Pricing
Copilot vs ChatGPT for business: which should you buy
Last verified: September 2026
The short answer: the decision is really one question — are you a Microsoft 365 shop? If your work lives in Word, Excel, Outlook, and Teams, buy Microsoft 365 Copilot at $30/user/month; the AI is built into the apps your people already open. If you aren't anchored to Microsoft 365, ChatGPT Business at $20/user/month (annual) or $25 (monthly) is cheaper per seat and model-agnostic. Either way, buy a business tier — not individual subscriptions — so your data stays protected.
The price comparison
| Plan | USD | UK | Europe | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 Copilot | $30/user/month | local pricing | local pricing | Copilot inside Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams, PowerPoint; enterprise data protection; requires a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan. Microsoft prices locally per region. |
| ChatGPT Business (standard) | $20/user/month annual ($25 monthly) | billed in GBP locally | local pricing | ChatGPT for teams: admin controls, shared workspace, higher limits; 2–200 employees |
| ChatGPT Business (premium) | $100/user/month annual ($125 monthly) | local pricing | local pricing | Same workspace, much higher usage limits for power users |
The gap is $5–$10 per seat per month depending on billing. For a 20-person team that's $1,200–$2,400/year difference on standard seats — real money, but small next to the productivity question of where your team actually works.
The one question that decides it: are you a Microsoft 365 shop?
- Yes — everything runs on Microsoft 365. Buy Copilot. The value isn't the chatbot; it's Copilot inside the meeting recap, the spreadsheet, the email draft. Your people don't have to learn a new tool or change where they work. The $30/seat is paying for integration, not intelligence.
- No — or only partly. ChatGPT Business wins on price and flexibility. It works in a browser, doesn't require a Microsoft 365 plan, and the $20/month annual seat undercuts Copilot by a third. If your stack is Google Workspace or mixed, there's no integration advantage to Copilot.
- Google Workspace shop? Gemini Enterprise at $30/user/month is the in-app equivalent on Google's side. Same logic: buy the AI that lives where your work lives.
Data and training: what happens to your company's data
This is the honest reason to buy a business tier at all, rather than reimbursing everyone's $20 individual subscriptions:
- Microsoft 365 Copilot: comes with enterprise data protection. Prompts and company data are not used to train models. Data stays within the Microsoft 365 boundary.
- ChatGPT Business: OpenAI does not train on business data by default. You get admin controls, a shared workspace, and the ability to manage seats.
On individual consumer plans, the data protections and controls are weaker — which is why "just expense everyone's ChatGPT Plus" is a compliance problem dressed up as a convenience. For a business, the business tier is the product.
When to buy both
Some companies run a split strategy, and it can be the right call:
- Copilot for everyone — because the work happens in Microsoft 365 and in-app AI reduces friction.
- A few ChatGPT Business (or Claude Team) seats — for the people who do heavy analysis, research, or coding-agent work where a different model family does meaningfully better work.
Keep it targeted: a handful of dual-licensed power users, not a blanket double-up. Two $20–$30 subscriptions per person adds up fast across a whole company.
Prices and plan details change frequently and may vary by region. Confirm current pricing on each vendor's official site before buying. Not affiliated with Microsoft or OpenAI.