Motion vs Reclaim AI: Which AI Calendar Tool Is Right for You? (2026)
Motion and Reclaim AI solve scheduling very differently. Compare automation, flexibility, pricing, strengths, and where both fall short.
Motion and Reclaim AI represent two different philosophies for solving the same problem: too many tasks, not enough time, and calendars that don’t reflect what you actually need to accomplish.
If you’re comparing these two AI calendar tools, you’re probably drowning in meetings, struggling to find focus time, and tired of manually shuffling tasks around your calendar every time something changes. You want AI to help—but Motion and Reclaim approach this challenge very differently.
Motion takes an opinionated, all-in-one approach: it automatically schedules everything and expects you to trust its decisions. Reclaim focuses on flexibility: it defends time for your priorities while keeping your schedule open for collaboration.
This comparison breaks down exactly how each tool works, what they cost, where each excels, and—most importantly—where both fall short. We’ll also introduce a third option that solves the capacity gap both tools miss: rivva, which schedules work based not just on when you’re available, but when you’re actually capable of doing your best work.
Quick Comparison Table
Motion Overview: Opinionated AI Automation
What It Is:
Motion is an AI-powered productivity platform that combines calendar management, automatic task scheduling, project management, and team collaboration into one comprehensive workspace.
Core Philosophy:
“Tell us what needs to be done and when, we’ll figure out when to do it.” Motion analyzes over 1,000 parameters—deadlines, priorities, task durations, calendar availability, dependencies—to automatically build optimized daily schedules that maximize productivity.
How It Works:
You add tasks with deadlines, durations, and priorities. Motion’s AI automatically schedules them in your calendar, considering your meetings, work hours, and other commitments. When something changes (meeting added, task runs over, urgent work arrives), Motion automatically reschedules everything to maintain feasibility.
The approach is rigid by design: Motion makes decisions for you. Users report saving 2.5-5 hours weekly on planning, but the trade-off is less manual control.
Key Features:
AI automatically schedules all tasks based on deadlines and priorities
Dynamic rescheduling when plans change (no manual adjustment needed)
Full project management with dependencies, milestones, Gantt charts
Team workload balancing and coordination
AI Employees (autonomous workflow assistants)
Meeting scheduler replaces Calendly
AI note-taker and docs
Integrates with 7,000+ apps via Zapier
Pricing (2025):
Individual: $29/month (annual billing) or $49/month (monthly)
Team (3+ seats): starts at $33/seat/month (annual)
7-day free trial
25% discount for students and nonprofits
Strengths:
Most powerful AI auto-scheduling available
Comprehensive all-in-one workspace (tasks + calendar + projects + docs)
Dynamic rescheduling happens automatically
Strong team and project management features
Continuous optimization throughout the day
Replaces multiple separate tools
Weaknesses:
Expensive ($29-49/month for individuals)
Rigid and opinionated (less manual control)
Steep learning curve—requires detailed task input
AI occasionally makes questionable scheduling decisions
Setup complexity (configuring preferences, workflows)
No energy or capacity awareness (schedules by time only)
Best For: Teams and individuals willing to pay premium pricing for comprehensive automation who trust AI to make scheduling decisions and need project management features integrated with their calendar.
Reclaim AI Overview: Flexible Habit Defense
What It Is:
Reclaim AI is an AI-powered scheduling app that automatically finds and defends time for your focus time, tasks, habits, meetings, and breaks across Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar.
Core Philosophy:
“Set your priorities, we’ll defend time for them while keeping you flexible.” Reclaim focuses on protecting time for what matters (habits, focus time, important tasks) while maintaining availability for collaboration.
How It Works:
You create “habits” (recurring priorities like exercise, focus time, learning), assign them importance levels (P1-P4), and Reclaim automatically schedules them in optimal slots. When meetings get added, lower-priority items reschedule automatically. The system shows you as “free” when possible, converting to “busy” as your calendar fills—keeping you open for collaboration until space runs out.
The approach prioritizes flexibility: you set parameters, Reclaim finds optimal times, but you maintain more control than Motion’s rigid automation.
