Mezzi vs. Public: Household Guidance, AI Agents, and Brokerage Tools

Updated September 26, 2026.

Public combines brokerage accounts, investment research, and AI tools that can execute approved workflows. Mezzi provides personalized guidance across connected finances while leaving implementation with you. Public is no longer accurately described as merely a social-investing app, and Mezzi is not a replacement brokerage.

The important question is what you want AI to do. You might want help investigating a company, building and implementing an investment workflow, or understanding how an investment decision fits cash, debt, assets, and household goals. These jobs overlap, but they are not identical.

Compare the actual job

Sources: Public's current platform, Public Agents, Public membership transition, and Mezzi pricing.

Public's current offering deserves a current comparison

Public offers multiple investment categories and account services, with research, AI Agents, Generated Assets, and direct indexing among its tools. The exact service you use determines permissions, fees, and responsibilities. Public platform

That breadth changes the comparison. An investor could use Public to research an idea and implement it in the same environment. A separate guidance application cannot replace the account infrastructure just by displaying a connected balance.

Start by identifying the Public product you mean. A self-directed order, a recurring Agent workflow, and a managed index arrangement are different ways to invest. Comparing all three as “commission-free trading” conceals the decisions and costs that matter.

The same applies to comparing AI. The presence of a conversational interface does not tell you whether the output is information, a proposed rule, an approved transaction, or a managed service. Understand that distinction before choosing a workflow.

Public Agents can act on approved instructions

Public's Agents can monitor conditions and run workflows after the user reviews and activates the plan. The platform documents trading and transfers between Public accounts, along with controls to edit, pause, or stop an Agent. Its August 5, 2026 changelog states that Agents moved from preview to general release, superseding older waitlist descriptions. Public Agents; Agents changelog.

This is an execution capability, not just another way to ask for a portfolio explanation. If you want a rule to carry out an action after a condition occurs, the account's implementation tools are relevant to the choice.

Public also distinguishes Agents from financial advisors: the user chooses the strategy and approves the plan. An automation can follow a rule without establishing that the rule is appropriate for the household. Public's explanation of Agents

Consider the difference between “tell me when my cash position changes” and “move money when this condition is met.” The second instruction grants operational responsibility. You need to understand the account, amount, timing, repetition, and stopping conditions. Those details matter more than how natural the original prompt sounded.

Mezzi's saved personalization and ongoing guidance do not provide equivalent brokerage execution. Recording a preference about cash or investing informs the conversation; it does not automatically trade, transfer money, or change another provider's automation.

Generated Assets and direct indexing are separate decisions

Generated Assets lets users turn a thesis into a custom index, inspect and refine its holdings, review historical backtests, and invest through Public. Public states that the backtests are hypothetical and do not guarantee future results. Generated Assets

A custom index can be appealing when you want an investable expression of a particular idea. But the ability to build one does not answer whether it improves your existing portfolio. You still need to examine concentration, overlap, costs, and the role of the allocation.

Public's fee schedule lists a 0.49% annual management fee for Generated Assets and 0.19% for Direct Index accounts. These are separate products, and other applicable costs can remain. Public fee schedule

For an illustrative constant $20,000 allocation, those percentages correspond to $98 and $38 annually, respectively, before other costs and actual billing terms. The arithmetic does not establish that the strategies are interchangeable or that either will outperform. Compare the actual mandate, implementation, and tradeoffs.

Mezzi does not implement either product. Its relevant role is helping you examine how a proposed allocation relates to the rest of your finances before you decide whether to proceed.

Premium is transitioning to Public Reserve

Public's current help center says Premium is being replaced by Reserve at $20 monthly or $200 annually. Many previous Premium features are becoming free, while Reserve focuses on financial benefits rather than the same old feature-access model. Public's membership update

Existing paid subscribers have different transition terms: the help page says monthly subscribers retain $10/month for twelve months, while annual subscribers retain $96 for one more renewal cycle before moving to the new rate. Verify the terms shown for your account. Existing subscription transition

That makes older comparison tables misleading. Quoting $96 as the universal price for a new customer or assuming a feature is still behind Premium can produce the wrong buying advice. Check the current plan and benefits you will actually use.

