Personal assistants · AI agent
OpenHuman: review, pricing, security and alternatives
OpenHuman is an open-source AI agent published by Tiny Humans, in the personal assistants family. OpenHuman runs personal agents through a desktop application and provides a Rust core for embedding agents in software. Its repository has 42,299 stars and its last commit is from October 24, 2026.
What OpenHuman does
OpenHuman belongs to the personal assistants family: general-purpose agents, often self-hosted and driven from a messaging app, that act for you on your files, accounts and services. On our grid it ranks #7 of the 46 projects of this family listed in the directory.
You use it from: desktop app and developer SDK. It can run on your own machine or server.
Who is OpenHuman for?
It targets individuals and freelancers who want an assistant able to act for them day to day, often from a messaging app. Typical tasks people give it:
- sort e-mail and draft replies
- manage a calendar and reminders
- look up information and summarise it
- run small recurring tasks
It is a good candidate if your data must stay on your machines.
Access and human control
According to its documentation, OpenHuman can:
- drive a web browser
- control the screen, keyboard and mouse
We could not establish whether it asks for human approval before sensitive actions: test it first on an unimportant account or folder.
OpenHuman pricing
The code is free, under the GPL-3.0 licence.
Getting started with OpenHuman
- Install it: the project ships as a compiled Rust binary (direct download or
cargo install). The exact command is in the repository README. - Create an API key with the model provider and put it in an environment variable, never in a shared or versioned file.
- Give it a first playground with nothing at stake: a test folder, a secondary account or a throwaway project. Only open your real accounts once you have seen how it behaves.
- Give it a short, checkable task, review the result and its action log, then raise the difficulty step by step.
Security: risk level
A personal assistant often combines access to private data, reading outside content and sending messages: the combination that enables data leaks through prompt injection.
Points found for OpenHuman:
- Sensitive access: it can control the screen, keyboard and mouse, with no established default human approval.
- Outside content: it reads web pages or API responses, which may contain booby-trapped instructions (prompt injection).
Three habits: least privilege (minimal rights, dedicated keys), human approval for irreversible actions, a sandbox for code execution. The AI agent security check reviews your setup in a few minutes.
Project activity and releases
Created on February 18, 2026, the tinyhumansai/openhuman repository has 42,299 stars, 4,177 forks and 277 open issues, with 53,350 commits in total. It received changes this month.
Over the last 52 weeks: 66,728 commits, an average of 1,283.2 per week.
63 releases in total; 30 in the last twelve months. Latest release: v0.64.15, on October 9, 2026.
OpenHuman vs other personal assistants
GitHub stars of the best-rated open-source projects in the personal assistants family. Stars measure attention, not quality: a heavily promoted project collects them fast, a specialised tool will have few.
OpenHuman and other personal assistants at a glance
The 7 best-ranked agents in the same family, 7 of them open source. The score out of 100 only applies to open-source projects; for proprietary services we show the published entry price. A dash marks information the documentation does not state.
| Agent | Model | Score | Stars or entry price | Self-hostable | Human approval |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenHuman | open source | 82 | 42.3K ★ | yes | – |
| OpenClaw | open source | 95 | 392.9K ★ | yes | – |
| Hermes Agent | open source | 90 | 256.7K ★ | yes | – |
| nanobot | open source | 87 | 49.3K ★ | yes | – |
| CowAgent | open source | 87 | 47.6K ★ | yes | – |
| QwenPaw | open source | 86 | 36K ★ | yes | – |
| ZeroClaw | open source | 85 | 33K ★ | yes | – |
| NanoClaw | open source | 80 | 31K ★ | yes | – |
How we rated it
Score: 82/100, computed only from public, verifiable data, with no subjective testing or partnership:
- Adoption 32/40: 42,299 stars on a log scale (40 points from about 200,000).
- Activity 30/30: last commit less than a month ago, 30 releases in six months, 66,728 commits in a year.
- Framework 20/30: licence, default human approval, self-hosting, model choice and documentation site.
The score does not say whether the agent will succeed at your tasks: it measures how solid the project is. The full grid is on the method page.
Verdict
OpenHuman is one of the most solid projects in its family: followed, active and well framed.
Strengths
- Widely followed: 42.3K stars
- Very active development
- Frequent releases (30 in a year)
- Can run on your side: data under control
Limitations
- Broad access without default approval
Avoid if…
- You cannot isolate it (container, virtual machine)
Alternatives
Learn more
Frequently asked questions
Is OpenHuman free?
The software is free (GPL-3.0 licence). You still pay for the model calls, unless you use a local model.
Is OpenHuman safe?
Our risk level: high. Points found: sensitive access and outside content. Give it minimum rights and approve irreversible actions.
Which models does OpenHuman use?
Its documentation does not specify the supported models.
Can OpenHuman be installed on your own server?
Yes, from the tinyhumansai/openhuman repository. Data then stays with you, but security and updates are your job.
What are the alternatives to OpenHuman?
In the same family: OpenClaw, Hermes Agent, nanobot, and CowAgent.
OpenHuman or OpenClaw: what is the difference?
Both belong to the personal assistants family. OpenHuman has 42.3K stars against 392.9K for OpenClaw. The right choice mostly depends on the access you are willing to give it.
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Neutrality. No affiliate links. No vendor pays to be reviewed, rated or ranked. Reviews are directed by François Chollet, neutral and factual, and every data point is dated and sourced. How we score