Key Features:
Focus Time blocks for deep work (up to 40% reclaimed weekly)
Habits auto-schedule and defend recurring routines
Tasks sync from Asana, Todoist, ClickUp, Jira, Linear
Smart Meetings find optimal times across attendees
Scheduling Links with intelligent availability
Calendar Sync across multiple Google/Outlook calendars
Buffer Time auto-schedules breaks and travel
Time Tracking and analytics dashboards
No-Meeting Days to protect entire days
Slack status sync
Pricing (2025):
Lite (Free): 3 habits, 1 scheduling link, 2 calendars, 3-week scheduling
Starter: $8/user/month (annual) - unlimited habits, tasks, 12-week scheduling
Business: $12/user/month (annual) - team features, analytics
Enterprise: $18/user/month (annual) - SSO, SCIM, dedicated support
14-day trial on paid plans
50% education discount, 20% nonprofit/startup discounts
Strengths:
Generous free plan (most accessible AI scheduling)
More affordable than Motion ($0-8/month vs $29/month)
Flexible—keeps calendar open until conflicts force decisions
Gentle learning curve (layers onto existing calendar)
Strong habit and focus time defense
Good team coordination features
Works with both Google Calendar and Outlook (full parity)
Analytics show time spent on meetings/tasks/habits
Weaknesses:
Less comprehensive than Motion (calendar-focused, not full PM)
No native mobile apps (web-based, works in mobile browser)
Task management basic compared to Motion
Fewer integrations (~10-15 vs Motion’s thousands)
No energy or capacity awareness
Recurring task handling awkward (uses “Habits” feature)
Best For: Individuals and teams wanting flexible AI scheduling to protect focus time and recurring priorities while maintaining availability for collaboration, especially budget-conscious users.
Head-to-Head Comparison
Scheduling Approach
Motion:
Fully automatic, opinionated scheduling. You add tasks with deadlines and priorities, Motion decides when you do them. The AI builds your entire daily schedule and rebuilds it automatically when anything changes. Less control, more automation.
Users describe it as having an “AI executive assistant” that makes decisions for you. This works brilliantly when the AI gets it right, but frustrates users when it schedules demanding work at suboptimal times.
Reclaim AI:
Semi-automatic with priority-based flexibility. You create habits and tasks with priority levels (P1-P4), Reclaim finds optimal times and defends them. Higher priorities automatically overbook lower priorities when conflicts arise.
The system keeps your calendar showing “free” until conflicts force it to show “busy,” maintaining availability while protecting priorities. More control, less rigid automation.
rivva:
Fully automatic with capacity awareness. Like Motion, rivva’s AI (Nia) automatically schedules everything. Unlike Motion, rivva considers your actual capacity—integrating Apple Health data to forecast energy levels and schedule demanding work during your peak hours, not just your available hours.
User Experience
Motion:
Modern, comprehensive interface that combines calendar, tasks, projects, docs, and chat in one workspace. Desktop and mobile apps both feature-rich.
Learning curve: Moderate to steep. Requires understanding how to input tasks properly (duration estimates, priorities, dependencies) for AI to schedule effectively. Setup demands time investment configuring preferences and workflows.
Users report spending the first week or two learning Motion’s logic before trusting its automated decisions.
Reclaim AI:
Clean, minimal interface built on top of Google Calendar/Outlook. Doesn’t try to replace your calendar—just layers intelligent scheduling on top.
Learning curve: Gentle. Because Reclaim doesn’t replace your entire system, most users understand it within days. The hardest concept is understanding P1-P4 priorities and when to use Habits vs Tasks.
No native mobile apps is Reclaim’s biggest UX weakness—everything happens through mobile browser, which works but isn’t ideal.
rivva:
Modern iOS-native interface focused on daily planning with visual timeline. Chat with Nia for natural language task creation and scheduling adjustments.
Learning curve: Gentle. Connect Apple Health, email, and calendar. Nia handles the complexity—you just chat naturally (”Schedule report for Friday”) and check your daily plan.
