ChatGPT Business, Copilot or Gemini: What a Small Team Actually Pays per Seat

A ten-person firm asks a simple question: what will an AI assistant cost us for a year? The answer on a pricing page is a number per seat. The amount on your invoice also depends on four other things: which seat type each person needs, whether you commit for a year, whether you already pay for the office suite underneath, and how VAT is handled.

Here is the short answer, using list prices checked on 15 October 2026. ChatGPT Business and Claude Team both start at $20 per standard seat per month on annual billing and $25 monthly. Microsoft's Copilot Business add-on is listed in the UK from £16.10 per user per month on an annual subscription, with a promotional £13.80 for the first year until 31 December 2026. Google includes Gemini in Workspace Business plans, so Business Standard at £11.80 per user per month on an annual plan covers the whole suite, not only AI. These figures are not directly comparable until you add the conditions below.

What you are actually comparing

The four products are priced in two different ways. ChatGPT Business and Claude Team are standalone AI workspaces: you pay for the assistant, and it connects to the email and file tools you already use. Copilot and Gemini are sold with an office suite. Copilot Business is an add-on to an eligible Microsoft 365 Business plan, and Gemini comes inside Google Workspace Business editions.

That difference matters more than the headline seat price. If your team already pays for Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, the extra cost of Copilot or Gemini is what you add on top. If you would be buying the suite for the first time, you are comparing an AI assistant with a whole email, storage and document package. Count only the money you would not otherwise spend.

Prices change often, and several of the figures below are promotional or regional. Treat every number in this guide as a dated list price, then confirm it at checkout for your country.

Dated price and terms comparison

Sources for each row: the OpenAI business pricing page and OpenAI's seat and billing guide; Anthropic's Team plan article and Claude pricing page; Microsoft's UK add-on pricing page, Copilot Business FAQ and enterprise data protection page; Google's payment plan comparison, UK Workspace business plans page and Gemini privacy hub.

Standard or premium seats: who needs which

OpenAI and Anthropic now sell two seat types in the same workspace. OpenAI says a Premium seat gives five times the usage of a Standard seat and removes the five-hour usage limit; it announced Premium seats on 10 August 2026 and made them available on 25 August. Anthropic says Team Standard seats include 1.25 times the Pro plan's per-session allowance and Premium seats 6.25 times, with weekly limits on both.

Most people in a small business who draft emails, summarise documents or prepare a proposal now and then are unlikely to need the higher tier. Someone who works with the assistant for most of the day, writes code with it or runs long research tasks may reach the standard limits. Start everyone on Standard seats and move a person up only when their usage shows they keep hitting limits. Both suppliers allow mixed seat types, so you do not have to buy Premium for the whole team.

On the Microsoft and Google pages checked for this guide, the business bundles are priced per user without a standard and premium split. If a heavy user needs more capacity, check the current usage limits and any AI add-ons before assuming the bundle covers them.

Commitments, cancellations and VAT

An annual price is lower, but it locks you in. The rules differ:

• ChatGPT Business charges for every purchased seat at the start of each cycle, assigned or not. Seat reductions take effect at the next renewal, and on annual plans added seats stay committed until the end of the term.
• Copilot Business is sold only with an annual commitment, billed monthly or annually; Microsoft's FAQ says there is no month-to-month option. The UK promotion applies to the first year only, and the subscription renews automatically. Microsoft states a seven-day window for a prorated refund.
• Google's Flexible Plan lets you add or remove users at any time. On the annual plan you can reduce licences only at renewal, and cancelling early still means paying the remaining contract.
• Anthropic offers monthly and annual billing for Team and allows adding seats mid-term.

Tax is stated differently. Microsoft's UK prices are shown as excluding VAT. Anthropic says its listed prices exclude applicable taxes and that currency and tax vary by region. OpenAI's help centre says a business in a VAT region can enter its tax ID at checkout, which exempts the purchase from VAT on OpenAI's invoice. Google's currency table lists a GBP price without stating VAT treatment. Ask your accountant how each invoice should be recorded, especially when a supplier bills in US dollars.

