Martin and Drift are both personal assistants for the same three things, which are your inbox, your calendar, and your to-do list. Because the jobs overlap so much, the difference between them is mostly in how far each one reaches outside your accounts and in what each one checks with you before it acts.
Where Martin is genuinely better. Reaching other people by phone. Martin can text and call other people on your behalf to do things like book a reservation, and it has its own iOS app with a voice mode. Drift does not make phone calls, and it runs in the browser, in the Mac and Windows apps, and over iMessage. If you want an assistant that will phone a restaurant for you, Martin is built for that and Drift is not.
Where Drift differs. Drift publishes exactly which actions stop for your approval and which do not, and the rule lives in the runtime instead of in a preference. Sending, replying to, or forwarding an email always shows every recipient and the full body first, while saving a draft, creating a task, or writing a Notion page runs without interrupting you. Drift also has a free plan with no credit card, so you can find out whether it fits your day before you pay for it.
What it is — Drift: A personal agent for Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Tasks, and Notion. Martin: A personal AI assistant for your inbox, calendar, and to-do list.
Acts on your email — Drift: Yes: reads, searches twelve months of history, drafts, and sends after you approve. Martin: Yes. It reads your email and drafts replies.
Asks before sending email — Drift: Yes. The card shows every recipient and the full body before it sends. Martin: No guaranteed check. A 2026 review found no setting that makes it ask before its background tasks send email.
Rebuilds your calendar automatically — Drift: No. Drift books and moves events you ask it to. It has no auto-scheduling engine. Martin: No auto-scheduling engine. It books and moves events you ask it to.
How you drive it — Drift: Plain language. There is no syntax and no board to maintain. Martin: Plain language, by text, by email, or in its own app.
Setup before it is useful — Drift: Connect an account and ask a question. Martin: Light. You connect your email and calendar accounts first.
Price — Drift: Free forever tier. Flow $8/month, or $6.40/month billed yearly; Horizon $60/month, or $48/month billed yearly. Martin: No free plan, only a seven-day trial. As of November 2026, Basic is $21 a month and Pro is $30 a month, billed yearly.
Choose Martin if you want an assistant that will also call and text other people for you. Choose Drift if you want a published approval rule and a free plan to start on.