Calendar Integration
Motion:
Supports Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, and iCloud Calendar. Two-way sync keeps everything updated. Because Motion has its own built-in calendar, integration is seamless—everything lives in one place.
Reclaim AI:
Full native support for Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook (Outlook integration launched August 2025 with feature parity). Can sync multiple calendars across both platforms to prevent conflicts and defend personal time on work calendars.
Calendar Sync feature blocks availability across calendars automatically.
rivva:
Two-way Google Calendar sync with support for multiple calendar accounts. Tasks scheduled in rivva appear on your Google Calendar, calendar changes update your rivva plan.
Task Management
Motion:
Comprehensive task and project management comparable to dedicated PM tools. Features include:
Tasks with subtasks, dependencies, and milestones
Multiple project views (list, board, Gantt, timeline)
Team workload visualization
AI task prioritization across all projects
Duration estimates and deadline tracking
Custom fields and tags
Motion essentially combines Asana-level project management with AI calendar scheduling.
Reclaim AI:
Basic task management—calendar-focused, not project-focused. Features include:
Tasks with due dates, duration estimates, P1-P4 priorities
Sync from external tools (Asana, Todoist, ClickUp, Jira, Linear)
Auto-schedule tasks in calendar based on priority
Simple task list view
No subtasks, dependencies, or project structure
Reclaim expects you to manage complex projects in dedicated PM tools, then sync tasks to calendar for time blocking.
rivva:
Intelligent task management with AI assistant Nia:
Automatic task extraction from emails
Natural language task creation via chat
AI scheduling based on energy + calendar + priorities
Visual daily timeline showing tasks and energy curve
Ranked daily plan (”do this first, then this”)
Proactive rescheduling by Nia
rivva’s strength is intelligent daily execution, not complex project planning.
Winner: Motion for comprehensive project management. Reclaim for flexibility with external tools. rivva for intelligent daily execution with capacity awareness.
Pricing & Value
Motion: $29/month (annual) or $49/month (monthly) for individuals
Value proposition: Replaces multiple tools (calendar, task manager, project management, meeting scheduler, note-taker). If it replaces $100/month of separate subscriptions, it’s cost-effective. For individuals needing only calendar + task automation, it’s expensive.
Cost-effectiveness: Best for teams and power users needing comprehensive features. Expensive for individuals wanting simple AI scheduling.
Reclaim AI: Free / $8/month (annual) for individuals
Value proposition: Most accessible AI scheduling with genuinely useful free plan. At $0-8/month, exceptional value for calendar automation and habit defense. Doesn’t try to replace your entire productivity stack—just makes your calendar smarter.
Cost-effectiveness: Best value in AI calendar space. Free plan sufficient for many users. $8/month Starter plan delivers comprehensive features at fraction of Motion’s cost.
rivva: $10.5-$13.99/month
Value proposition: Combines AI scheduling (like Motion) with capacity awareness (unique) at mid-range pricing. More affordable than Motion while adding energy intelligence neither competitor offers.
Cost-effectiveness: Best for individuals wanting intelligent automation without Motion’s premium cost or Reclaim’s basic feature set.
Winner: Reclaim AI for pure value (free to $8/month). rivva for best feature-to-price ratio. Motion justified only if you need comprehensive PM features.
Team Features
Motion:
Extensive team capabilities:
Shared projects with visibility across team
Workload balancing (prevents overcommitment)
Team calendar coordination
Meeting scheduling across team
Project dependencies and handoffs
Team chat and collaboration
Motion excels for teams needing coordinated project management and scheduling.
Reclaim AI:
Good team features focused on scheduling:
Team-wide habits and policies
Smart 1:1s auto-schedule across calendars
Team analytics dashboards
Shared calendar sync
No-Meeting Days coordination
Reclaim helps teams protect focus time and coordinate schedules, but lacks Motion’s project management depth.
rivva:
Team features coming soon. Currently optimized for individuals.
Winner: Motion for comprehensive team project management. Reclaim for team scheduling coordination. rivva not yet applicable.
Where Both Motion and Reclaim Fall Short
Motion and Reclaim AI are both excellent tools. But they share a fundamental limitation: neither considers your capacity when scheduling work.
