Astor vs. Public: AI investing tools compared

What AI does Public offer?

Public calls itself an agentic brokerage. Brokerage accounts are provided by Open to the Public Investing, Inc., a FINRA and SIPC member, and you can trade stocks, ETFs, options, bonds and crypto in the same app. Its AI comes in three parts.

Alpha

Alpha is what Public describes as an experimental AI research tool. You open it from your portfolio page or any asset page and ask questions, and Public says it’s available to all Public investors at no charge. Public is clear that Alpha’s output shouldn’t be read as investment research or recommendations, and that it can give inaccurate answers.

Agents

Agents are the newer and bigger idea. You describe a task in plain language, Public’s AI proposes a workflow, and you refine it. Agents can monitor markets, execute trades and manage cash, across stocks, options and crypto. Public launched them to select members on March 31, 2026, and its September 2026 app update said they’re now available to everyone, in the app and on the web.

The control model matters here. Public says every Agent needs your explicit sign-off before it starts running, and that you can pause, edit or shut it down at any time. Once it’s running, though, it can execute as soon as your criteria are met, without asking about each trade. Public keeps a log of every action an Agent takes.

Generated Assets

Generated Assets turns a prompt into a custom index. AI agents screen stocks against your criteria, and you can backtest the result before deciding whether to invest. If you do invest, advisory services come from Public Advisors LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser affiliated with Public, for an annual management fee of 0.49%, with a $1,000 minimum to open.

How is Astor different?

Astor isn’t a brokerage, and it doesn’t hold your money. It’s a personal investing agent that connects to the accounts you already have, at most major US institutions like Robinhood, Schwab and Coinbase, through Plaid. It can see your holdings but can’t move money.

From there, it watches. Astor follows every position you own and the earnings dates, filings and headlines that touch them, plus themes you care about. When something crosses a line you care about, it texts you what happened, why it matters to you and what you could do, and it stays quiet when nothing matters. You can reply in iMessage, ask about your actual holdings, and set scheduled alerts.

With Text to Trade, launching in October 2026, you describe an idea in a sentence, Astor asks a few questions to sharpen it, proposes a basket of companies, explains why each one made the cut, and sizes it against what you already own and the budget you set. You review and approve every trade, and the order executes in your own Robinhood agentic account. The agent can only use the money you set aside for it.

Seeing everything you own matters more than it sounds. A new position that looks diversified inside one brokerage account might double up on something you already hold in a 401(k) or at another broker.

How do Astor and Public compare?

Which is cheaper?

They charge for different things, so it depends on how you’d use them. Public’s core account is free, and Public says stock and ETF trades placed online in regular trading hours have $0 commissions, though other fees, such as regulatory and wire fees, can apply. Alpha is free. Public Reserve, an optional membership with a higher cash rate and deposit matches, is $20 a month. Generated Assets accounts cost 0.49% a year on what you invest.

Astor is free to start with no card, and the free plan includes one custom alert. Pro is $19 a month or $10 a month billed yearly, and Max is $29 a month or $19 a month billed yearly. It’s a flat subscription, never a percentage of your assets, and you keep your money wherever it already is. See what an AI financial advisor costs for how these models compare more broadly.

Is Public’s AI investment advice?

Public has an affiliated registered adviser, Public Advisors LLC, which provides advisory services for accounts like Generated Assets. But Public is careful about how it labels the AI itself. It says outputs from its Agentic Brokerage are provided for informational and illustrative purposes only, that you’re solely responsible for deciding whether a strategy suits you, and that Alpha’s output isn’t investment research or a recommendation. Generated Assets output, Public says, shouldn’t be considered individualized investment advice.

Astor works the other way. Gaus, Inc. DBA Astor is an SEC-registered investment adviser, so its recommendations are personalized investment advice and it owes clients a fiduciary duty. That doesn’t make the AI infallible, and registration isn’t an SEC endorsement. It does mean a regulated firm stands behind what the AI tells you. Our guide to SEC-registered AI investment advisers explains the difference and how to check any app.

When is Public the better choice?

We’d point you to Public if:

• You want one app to hold your money, trade and automate, rather than a layer on top of other accounts.
• You want AI agents that act on your rules without asking about each trade.
• You trade options, bonds or crypto and want them in the same place.
• You want to turn a theme into an index you can invest in directly, which is what Generated Assets does.
• You use Android or prefer the web. Astor is iPhone and iMessage only.

Why Astor

Astor is the better fit if you already invest in more than one place and don’t want to move everything to get help. It reads what you own across your accounts, so its alerts and suggestions start from everything you’ve connected rather than the slice that sits at one broker.

It’s also built around you making the decisions. Astor does the research and the watching, texts you what happened and why it matters to you, and links every alert to its reasoning and sources. When you want to act on an idea, Text to Trade proposes and sizes it, and nothing is bought until you approve each trade. Behind it is an SEC-registered investment adviser that owes you a fiduciary duty, and you pay a flat price for it.

The honest limits are that Astor is iPhone and iMessage only, US only, and Text to Trade works only through a Robinhood agentic account. It doesn’t hold your money or run a managed portfolio. The AI can be wrong, which is why it shows its sources and you make the call. For more options, see the best AI investing apps and AI investing apps that work with your brokerage.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Public: Home page and disclosures, accessed Oct 12, 2026
2. Public: AI Agents, accessed Oct 12, 2026
3. PR Newswire: Public Becomes the First Brokerage To Introduce AI Agents for Your Portfolio (March 31, 2026), accessed Oct 12, 2026
4. Apple App Store: Public: Invest & Trade, version history, accessed Oct 12, 2026
5. Google Play: Public, accessed Oct 12, 2026
6. Public Help Center: What is Alpha?, accessed Oct 12, 2026
7. Public Help Center: What is Generated Assets?, accessed Oct 12, 2026
8. Public Help Center: What are the fees and minimums for Generated Assets?, accessed Oct 12, 2026
9. Public Help Center: Are there fees to trade OTC stocks on Public?, accessed Oct 12, 2026
10. Public: Invest in stocks, accessed Oct 12, 2026
11. Public: Reserve, accessed Oct 12, 2026
12. FINRA BrokerCheck: Open to the Public Investing, Inc. (CRD #127818), accessed Oct 12, 2026
13. SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure: Public Advisors LLC (CRD #318234), accessed Oct 12, 2026
14. SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure: Astor (CRD #338424), accessed Oct 12, 2026