Orchid vs Poke · AI personal assistant

The two assistants that live in your texts

Poke and Orchid share the same core belief: the assistant should be a contact in your messages, not another app. Here is where they genuinely differ, from approval loops to pricing.

Text OrchidFacts verified August 21, 2026

The short version

Poke and Orchid share a surface: an assistant that lives in your messages. The difference is the job. Poke centers on channels and custom Recipe automations. Orchid is built as an executive assistant: full inbox triage with drafts held for your approval, meeting prep briefs from your email, calendar, and notes, a morning digest, and follow-ups that happen without you asking. If the point is getting the work handled with your approval on everything that leaves, that is Orchid.

OrchidPoke
Where it lives
Primary surfaceiMessage and SMSiMessage, WhatsApp, Telegram
Free tierIncluded
Proactive messagesIncludedIncluded
Who does the work
Email handlingFull triage, drafts held for your approvalSearch, draft, send, organize labels
Outbound waits for your approval by defaultIncluded
Meeting prep briefsIncluded
Morning digest of what needs youIncluded
Reminders and scheduled tasksIncludedIncluded
Apps and automations
IntegrationsGmail, Google Calendar, Granola, Slack, and more30+ apps
Custom automationsWorkflows you set up by askingPoke Recipes
Pricing modelFlat monthlyFlat, plus pay-as-you-go on Ultra

What each one costs

Poke

  • Free$0
  • Pro$19/mo
  • Ultra$199/mo plus usage

Orchid

From $29.99/mo

Priced around replacing hours of assistant work, not adding another subscription you operate.

Poke pricing verified August 21, 2026 from their pricing page. Poke is a trademark of its respective owner; Orchid is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.

Where Orchid earns it

Replies that sound like you wrote them

Orchid reads what you have already sent and learns your tone: how you write to a client versus a friend. Drafts wait in your voice for a one-tap approval, not generic AI phrasing you have to rewrite.

Walking into every meeting prepped

Before each call, a brief arrives with who you are meeting, what happened last time, and what is still open, pulled from your email, calendar, and meeting notes. You never open a call cold.

A morning that starts sorted

Your day opens with a digest that separates the few things needing a decision from everything already handled, so you act on three items instead of scanning forty.

Follow-through you did not ask for

The thread that went quiet gets chased. The invoice gets nudged. Time-sensitive items like OTPs and payment failures always reach you, while the rest respects your schedule.

“Orchid is a lifesaver. I don't need to prep for meetings any more - Orchid handles it all for me!”

Dan Goosewin · Founder, CEO, Goosewin Media Group · Read the case study

What switching looks like

  1. 1

    Text Orchid

    Say hi from your phone. That thread is the whole product, so there is nothing to install or learn.

  2. 2

    Connect your Google account

    Orchid starts reading your inbox and calendar and learning how you write. This takes minutes, not a migration project.

  3. 3

    Keep Poke as long as you like

    Orchid works alongside whatever you use today. Most people notice they simply open Poke less each week.

Same surface, different job

Poke and Orchid both live in your messages: no new app, no dashboard, an assistant as a contact in your texts. If you are choosing between them, you have already made the important decision.

From there the products diverge. Poke is organized around channels and automations: iMessage, WhatsApp, and Telegram, thirty-plus integrations, and Recipes for building your own flows, with a free tier and pay-as-you-go usage on its top plan.

Orchid is organized around one job: being your executive assistant. Every draft waits for your approval. Meeting prep briefs arrive before the call with context from your email, calendar, and notes. Your morning starts with a digest that separates the things that need you from everything that does not. Follow-ups happen on threads you forgot about, without you asking.

Where Orchid is different

The approval loop is the core: nothing leaves without you, which matters once an assistant touches real correspondence. The context runs deeper: briefs before meetings, judgment about what deserves your attention, and follow-through that starts on its own. Orchid is priced and built like help you hire, not an app you try.

If the goal is handing over the work around your work, that is the job Orchid was built for.

Orchid vs Poke, answered

Depth on the executive assistant job. Both live in your messages and both are proactive. Orchid holds every draft for your approval, briefs you before meetings with context from email, calendar, and notes, and opens your day with a digest of what actually needs you. Poke leans toward breadth: more channels, a free tier, and custom Recipe automations.

Poke has a free tier, Pro at $19 per month, and Ultra at $199 per month with pay-as-you-go usage beyond its credits. Orchid starts at $29.99 per month, flat. Poke is priced to explore; Orchid is priced around replacing hours of assistant work.

Yes. Poke works through Apple Messages, WhatsApp, and Telegram. Orchid works through iMessage and SMS. Neither requires installing an app.

Cognition acquired The Interaction Company, Poke's maker, in mid 2026, and said Poke continues operating for its users. Its team reported over 100 million messages exchanged in the three months before the acquisition.

Orchid never does: every draft waits for your approval by design, so nothing leaves in your name without you seeing it. Poke's site describes searching, drafting, sending, and organizing email; an approval-first default is not something it advertises, so check its settings before connecting a real inbox.

Stop operating your inbox.

Get Started