The Availability vs. Capacity Gap
What Motion and Reclaim do:
Both analyze your calendar to find available time slots, then schedule tasks based on priorities, deadlines, and preferences. They answer the question: “When is there space on my calendar?”
What they don’t do:
Neither asks: “When will I actually have the energy and focus to do this well?”
Real-world example:
You have a 2-hour strategy document due Friday. It’s demanding work requiring deep thinking.
Motion sees: Tuesday 2-4pm is free. Schedules strategy doc there.
Reclaim sees: Tuesday 2-4pm is free. Schedules strategy doc there (if P1 priority).
What they both miss: Tuesday 2-4pm comes after six back-to-back meetings and poor sleep. You’re mentally exhausted. The time is available, but you’re not capable of strategic thinking.
Result: You either produce mediocre work during low capacity, or you procrastinate and reschedule manually—defeating the automation’s purpose.
What’s Missing
Energy awareness: Neither integrates with wearables or considers sleep quality, recovery, or meeting fatigue.
Automatic task capture: Both require manual task entry. Motion needs detailed input (duration, priority, project, dependencies). Reclaim needs task creation or syncing from other tools.
Intelligent guidance: Neither provides coaching. They schedule tasks but don’t guide you through execution or adapt based on how you’re actually feeling.
Pattern learning: While both use AI for scheduling logic, neither learns your personal energy patterns over time.
rivva: The Capacity-Aware Alternative
While Motion and Reclaim focus on fitting tasks into available time slots, rivva goes further: we schedule work when you can actually do it well.
What Makes rivva Different
Capacity-Aware Scheduling
Motion and Reclaim know when you’re available. rivva knows when you’re actually capable.
By integrating with Apple Health, rivva forecasts your energy based on sleep quality, heart rate variability (HRV), and activity data. Demanding work gets scheduled during predicted peak hours. Routine tasks get placed during valleys. Your Watch becomes your productivity advisor.
Example:
Monday morning: Apple Watch tracked 7h 45m sleep, good HRV (65ms), low resting HR (58). rivva interprets: excellent recovery, high capacity predicted.
rivva schedules: 9:00am - Draft strategy document (demanding), 10:30am - Client presentation prep (high-focus)
Wednesday morning: Apple Watch tracked 5h 30m sleep, poor HRV (42ms), elevated resting HR (68). rivva interprets: poor recovery, limited capacity.
rivva schedules: Moves strategic work to Thursday, schedules only light tasks for Wednesday morning.
Motion/Reclaim: Would schedule strategy doc whenever there’s availability, regardless of your capacity.
Key Features
Nia (AI Assistant):
Proactive AI that plans your day automatically (like Motion) but with capacity awareness (unlike Motion). Chat naturally: “Schedule meeting with Sarah Thursday 3pm” or “Add task: quarterly report by Friday.”
Automatic Email Task Extraction:
Unlike Motion and Reclaim (which require manual task entry), rivva automatically extracts tasks from emails—including Notion comments, GitHub issues, meeting summaries, direct requests. Lower friction, nothing forgotten.
Energy-Based Planning:
Visual daily timeline shows both your scheduled tasks AND your energy curve. See when you’re scheduled for demanding vs. routine work relative to your predicted capacity.
Smart Auto-Scheduling:
Combines Motion’s automation with capacity intelligence Reclaim doesn’t have. Nia schedules tasks overnight based on deadlines, priorities, calendar availability, AND energy forecast.
Proactive Adaptation:
Like Motion’s dynamic rescheduling, but capacity-aware. Meeting runs long? Nia reschedules remaining tasks considering your adjusted energy levels.
Better Mobile Experience:
Native iOS app (unlike Reclaim’s web-only mobile). Full functionality, quick capture, instant sync.
