Only about 5% to 8% of small businesses pay for a team AI plan such as ChatGPT Business or Claude Team. That is our estimate from the JPMorgan Chase Institute's data on US small businesses: by the end of 2025, 17.7% had ever paid for an AI service, and nearly two-thirds of those spent $40 a month or less, the price of one or two personal subscriptions. The US Census Bureau's survey points the same way: about one in five businesses use AI at all.
Most use free or personal accounts instead. On those, what you type may be used to train the models, each account belongs to one person rather than the company, and the free tiers come with less capable models and a shorter memory for context. If your team shares intellectual property or sensitive customer data with AI, or needs the frontier models, a paid business plan is what keeps that data protected and in the company's hands.
Of the businesses that do pay, most start with ChatGPT Business. It works well, but it gives your team one company's models, no choice of where your data is hosted, and a help centre instead of a person. The main alternatives are Claude Team, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Gemini in Google Workspace and P30. For most small businesses, P30 is the simplest to get started with and the most flexible: every major model in one place, EU or US hosting as your choice, and a dedicated engineer who sets it up with your team.
ChatGPT Business vs the alternatives, side by side
List prices and features as each company publishes them, checked on 1 November 2026:
| ChatGPT Business | Claude Team | Microsoft 365 Copilot Business | Gemini in Google Workspace | P30 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $20 per user per month on annual billing, $25 monthly | $20 per user per month on annual billing, $25 monthly | $21 per user per month on annual billing, plus a Microsoft 365 business plan | Included in Workspace: Business Standard $14 per user per month on annual billing | One price per team: $199 / €199 a month for up to 10 users, $349 / €349 for up to 25; from $14 / €14 per seat |
| Models | OpenAI's models | Anthropic's Claude models | Microsoft's Copilot | Google's Gemini models | 40+ models: GPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Mistral, GLM and more |
| Where your data is hosted | No choice of region (data residency is Enterprise-only) | No choice of region on Team | Your Microsoft 365 tenant; EU Data Boundary for EU customers | No choice of region (data regions are Enterprise-only) | Your choice: EU or US hosting, with EU-hosted models on AWS Bedrock |
| Model provider has access to your data | Yes | Yes | Only for its own models | Yes | No, on AWS-hosted models |
| Working as a team | Shared projects and custom GPTs | Shared projects | Inside Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams | Inside Gmail, Docs, Sheets and Meet | Yes, by default: shared workspaces, chats, organisational memory, automations and agents |
| Agents and automation | Custom GPTs and agent mode | Projects and connectors | Copilot agents | Gems and Workspace Studio agents | Agents and scheduled automations described in plain language, plus ready-made apps |
| Integrations | Connectors to common business apps | Connectors (remote and local) | Microsoft 365 | Google Workspace | Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Slack, Salesforce, thousands of MCPs and more |
| Getting started | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve, or a Microsoft partner | Self-serve, or a Google partner | A dedicated forward-deployed engineer and 4 weeks of free onboarding support |
| Languages of the interface | Many | Many | Many | Many | English, Spanish, French and German (November 2026) |
For a team of 10 on monthly billing: ChatGPT Business and Claude Team cost $250 a month, Copilot Business $252 plus your Microsoft 365 plan, Gemini comes with Workspace Business Standard ($168, email and office apps included), and P30 costs $199. All of them have usage limits, so compare them on your own workload.
“Has access” means the company that makes the model processes your prompts and files on its own servers, under its own policies. All five say they do not train on business customers' data by default.
Which one fits which business
- ChatGPT Business if your team already lives in ChatGPT and you only need OpenAI's models.
- Claude Team if most of your work is writing, analysis or code, and Claude is the model your team prefers.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot if your business runs on Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams and you want AI inside them.
- Gemini in Google Workspace if you are on Google Workspace and want AI at no extra cost in Gmail and Docs.
- P30 if you want your team to use AI together rather than one person at a time, with every major model in one place, a choice of EU or US hosting, and someone who sets it up with you.
Is ChatGPT Business worth it for a small business?
Yes, if one model is enough and your team can set it up on its own. It is a big step up from personal ChatGPT accounts: the company owns the workspace, and your data is not used for training. Where small businesses outgrow it is usually one of three things: they want more than one company's models, they need to choose where their data is hosted, or they need help getting the whole team to use it.
How to choose
- List what your team will use it for, and try those tasks in two or three of the tools above for two weeks.
- Check which models you need. If the best model for your work changes every few months, a single-vendor tool locks you in.
- Decide where your data must be hosted, and whether a choice of EU or US hosting matters to your customers.
- Compare the price for your team size, including the base plans and usage limits.
- Ask who helps you get started. A tool the team does not adopt is a cost, not an investment.
For European businesses weighing sovereignty, we also compare Langdock and P30.
Sources
- Claude: plans and pricing, checked on 1 November 2026.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot Business: plans and pricing, and Microsoft's announcement of Copilot Business.
- Google Workspace pricing.
- OpenAI: ChatGPT pricing. ChatGPT Business prices as reported in October 2026, for example by Teamazing.
- JPMorgan Chase Institute: Understanding the use of AI among small businesses, April 2026.
- US Census Bureau: AI use among businesses, May 2026.
- P30: pricing.