What changed across the major AI tools in the past few weeks — new features, renames, and the things that got removed or moved behind a paywall. Verified monthly. Entries are "new" for one month from the verified date; anything older drops off this list and isn't labeled new.
66 changes · Last updated October 4, 2026
Recent
Effective September 28, 2026
A rebuilt agent system with lower task cost, plus Automations, Video Editor, Game Dev and Remote Control. Manus also launched Cue, a separate invite-only app for personal agents.
Effective September 28, 2026
The desktop app is now Manus Studio, a workspace for editing docs, slides, sites, code, games and video alongside the agent.
Effective September 28, 2026
Tasks can now start when something happens in a connected service, such as a new email, calendar event, Slack message or Notion update, not only on a schedule. Advanced automations are in beta.
Effective September 29, 2026
Connect an API key from OpenRouter, Fireworks or Modal and choose the model and reasoning effort. The provider bills inference; Manus credits still apply for tools and infrastructure.
Effective September 8, 2026
A personal agent that browses, books, fills forms and pays on your behalf from a private cloud machine, with approval before sensitive actions. Free tier plus Power ($20) and Maximum ($100) plans.
Effective September 29, 2026
Meta now describes Muse as available in the US and Canada for adults. Launch materials named the US only.
Effective September 23, 2026
With permission, the Mac app can operate desktop apps and keep working after you step away. Voice mode, a Muse email address and glasses support were announced but not yet broadly available.
Effective September 29, 2026
Adds connectors including Asana, Box, Canva, Dropbox, Figma, Notion, QuickBooks, Shopify, Slack, Stripe and Zoom, plus Facebook and Instagram business accounts.
Effective September 23, 2026
Voice conversations can use the plugins connected to your account, including on Free and Go. Work tasks can also be started and steered by voice, and unfinished tasks continue in text; voice in Work requires Work access.
Effective September 22, 2026
ChatGPT can turn a topic or uploaded notes into flip cards that are saved to your Library. Available on all plans, including Free.
Effective September 22, 2026
In Microsoft 365 Copilot, users describe the outcome they want and Cowork gathers context from email, meetings, chats, and files, works across tools, and completes multi-step actions with the user's approval. Usage is billed in Copilot credits.
Effective September 22, 2026
Microsoft 365 Copilot can pull real-time data from third-party sources through connectors that don't store or index that data in Microsoft services. Admins control access, and the connectors work in Researcher, Copilot Chat, and when editing with Copilot in Excel.
Effective September 22, 2026
Microsoft 365 Copilot can analyze a shared desktop screen, and on mobile it can use the live camera during a voice session, answering aloud with context from work and web data.
Effective September 21, 2026
Plus and Pro users in the U.S. can connect their Experian credit report and score to ChatGPT's Finances feature for insights and monitoring. This is separate from linking bank accounts.
Effective September 17, 2026
A Word sidebar for drafting, summarizing, revising, and formatting documents, joining Excel and PowerPoint in one Microsoft add-in. Available on all plans, including Free.
Effective September 17, 2026
Users can connect more than one account to plugins beyond Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts, so personal and work accounts can be used in the same conversation. Available on all plans.
Effective September 16, 2026
Claude can take on larger tasks like reports, spreadsheets, and presentations from any conversation without choosing a mode first, and existing chats, tasks, projects, connectors, and skills carry over. Rolling out gradually to Pro and Max on web, desktop, and mobile.
Effective September 16, 2026
Users can create designs, slide decks, and shareable documents in any conversation and edit them directly. Available on every plan, including Free. On Enterprise, these are in beta and off until an owner turns them on.
Effective September 15, 2026
A beta plugin brings Salesforce pipeline data into Claude along with pre-built sales skills. Requires a paid plan and a Salesforce-approved organization.
Effective September 21, 2026
Eligible non-paying accounts in the US get included turns to try Computer on the web before adding credits.
Effective September 21, 2026
Computer can run entirely on Windows or Linux PCs with NVIDIA RTX GPUs and at least 24 GB of VRAM, in addition to DGX Spark. Available to Pro and Max; local work doesn't use credits, and cloud steps require approval.
Effective September 21, 2026
Users can ask questions about a running Computer task in a separate, read-only side chat without changing the main task.
Effective September 21, 2026
Pro, Max, Enterprise Pro, and Enterprise Max users can search SharePoint and OneDrive files and read Excel workbooks from Ask on desktop web by mentioning @Microsoft 365. Requires a work or school account; personal Outlook and Live accounts aren't supported.
Effective September 21, 2026
A public catalog of reusable Computer skills that anyone can browse without signing in. Enterprise teams can install and share skills across their organization, with admin controls over creation and install approvals.
Effective September 17, 2026
A four-step slider, from Light to Ultra, sets how much effort Computer puts into a task, and Perplexity picks the model and reasoning level. Lower settings use fewer credits. Custom model selection remains available. On the web for personal accounts, with mobile and desktop to follow.
Effective September 14, 2026
Portable Computer, the local version of Computer, runs its model, orchestrator, and scheduler entirely on Windows PCs with NVIDIA GeForce RTX or RTX PRO GPUs and at least 24 GB of VRAM. Available to Pro and Max on individual and enterprise plans. Local work doesn't use credits, and sending anything to the cloud requires permission.
Effective September 1, 2026
Computer can split a task between the cloud and a local model on the user's Mac. An on-device privacy gate can mask sensitive details, keep them local, or ask before anything leaves the machine. Tasks can be started from an iPhone. Available to Pro, Max, and Enterprise on Apple silicon Macs with macOS 15 or later and at least 24 GB of unified memory; Enterprise admins can set rules and audit what leaves devices.