Pricing
Monthly: $13.99/month
Quarterly: $31.49/quarter ($10.50/month - Save 25%)
7-day free trial
More affordable than Motion ($29/month), more capable than Reclaim (free/$8/month).
rivva vs. Motion
✅ rivva advantages:
More affordable ($14 vs $29/month)
Energy-aware (Motion schedules by time only)
Automatic email task extraction (Motion requires manual detailed input)
More flexible (less rigidly opinionated)
Nia provides guidance (Motion just schedules)
❌ Motion advantages:
Comprehensive project management features
Extensive team collaboration tools
More integrations (7,000+ via Zapier)
Cross-platform (Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Web)
Choose rivva over Motion if: You want intelligent automation that respects human capacity, don’t need heavy project management, prefer affordability, and work primarily as an individual.
rivva vs. Reclaim AI
✅ rivva advantages:
Energy forecasting (Reclaim only defends time-based habits)
Automatic task extraction from email (Reclaim requires manual or tool sync)
Smarter auto-scheduling considers capacity, not just priority
AI assistant for guidance (Reclaim is calendar-only)
Better task management (dedicated planner vs calendar-focused)
Native mobile app (Reclaim is web-only on mobile)
❌ Reclaim advantages:
Free plan available (rivva starts at $14/month)
Works with Google Calendar AND Outlook
Simpler if you only need habit defense
Team features more developed currently
Choose rivva over Reclaim if: You want autonomous AI scheduling (not just habit defense), need capacity awareness, want automatic task capture, prefer comprehensive task management, and work on iOS.
rivva vs. Both
Choose rivva if:
Capacity awareness is priority #1 - You recognize that not all available time is equal
You track sleep/recovery with wearable and want that data to drive productivity
You’ve experienced burnout from tools that ignore energy levels
You want automatic task capture (less manual entry)
You want AI guidance through Nia (not just scheduling)
You value intelligence over features
Which Tool Is Right for You?
Choose Motion if:
✅ You want rigid, comprehensive AI automation across projects
✅ You need full project management integrated with calendar
✅ You’re managing a team (3+ people)
✅ You’re willing to pay premium pricing ($29/month)
✅ You trust AI to make decisions with limited manual override
✅ You want all-in-one workspace (tasks + calendar + projects + docs + chat)
Perfect for: Small teams, project-intensive work, users comfortable with opinionated automation, those wanting to replace multiple tools with one comprehensive platform.
Choose Reclaim AI if:
✅ You need flexible habit and focus time defense
✅ Budget matters (free to $8/month is accessible)
✅ You want to keep existing tools (Asana, Todoist, etc.)
✅ Team coordination around schedules is priority
✅ You prefer more manual control over rigid automation
✅ You work with both Google Calendar and Outlook
Perfect for: Budget-conscious individuals, teams wanting focus time protection, users with established PM tools, those preferring flexible over opinionated scheduling.
Choose rivva if:
✅ You want capacity-aware AI, not just time-aware
✅ You track sleep/activity with wearable and want that data to drive scheduling
✅ You need automatic task extraction from email (less manual entry)
✅ You want AI guidance through Nia (proactive coaching)
✅ You value intelligence over feature count
✅ You work primarily as individual on iOS
✅ You want affordability with powerful features ($10.50-$13.99/month)
Perfect for: High-performing individuals who recognize that capacity varies throughout the day, iOS users wanting native mobile experience, anyone frustrated by tools that ignore human limitations.
Conclusion
Motion and Reclaim AI are both excellent tools that solve real problems—just in different ways.
Motion delivers comprehensive automation and project management for teams willing to pay premium pricing and trust opinionated AI decisions.
Reclaim AI provides affordable, flexible habit defense and focus time protection for individuals and teams wanting more control.
rivva offers what both are missing: capacity-aware intelligence that schedules work based not just on when you’re available, but when you’ll actually do it well.
The “best” tool depends entirely on your priorities:
Need comprehensive team PM? Motion
Want affordable habit defense? Reclaim AI
Value capacity-aware intelligence? rivva
Most offer free trials. Test your top two choices for a week each with real work—the right tool will feel intuitive, not forced.
Ready for AI scheduling that respects your human capacity?
Motion and Reclaim know when you’re available. rivva knows when you’re actually capable.
Experience what AI calendar automation feels like when it works with your biology, not against it. No credit card required.