Worked example: a hypothetical 10-person team

This is an invented planning example, not a customer case. Assumptions: ten employees; eight light users and two heavy users; annual billing wherever available; no implementation help bought; US dollar prices kept in dollars because the exchange rate will be the one on your card statement; VAT excluded throughout.

Read the results with the starting point in mind. If this team already uses Google Workspace Business Standard, Gemini adds nothing to the bill; the £1,416 is money it already spends. If it already uses Microsoft 365, Copilot for everyone adds £1,932 a year at list price. In this example, giving Copilot to only the four people who work most in Word, Excel and Outlook cuts that to £772.80. The others keep Copilot Chat, which Microsoft includes with eligible plans but which, according to Microsoft's UK plan FAQ, does not integrate with the Microsoft 365 apps or with organisational content such as files, emails or chats. Microsoft's business plans page states that Copilot Chat comes at no additional cost with an eligible subscription.

A standalone assistant at $2,400 a year is a new cost on top of whichever suite the team uses. It can still be the right choice if people need it across several tools, or if a different assistant does a key task better in your own trial. Two Premium seats nearly double that bill in this example, so check usage before you buy them.

Data and admin terms to check before anyone signs

All four suppliers say business content is not used to train their models, but the wording and conditions differ. Microsoft says prompts, responses and data accessed through Microsoft Graph are not used to train foundation models. Google says customer data is not used to train or fine-tune its Workspace generative AI models without permission, and its privacy hub lists admin-controlled retention periods for Gemini conversations. OpenAI and Anthropic state "no training on your business data by default" and "none by default" respectively on their business plans.

Admin features differ more than training terms. ChatGPT Business lists SAML SSO and MFA, but SCIM user provisioning, role-based access controls and data residency are Enterprise features on OpenAI's comparison. Claude's pricing page lists SSO and domain verification for Team, while SCIM, audit logs and custom data retention are Enterprise features. Microsoft says Copilot follows your existing permissions, sensitivity labels and retention policies, so the quality of your SharePoint and OneDrive permissions becomes part of the risk. Google applies the same principle to Drive and Gmail. If folders holding payroll, HR or client information are shared too widely, an assistant can surface them to anyone with access. Reviewing those permissions is often the slowest part of a rollout, and an area where Evoogen can help.

A short checklist before you buy

1. Write down which suite the team already pays for, and calculate only the extra cost.
2. Name the two or three recurring tasks the assistant must help with, and test them during a trial or a short monthly subscription.
3. Start everyone on standard seats. Upgrade individuals only after their usage shows a need.
4. Before choosing annual billing, check the commitment, renewal date, cancellation rules and whether a promotional price ends after year one.
5. Confirm the invoice currency, VAT treatment and the tax ID or business details needed at checkout.
6. Check who can see which shared files before connecting an assistant to them.
7. Record the date you checked each price, and recheck before renewal.

For a broader view of which tool suits which job, see our guide to choosing AI tools by task. For setup, integration and staff time beyond subscriptions, our AI automation budget guide covers the costs a seat price leaves out.

Which subscription should a small team choose?

Start with what you already pay for. A Google Workspace team should test the Gemini features it already has before buying another assistant. A Microsoft 365 team should try Copilot Chat first, then license Copilot Business for the people who need it inside Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams. In this example, that targeted approach is the cheapest route to in-app help. Choose ChatGPT Business or Claude Team when a trial shows it handles your key tasks better, or when people need the same assistant across several tools, and budget it as an addition to your suite. In every case, the price on the card is the start of the calculation: add the commitment, the seat mix and VAT before you decide.

If you want this set up for your business, Evoogen can compare the options against your current suite, plan a short trial with your team and help with permissions and rollout. Talk to Evoogen about choosing and setting up an AI assistant.