18 per person per month, or $15 billed annually**, and with Enterprise+. As of October 2026, each Business+ member gets **15 Slackbot messages a week**, and each task runs at most three times a day. Free and Pro plans get a preview that doesn't reset. [Slack pricing](https://slack.com/pricing), [Slackbot limits](https://slack.com/help/articles/53579676130195). **Best suited for:** Teams on Business+ or Enterprise+ that want each person to find answers and draft faster without buying anything else. It's an assistant for one person at a time, not an agent the team hands a job to. ### 3. Claude Tag, best for companies standardized on Claude **Claude Tag is Anthropic's Claude working in Slack channels under its own identity: you tag @Claude, and everyone in the channel works with the same Claude.** It replaced the earlier Claude in Slack app on August 3, 2026, and is in beta on Claude Team and Enterprise. Claude keeps notes for each channel and the whole workspace, ships code as the Claude GitHub App, and sets its own follow-ups. [What is Claude Tag](https://support.claude.com/en/articles/15594475-what-is-claude-tag). A Claude organization Owner and a Slack admin pair the workspace with a code that expires in 15 minutes, then pick channels and a monthly spend limit. Claude then works in your other tools through accounts created for it. [Claude Tag setup](https://claude.com/docs/claude-tag/admins/setup-overview). Team Standard seats cost **$25 a month, or $20 billed annually**. Channel work draws from the organization's usage balance, so people in a channel can ask Claude without a seat of their own. [Claude pricing](https://claude.com/pricing). **Best suited for:** Companies that have chosen Claude, have an Owner ready to give it accounts in company tools, and want spend caps per channel. ### 4. ChatGPT in Slack, best for companies already on ChatGPT Business **@ChatGPT is OpenAI's assistant for Slack channels: it summarizes threads, drafts replies, uses the tools an admin approved, and sends repository work to Codex Cloud.** It's available to ChatGPT Business, Enterprise, and Edu workspaces once an admin sets it up. [ChatGPT in Slack](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/third-party/slack), [OpenAI help center](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/12462158). An admin connects Slack in the OpenAI admin console, picks channels, and adds connections that run under a company service account. At launch, @ChatGPT has no memory and doesn't use anyone's ChatGPT memories. Slack Connect channels aren't supported. [ChatGPT in Slack for admins](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/enterprise/chatgpt-slack-and-teams). ChatGPT Business costs **$25 per user per month, or $20 billed annually**, with a two-user minimum. [ChatGPT pricing](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/pricing). **Best suited for:** Companies whose people already live in ChatGPT and want quick summaries, drafts, and Codex tasks in the channel, in Microsoft Teams too. ### 5. Viktor, best for usage-priced work in Slack and Microsoft Teams **Viktor is an AI employee for Slack and Microsoft Teams that does reports, CRM updates, campaigns, dashboards, and code, with model costs included in its credits.** Its catalog lists 3,200+ integrations. [Viktor product](https://viktor.com/product), [integrations](https://viktor.com/integrations). There's no seat fee. As of October 2026, the Team plan starts at **$50 a month for 20,000 credits** shared by the workspace, and **$100 buys 40,000**. Unused credits roll over for one month. A new workspace starts with up to $100 of free credits and no card. [Viktor pricing](https://viktor.com/pricing). **Best suited for:** Companies that need the same agent in Slack and Teams, or want one bill that already includes the models. ### 6. Runbear, best for a separate named agent per team **Runbear lets a company build named agents, like @Support, @SalesOps, or @HR, that answer and act inside Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Discord.** Each agent has its own instructions and knowledge, connects to 2,000+ tools, and can start from events like a channel keyword, a finished meeting, or a new email. A thread gets a reply only when someone mentions the agent. [Runbear](https://runbear.io/). Pricing is by usage, not seats. As of October 2026, Team is **$99 a month for 20,000 credits and five builders**; Business is **$399 for 100,000 credits**, with bring-your-own model keys, SAML SSO, an audit log, and a SOC 2 Type II report on request. Agents pause when credits run out unless pay-as-you-go is on. [Runbear pricing](https://runbear.io/pricing). **Best suited for:** Operations-minded teams that want no-code department agents answering from their docs and acting in CRM and support tools. ### 7. Lindy, best for personal inbox and meeting help alongside Slack **Lindy is an AI assistant for email, calendar, and meetings that also takes shared requests in Slack.