← All thirteen capabilities

Capability 08

Something that runs on a schedule.

Exact name Scheduled trigger

Step 04 · Let it work
01

What it is.

A request you set up once, which the tool then runs on its own at the times you choose: every morning, every Monday, the first of the month.

02

What your tool calls it.

Your tool · ChatGPT Scheduled tasks
  • Scheduled tasks: Requests you set up once that ChatGPT then runs later or on a repeating schedule, without you present.
Your tool · Claude scheduled tasks scheduled tasks (formerly routines)
  • scheduled tasks: Repeating or on-demand tasks you set up in Cowork. In the cloud version they run with no device online.
Your tool · Gemini Schedulesrolling out schedules (for tasks)some regions Schedules — not "Scheduled actions"
  • Schedules: Gemini runs a prompt on a daily, weekly or monthly schedule and prepares the result before the delivery time. Up to 10 schedules can be active at once.
  • schedules (for tasks): A trigger that starts a task at a set time or when an event happens, such as a flight delay, without you present.
Your tool · Microsoft Copilot Scheduled Prompts Scheduled Prompts — paid licence
  • Scheduled Prompts: Saves a Copilot prompt to run automatically at a set time and frequency. Results appear in your Copilot chats. Up to 10 per user.
Your tool · Perplexity Scheduled Tasks in Computer Scheduled Tasks (in Computer)
  • Scheduled Tasks in Computer: Repeating jobs that Computer runs in the background on a schedule you set, as often as every 15 minutes. Each run uses credits.

Also at Perplexity: Perplexity TasksAutomations

Your tool · Grok Automations Automations · routines (Grok Bot)
  • Automations: Grok runs a prompt for you on a schedule (once, daily, weekly and so on), or when an email arrives, on grok.com and in the Grok apps.

Also at Grok: skills and routines (Grok Bot)previewscheduled promptspreview

Your tool · Meta AI and Muse scheduled tasks daily briefingrolling out scheduled tasks (Muse) · daily briefing (Meta AI, rolling out)
  • scheduled tasks: Muse runs recurring tasks on a schedule, such as daily check-ins or weekly summaries, and sends one-time, recurring or location-based reminders as messages in the Muse chat.
  • daily briefing: Meta AI prepares a summary from the user's calendar and chosen topics at a set time. Other tasks set up once, such as a weekly meal plan, keep being delivered.
Your tool · Mistral Vibe Scheduled taskspreview Scheduled tasks (preview)
  • Scheduled tasks: Runs a saved prompt automatically at a set time, once or on a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly cadence, then notifies you with the result.
Pick your tool to see its answer first:
The other seven

Every tool on this map has one. Five call it scheduled tasks; the other three each use a word of their own.

03

Why it matters.

Our view: it's the first step from "I asked it" to "it happens". It's also the first time the tool works when you're not watching, so it's worth deciding up front what should happen when a run fails, and who finds out.

04

Words that trip people up.

  • Task. Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Meta's Muse and Mistral call these "scheduled tasks". But Gemini's "Task" is something else entirely: an agent that works through a job. More on "task" →
  • Schedule. Gemini's Schedules are for chats; its tasks have schedules of their own, and Google says the two are different. More on "schedule" →
  • Routine. Claude's scheduled tasks used to be called routines, and the old name still appears. At Grok, routines are a Grok Bot feature, separate from Automations. More on "routine" →
  • Paid licence. Microsoft's Scheduled Prompts need the paid Microsoft 365 Copilot licence.
  • Gemini's old name was "Scheduled actions"; Google's help page now says Schedules.
05

Close to this, but not it.

Gemini Workspace Studio Not a match: Users build agents as fixed "flows" that start from a trigger. No page read confirms a timer-based trigger, or that it plans an open-ended job by itself.
08

What this step asks of you.

Step 04 · Let it work

It asks before anything public or destructive. It works only in a space you've defined. It keeps a record of what it changed, file by file.

Learn

Where we teach it.

Set it to run without you: you set a recurring task to run on a schedule, and say what happens when it fails, who finds out, and what breaks it. It's in the longer class, along with Triage the queue.

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