goose vs OpenClaw
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
OpenClaw
Open-source personal AI agent you run yourself and message in chat
Free
Where they differ
- goose is free. OpenClaw is free.
- Only OpenClaw lists a web app.
- Only OpenClaw lists iOS and Android apps.
- OpenClaw is self-hostable, according to its own site.
- OpenClaw also covers chat assistant.
In commonFree planmacOSWindowsLinuxOpen sourceLocal-firstWorkflow automationAI agents
At a glance
| goose | OpenClaw | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| Starts at | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Goose is free and open source under the Apache 2.0 license, with no paid plan. Model usage is billed by the provider you connect, unless you run a local model or use a provider's free tier. | The whole product is free and MIT licensed, with no paid version or hosted tier. You supply the machine it runs on and your own model access, which the model provider bills separately. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| Linux | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF) | OpenClaw Foundation |
| Price read from | goose-docs.ai | openclaw.ai |
| Checked | Oct 9, 2026 | Oct 5, 2026 |
Who each one suits
goose
- Developers who want a local agent for coding and terminal work
- People who want to reuse a Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini subscription they already pay for
- Teams that share repeatable workflows as recipes
OpenClaw
- Developers and power users who want an assistant on their own hardware
- Reaching one agent from WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack or iMessage
- Teams sharing a single gateway with sessions everyone can open
Worth knowing
goose
- goose is free, but hosted models are billed by the provider you connect, and the docs note that not every provider has a free tier.
- It runs on your own machine: there are desktop apps for macOS, Linux and Windows and a CLI, and the site lists no hosted cloud version.
- The docs say goose relies heavily on tool calling and currently works best with Claude 4 models.
- The project left Block for the Agentic AI Foundation in April 2026; its repository moved from block/goose to aaif-goose/goose.
OpenClaw
- There is no hosted service: you install, run and update the Gateway yourself on a computer or server.
- The software is free, but model usage is billed by whichever provider you connect, through an API key or an existing subscription.
- The iOS and Android apps are companion nodes and need a Gateway running on another machine.
- The macOS desktop app requires macOS 15 or later, and the Linux desktop app is x64 only.
Key features
goose
- Desktop app, CLI and API
- The same agent runs in a native desktop app, a terminal CLI and an API for embedding. The desktop app and CLI share provider, model and extension settings.
- MCP extensions
- More than 70 documented extensions connect goose to databases, APIs, browsers, GitHub, Google Drive and other tools through the Model Context Protocol, and you can build your own.
- Providers and existing subscriptions
- Works with 15+ providers, including Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Ollama, OpenRouter, Azure and Bedrock, or with a Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini subscription you already have, through ACP.
- Built-in local inference
- The desktop app can download a GGUF model from Hugging Face and run it in-process with llama.cpp, with no API key and no separate model server.
- Recipes
- Workflows are saved as portable YAML recipes holding instructions, extensions, parameters and subrecipes, then shared with a team or run in CI.
- Subagents and safety controls
- Subagents handle parallel tasks outside the main conversation. Safeguards include prompt injection detection, tool permission controls, a sandbox mode and an adversary reviewer.
OpenClaw
- Self-hosted Gateway
- One Gateway process on your own machine or server handles sessions, routing and channel connections. Desktop apps for macOS, Windows and Linux install it for you.
- Chat channels
- Message the agent from WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Slack, Signal, iMessage and other channels, 29 in all, in direct messages and group chats.
- Bring your own model
- Works with hosted providers such as Anthropic, OpenAI and Google, with gateways such as OpenRouter, and with local models through Ollama or LM Studio.
- Persistent memory
- Remembers preferences, projects and people from one conversation to the next, with state stored on your machine rather than in a vendor cloud.
- System access and sandboxing
- Can browse the web, fill in forms, read and write files and run shell commands, with a choice between full access and a sandbox.
- Skills, plugins and automation
- Skills and plugins extend the agent, and it can write its own skills. Cron jobs, hooks and webhooks run work on a schedule or in response to events.
Plans
goose
goose (Apache 2.0)Free
The full desktop app, CLI and API. You bring a model provider, an existing AI subscription or a local model.
OpenClaw
OpenClaw (MIT licensed)Free
The complete product: Gateway, desktop and mobile apps, chat channels and plugins. Model usage is billed separately by the provider you connect.