** People hand it follow-ups, reports, and CRM updates, and each person links their own accounts for the workflows that need them. [Lindy](https://www.lindy.ai/), [getting started](https://docs.lindy.ai/start-here/quickstart). As of October 2026, Lindy's Team plan starts at **$29.99 for each active user a month** with 3,000 credits per person. Teammates who join through Slack get seven days before their seat is billed. A free plan starts with $50 in credits for seven days. [Lindy pricing](https://www.lindy.ai/pricing). **Best suited for:** Sales and customer success teams whose day is mostly inboxes, meetings, and follow-ups, and who'll pay per person for that help. ### 8. Slack Code, best for engineers bringing their own coding agent into Slack **Slack Code isn't an agent; it's a temporary Slack channel where a coding agent you install, such as Claude, Devin, or GitHub Copilot, builds one thing with your team.** The channel has tabs for the diff, a canvas, a preview, and files, and anyone in it can redirect the agent or open a pull request. [Slack Code](https://slack.com/help/articles/54310833022355-Build-with-AI-as-a-team-using-Slack-Code). Slack Code comes with every Slack plan at no extra cost. The agent bills separately, and some need each person's own paid account. **Best suited for:** Engineering teams that already pay for a supported coding agent and want its work visible to the team in Slack. ## How do the best Slack AI agents compare side by side? The same eight agents on who can ask, what they do, and what a month costs, as of October 2026. Prices are starting prices before usage. | Product | Who can ask in Slack | Business work | Code changes | Memory | Recurring work | Starting price | | ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------- | ------------------------------- | ------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | | Maito | Anyone in an invited channel; also email and MCP | Yes: Research, reports, follow-ups, tools | Yes: Sandbox, checks, QA, pull request | Yes: Company facts and skills | Yes: Loops: schedule, webhook, ask | $149/workspace, unlimited people, plus provider usage | | Slackbot | Each member, privately | Yes: Search, drafts, deep research, MCP | No: Brings in other agents | Partly: Your own Slack access | Partly: Tasks, three runs a day | Business+ $18/person monthly; 15 messages a week | | Claude Tag | People an admin allows, in enabled channels | Yes: Work in tools Claude has accounts for | Yes: Pull requests via Claude GitHub App | Yes: Per channel and workspace | Yes: Scheduled follow-ups | Claude Team plan, plus channel usage | | ChatGPT in Slack | Enabled channels and DMs | Yes: Summaries, drafts, approved tools | Yes: Hands off to Codex Cloud | No: None at launch | Yes: Team tasks | ChatGPT Business $25/user monthly | | Viktor | The whole workspace, no seats | Yes: Reports, CRM, campaigns, dashboards | Yes: Pull requests after a sign-off | Yes: Personal, company, and skills | Yes: Scheduled jobs | $50/workspace for 20,000 credits | | Runbear | Anyone who mentions a named agent | Yes: Answers and actions per department | No: Not a coding agent | Yes: Per-agent knowledge | Yes: Event triggers | $99/month for 20,000 credits | | Lindy | Active users, seats billed after 7 days | Yes: Inbox, meetings, CRM, reports | Partly: Internal tools | Yes: Personal and team files | Yes: Scheduled and event routines | From $29.99/active user | | Slack Code | Anyone in the code channel | No: Coding channel only | Yes: From the installed agent | No: Lives in the agent | No: From the agent's own product | Free in Slack; agent billed separately | Sources: [Maito pricing](/pricing), [Slackbot](https://slack.com/help/articles/202026038-How-to-work-with-Slackbot), [Slack pricing](https://slack.com/pricing), [Claude Tag](https://support.claude.com/en/articles/15594475-what-is-claude-tag), [ChatGPT in Slack](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/enterprise/chatgpt-slack-and-teams), [Viktor pricing](https://viktor.com/pricing), [Runbear pricing](https://runbear.io/pricing), [Lindy pricing](https://www.lindy.ai/pricing), [Slack Code](https://slack.com/help/articles/54310833022355-Build-with-AI-as-a-team-using-Slack-Code). ## Which Slack AI agent fits your team? Find the team that sounds like yours. The last column is what to try before you pay. | Your team | Start with | Try this first | | ------------------------------------------------------ | ---------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Support, sales, ops, and engineering asking in Slack | Maito | A real customer bug from #support to a pull request and a drafted reply | | Everyone on Business+ who wants faster answers | Slackbot | A week of normal questions, and whether 15 messages covers each person | | A company already paying for Claude Team or Enterprise | Claude Tag | Owner setup, Claude's own tool accounts, and one week of channel usage | | A company already paying for ChatGPT Business | ChatGPT in Slack | A thread summary, a Codex task, and a second request that needs last week's context | | A company split between Slack and Microsoft Teams | Viktor | One recurring report in each, and how many credits it uses | | Department leads who want their own agent | Runbear | One agent built from your help docs, and what happens at the credit limit | | A sales team buried in email and meetings | Lindy | Personal account linking and the seat count once everyone's past the trial | | Engineers who already pay for a coding agent | Slack Code | One small change in a code channel, reviewed by someone outside engineering | ## How can you test Slack AI agents on the same request? **Post one request that needs history, a tool, and a second person: "@agent what did we promise Brightline about the export limit, and is it fixed?" Then have a teammate correct the answer in the thread and ask for the customer reply.