Do not count a promotional benefit as guaranteed profit or as a reason to change an investment allocation. Review eligibility, required holding periods, and any other terms separately. A subscription's advertised maximum benefit is not the same as the benefit your household will receive.

What Mezzi adds across the household

Mezzi can bring supported investments and banking together with other assets such as manually entered real estate and liabilities such as credit cards. AI Personalization stores goals, constraints, and background. Exposure X-Ray helps examine supported underlying fund exposure. Mezzi's broader financial view

That context can change the question. A new investment idea may overlap with funds in a retirement account. A cash balance may already be reserved for a purchase. A liability may affect how much flexibility the household actually has. Those facts can matter even if the idea looks attractive on its own.

You need to supply information that is not present in connected data. Future expenses, employment plans, and personal preferences do not reliably appear in a holdings table. Manual asset values should be kept current and their uncertainty acknowledged.

The outcome is guidance that you review and implement. Mezzi does not place the resulting Public trade or amend an Agent workflow. Keeping that boundary clear makes it easier to use both products without assuming that one controls the other.

Example: an investment theme meets a household goal

Suppose an investor has $200,000 of investments, including $20,000 of direct exposure to companies in a technology theme and another estimated $10,000 through funds. That is $30,000, or 15%, before a proposed $20,000 theme basket. The basket's actual holdings matter: a name such as “AI” does not establish how much exposure overlaps or how diversified the result is.

If the hypothetical basket were entirely in the same defined theme and funded with new money, exposure would become $50,000 of $220,000, about 22.7%. If funded by selling existing investments, subtract the exposure of what is sold and keep the denominator consistent. Do not use a historical theme chart as a substitute for this holdings calculation.

In Public, inspect the generated basket or index, fees, account eligibility and implementation details. If using an Agent, review the proposed instruction and the permissions involved; Public's native Agents can carry out approved actions within their documented scope. That is different from an external research conversation. Public Agents basics

In Mezzi, supply the actual proposed holdings where available, include outside accounts, and state the home-purchase goal and cash already committed. Ask it to identify missing weights or accounts before claiming precise overlap. Mezzi does not place the Public trade or operate its Agent.

The decision record should identify the theme definition, holdings date, funding source, exposure before and after, and the person approving any execution. If the proposed basket details are unavailable, the honest next step is to obtain them. A better comparison explains which service completes which step rather than insisting only one product has AI.

Native Agents and external AI connections are not the same setup

Public also offers a connection for third-party AI tools that can access account data and place orders. Its disclosures explain that information shared with the selected AI provider leaves Public's security environment and is governed by that provider's terms. Public external AI connection

Treat that as a distinct arrangement from using Public's native interface. Check what permissions the connection grants, what actions require approval, and how access is revoked. The relevant comparison is the actual configuration, not a blanket claim that one brand is safer.

Likewise, review the permissions and data scope when connecting an account to Mezzi. Information access and transaction authority are different. Do not infer that all financial connections share the same rights simply because they begin with a sign-in flow.

Decide whether you need one product or both

If you need a brokerage or an approved automation to execute your strategy, Mezzi does not replace that infrastructure. If you need help connecting a decision to the wider household, a separate guidance tool may be useful alongside the account.

Start with one unresolved question and verify the relevant data. Evaluate whether the answer identifies assumptions, addresses the goal, and helps you choose a next step. If your current setup already does that well, an additional subscription may not be necessary.

Mezzi offers Free, Advisory at $399 annually, and Concierge at $999 annually. Mezzi pricing. If you keep Public and add Mezzi, include both costs. The case for using both should be a specific improvement in the workflow, not simply the availability of another AI interface.

Frequently asked questions

Is Public still mainly a social-investing app?

That description is incomplete. Its current platform includes brokerage services, research, AI Agents, Generated Assets, and direct indexing.

Can Mezzi execute Public trades or Agent workflows?

No. Mezzi provides guidance and analysis; it does not place trades, move funds, or modify a brokerage automation.

What happened to Public Premium?

Public's current help center describes a transition to Reserve at $20/month or $200/year, with temporary price protection for existing paid subscribers. Review your account-specific terms.

Can Public and Mezzi work together?

Potentially, if supported connections and household context help answer a question your brokerage workflow leaves open. Confirm the data available and keep implementation responsibilities explicit.