Effective August 25, 2026
A local version of Computer runs its orchestrator, models, and tools on NVIDIA DGX Spark. Launched for Pro and Max on Linux; work done on the device doesn't use credits, and cloud steps require approval.
Effective September 11, 2026
OpenAI plans to retire custom GPTs and migrate them to plugins. Existing GPTs keep working until retirement dates that vary by plan.
Effective September 10, 2026
A desktop app for Windows 10 and 11 opens Gemini over any window with Alt + Space, connects to Google apps like Gmail and Drive, and can work with local files once access is enabled. The app is free, though some features require a paid Google AI plan.
Effective September 10, 2026
Enterprise admins get reports on team usage, cost, and friction points, along with workflows that could become skills. In beta on Enterprise plans.
Effective September 9, 2026
OpenAI restated daily Voice limits for each plan, with higher caps on paid tiers. Plus and Pro users no longer switch to a smaller model after reaching their Voice limit.
Effective August 25, 2026
Free accounts can run up to three active tasks, set to run once or no more than once a day. Event-triggered tasks remain on Plus and Pro.
Effective August 25, 2026
Tasks can fire when something happens in Gmail, Slack, or GitHub, and tasks can be shared with others. Event triggers require Plus or Pro, including inside Work.
Effective August 25, 2026
Work's browser can finish tasks on sites after you sign in, and sign-in sessions may carry over between tasks. Available on Plus and Pro.
Effective August 25, 2026
Claude's memory is shared between regular chats and agentic work, which was a separate Cowork app until it merged into chat in September. Remembered topics can be viewed and edited, and sensitive topics are saved only if you opt in. On by default for Free, Pro, and Max; off by default for Team and Enterprise.
OpenAI's Atlas browser stopped working on August 9, 2026; browser-based agentic features moved into the ChatGPT desktop app and a new Chrome extension.
ChatGPT's text-to-video feature, including the Sora web app and mobile app, was discontinued April 26, 2026; ChatGPT no longer generates video.
ChatGPT's free tier began showing ads in the US in February 2026.
Effective August 18, 2026
The August 2026 Copilot app merger removed Deep Research for consumers; a replacement called Researcher is available only to paid Microsoft 365 Premium subscribers.
Microsoft combined the consumer Copilot and Microsoft 365 Copilot apps into a single unified app (web and mobile from mid-August 2026, desktop in September), retiring several consumer features including Group Chats, AI podcasts, Copilot Labs, and the Mico character.
DeepSeek now appears across the thesaurus: a free, text-and-code assistant with a DeepThink reasoning mode and open-weight models, but no image or video generation, memory, voice, connectors, or enterprise admin controls.
Model weights are published under an open licence, so organizations can self-host the same model instead of calling a vendor API.
The reasoning mode carries no separate plan or message quota in the consumer app; paid pricing applies only to the developer API.
DeepSeek's free app refreshed to its 2026 models, bringing a 1-million-token context window and stronger coding and reasoning at no cost.
Kimi (Moonshot AI) now appears across the thesaurus: a free assistant with open-weight models, a cited research agent, and an agent mode that builds small apps and decks — but no image or video generation, memory, voice, connectors, or enterprise admin controls.
Moonshot publishes Kimi's model weights under an open licence, so organizations can self-host the same model rather than calling a vendor API.
A desktop app (Mac and Windows) that runs multi-step tasks on your computer — researching, building slides, and operating your browser to extract data and fill forms.
Kimi's 2026 flagship model brought a 1-million-token context window, extending its long-document strength.
Effective September 21, 2026
xAI rolled a new frontier model into the Grok app with no waitlist, pitched as an upgrade at the same price and speed.
Effective September 1, 2026
The animated 3D Companion avatars and their dedicated tab were retired starting September 1; the personalities and chat history remain usable in normal Grok chat.
Effective September 3, 2026
The Grok Bot agent app arrived on Android, and an Enterprise version opened with a two-week free period for existing Grok and Cursor enterprise customers; post-trial pricing wasn't published.
Effective August 26, 2026
Grok Bot, which launched gated to $120–$300 plans, is now included with base SuperGrok ($30) and Cursor Pro ($20), with its own weekly usage separate from regular Grok usage.
Effective August 11, 2026
xAI launched Grok Bot in beta: named AI agents that each work on a persistent cloud computer, sign into your apps, and keep working while your device is off.
Effective August 19, 2026
Grok's in-chat app builder, launched in July for the $300 Heavy tier only, is now available on every plan.
Effective July 31, 2026
A new plan between SuperGrok ($30) and SuperGrok Heavy ($300) adds 1080p video, significantly higher usage across chat, Imagine, voice, and Build, faster replies, priority access at peak times, and early access to new features.
Perplexity's AI-native browser dropped its $200/month paywall and became free worldwide in October 2025.
Creating Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and PDF files opened to all users including the free tier in February 2026.
Generating Docs, Sheets, Slides, and PDFs directly in chat became available to all users globally in late April 2026.
Creating custom Gems became free rather than a paid-tier feature.
Copilot gained generally-available agentic mode inside Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in April 2026.
Claude doubled its five-hour session limits on Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans and removed the earlier peak-hours reduction for Pro and Max, effective May 2026.
Gemini replaced flat daily prompt caps with compute-based limits that refresh every five hours under a weekly ceiling, effective May 2026. Some users reported lower effective usage on certain tiers after the change.
OpenAI added ChatGPT Go, a budget plan priced around $5–8/month depending on region — the first sub-$20 tier from a major provider.
Claude added the ability to orchestrate multiple agents working together on one task, introduced around the Opus 4.6 update in early 2026.
Microsoft 365 Copilot's $18/user/month promotional price ended in June 2026; enterprise pricing is now $30/user/month. (Business pricing, not a consumer plan.)