** A good Slack AI agent finds the earlier promise without being told where it was, checks the issue tracker or repository, and changes its answer when the teammate corrects it. Next week, ask about Brightline from another channel and see whether the correction stuck. Watch three things: whether the second person's message continues the same work, whether the result is something you'd send, and what the request cost on each bill. ## What would ten people pay for a month of each Slack AI agent? **As of October 2026, for ten people on monthly billing, the starting bills run from nothing extra for Slack Code to $299.90 for Lindy. Maito is $149 for the workspace, plus the AI provider's usage.** - **Maito:** $149 for the workspace with $20 of cloud credits; the AI provider bills models. Optional setup is $2,999 once. [Maito pricing](/pricing). - **Slackbot:** 10 × $18 = $180 for Business+, which buys the whole Slack plan, not only the AI. Each person gets 15 Slackbot messages a week. [Slack pricing](https://slack.com/pricing). - **Claude Tag:** a Claude Team plan, from $25 a seat, plus channel usage. People in a channel ask without a Claude seat of their own. [Claude pricing](https://claude.com/pricing), [Claude Tag spend limits](https://claude.com/docs/claude-tag/admins/set-spend-limit). - **ChatGPT in Slack:** 10 × $25 = $250 for ChatGPT Business. [ChatGPT pricing](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/pricing). - **Viktor:** $50 for 20,000 shared credits, models included, or $100 for 40,000. [Viktor pricing](https://viktor.com/pricing). - **Runbear:** $99 for 20,000 credits on Team, regardless of how many people ask. [Runbear pricing](https://runbear.io/pricing). - **Lindy:** 10 × $29.99 = $299.90, with 3,000 credits for each person. [Lindy pricing](https://www.lindy.ai/pricing). - **Slack Code:** $0 on top of Slack; the coding agent you install bills on its own terms. Seat-priced options grow with every new person: Slackbot, ChatGPT Business, and Lindy. Maito, Claude Tag, Viktor, and Runbear stay the same as more people ask, and their bills grow with the work instead. ## Best Slack AI agents: frequently asked questions ### Does Slack have AI capabilities? Yes. Slackbot is Slack's own AI agent: it searches what you can see, summarizes threads and files, drafts content, and runs recurring tasks. Full use comes with Business+ and Enterprise+; Free and Pro get a preview. [How to work with Slackbot](https://slack.com/help/articles/202026038-How-to-work-with-Slackbot). ### Is Slack AI free? No. As of October 2026, Slackbot comes with Business+ at $18 per person per month, or $15 billed annually, and Business+ members get 15 Slackbot messages a week. [Slackbot limits](https://slack.com/help/articles/53579676130195). ### How do I turn on Slack AI? On Business+ and Enterprise+ there's nothing to turn on: click **Slackbot** at the top right of Slack or at the top of your sidebar. If it's missing, a workspace owner or admin has restricted access and can turn it back on. [How to work with Slackbot](https://slack.com/help/articles/202026038-How-to-work-with-Slackbot). ### How do I invite a bot to my Slack channel? Install the agent from the Slack Marketplace and approve its permissions. Then type `/invite @AgentName` in the channel, or add it from the channel's **Agents & apps** tab, and @mention it to start. Guests can't use AI agents. [Work with AI agents in Slack](https://slack.com/help/articles/33076000248851-Work-with-AI-agents-in-Slack). ### Can ChatGPT integrate with Slack? Yes, on ChatGPT Business, Enterprise, and Edu. An admin connects Slack in the OpenAI admin console, and people mention @ChatGPT in enabled channels for summaries, drafts, and Codex tasks. [ChatGPT in Slack](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/third-party/slack). ### Can I use Claude in Slack? Yes, through Claude Tag on Claude Team or Enterprise plans. A Claude Owner and a Slack admin set it up, and then anyone allowed can tag @Claude in enabled channels. [Claude Tag setup](https://claude.com/docs/claude-tag/admins/setup-overview). ### How do you build a Slack AI agent? Developers build one as a Slack app on Slack's agent surfaces and can connect it to tools through MCP. Without writing code, Runbear lets you build named agents per team. To skip building, connect a ready agent like Maito and invite it to the channels where people ask for work. [Build AI apps for Slack](https://docs.slack.dev/ai/), [Runbear](https://runbear.io/).