ChatGPT, Copilot or Claude: which AI suits your business?

What is the best AI for businesses?

There is no best AI for every business. ChatGPT, Copilot and Claude are all three AI assistants that work with a large language model, an LLM. They write, summarise, translate and help you think things through. For a lot of office work they do roughly the same thing.

The differences lie elsewhere: in which programs they work in, how you manage the users, what happens to your data and how you pay. That is why you don’t start with the tool, but with your own work.

In this article I compare the business plans. I don’t sell licences and I receive no commission from OpenAI, Microsoft, Anthropic or Google. So I don’t declare a winner either.

What do you already work in?

That is the first question. An AI assistant works most easily in the programs your team already has open all day.

• Microsoft 365 (Outlook, Word, Excel, Teams). Then Copilot is the obvious choice. Copilot Chat is included with eligible Microsoft 365 plans, without a separate licence. With a paid licence, Copilot in Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams can also search your emails, calendar and files itself, within your own permissions.
• Google Workspace (Gmail, Docs, Drive). Then you look at Gemini first. Gemini’s AI features are included in the Google Workspace business plans. The cheapest plan, Business Starter, has fewer of them.
• Neither, or a mix. Then ChatGPT and Claude are logical candidates. They are standalone assistants, with their own app and their own business plan.

You can also use more than one tool. But every extra tool means an extra account, an extra data processing agreement and an extra line in your agreements.

What do ChatGPT, Copilot and Claude cost for businesses?

You pay per user per month, and paying annually is usually cheaper than paying monthly. Sometimes a basic version is already included in a plan you have. The amounts change often, so check the current price with the provider. This is how you pay per plan, as of 7 October 2026:

If you compare the prices on the providers’ sites, pay attention to the currency and the tax. OpenAI and Anthropic state their prices in dollars, Microsoft in euros. Also check whether VAT is already included in the price. ChatGPT Business and Claude Team also have more expensive seats for people who use the tool a lot. What you pay in total depends mainly on the number of people who use the tool.

Microsoft is changing the names: Microsoft 365 Copilot will now be called Microsoft Copilot. The Dutch pricing page still shows the old names. That is why I use them here as well.

There are also personal plans, such as ChatGPT Plus and Claude Pro. They are cheaper, but they are accounts for one person, without a data processing agreement and without central administration. Why that matters, you can read in Is ChatGPT safe for businesses?

Prices and plan names change often. Check the price with the provider before you take out a plan.

What are the differences in administration and data?

On paper the business plans look alike. With all four providers, your business data is not used by default to train their general models, and a data processing agreement comes with the business plan. The differences are in the details.

• Copilot uses the accounts and permissions you already have in Microsoft 365. What an employee may not open himself, Copilot cannot use for him either. With Copilot Chat, traffic from users in the EU stays within Microsoft’s EU Data Boundary. Search queries that Copilot sends to Bing fall outside it. According to Microsoft, at the moment this also applies to the Anthropic models you can choose in Copilot.
• ChatGPT Business has its own workspace with administration, sign-in through your company’s account system (SSO) and two-step verification. You manage the users there separately, or connect them via SSO.
• Claude Team also has central administration and SSO. For each user you choose a standard or a premium seat.
• Gemini works with your Google Workspace accounts. Google does not use your content to train models outside your own domain, unless you give permission for that.

Also pay attention to how your people sign in. A business plan only helps if everyone uses the work account, and not a free personal account alongside it. You can read more about data and agreements in Is ChatGPT safe for businesses?

What can each tool do with your own files and systems?

All three work with files you upload yourself. The difference is how much they can retrieve on their own.

• Copilot with a paid licence can search your mail, calendar, chats in Teams and files in OneDrive and SharePoint, within your own permissions.
• Copilot Chat without a licence works mainly with what you put in the chat or upload yourself, and with the file you have open in Word, Excel or PowerPoint. In Outlook, Copilot Chat can access your mail and calendar.
• ChatGPT and Claude have integrations with other services, also called connectors. Claude Team, for example, has one for Microsoft 365. Which integrations are available differs per plan and changes often.

For a question about one document, that is enough. Do you want AI to answer from all your manuals, quotes and procedures, with the source included? Then you end up with an AI assistant on your own documents. How that works, you can read in What is an AI assistant on your own documents?

When is a standalone subscription enough?

A standalone subscription is enough if AI mainly helps one person with their own work. For example:

• drafting a first version of an email or text;
• summarising a long document;
• translating or rewriting a text;
• thinking through a plan or a difficult question.

Then what you mainly need is good agreements, and a team that knows where AI goes wrong. A one-page AI policy and a short training are a good start.

When does AI in your own systems fit better?

AI in your own systems fits better if the work passes through more hands and more programs. A standalone chat helps one person. But a quote, a customer question or an invoice passes through more people and more systems.

You build an application like this as a custom solution, with a language model’s API and an API integration to your own systems. Then you decide which data goes in, where it goes and who checks the result. Sometimes it goes further than an assistant, and AI takes steps in your systems itself. That is called an AI agent. When that makes sense, you can read in An AI agent for your business.

I start a project like this with a business analysis. After that you get a proposal with a fixed price, so you know in advance where you stand. More about the approach is on AI consultancy. Also read how your price is determined.

How do you choose the AI tool that suits your business?

Choose in five steps, and take a few weeks for it.

1. Write down what you want to use AI for. Name three to five tasks from your day-to-day work.
2. Look at what you already work in. Microsoft 365, Google Workspace or something else.
3. Test with a few people. Have two or three colleagues work with one tool for a few weeks, on tasks without sensitive data. Write down what went well and what didn’t.
4. Arrange the basics. A business account, the data processing agreement and agreements on one page.
5. Decide and record it. Put the tool in your AI register, with its purpose and owner.

With one tool, things stay manageable. Two tools side by side is also possible, if you have a good reason for it.

Which AI tool do I recommend?

No fixed one. I first look at what your business already works in and what work you want to do with AI. Then we discuss which tool fits that best, and why. I don’t sell licences, so it makes no difference to me which one you choose.

How I help you with this

In the AI policy & training session we spend half a day creating rules for your business, and an overview of the AI tools your team uses. Your team learns what AI can do, where it goes wrong and how to use it safely. We discuss what the training costs in the first conversation. Read more on AI training.

Do you want AI built into your own systems? I build that myself, after an analysis. Read more about AI consultancy or schedule a conversation.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: OpenAI: plans, Microsoft: Microsoft 365 Copilot plans (in Dutch), Microsoft: Enterprise data protection in Copilot, Microsoft: Copilot Chat privacy and protections, Anthropic: Claude plans and Google: Generative AI in Google Workspace Privacy Hub and Google: Workspace plans. Consulted on 7 October 2026. Prices change often: check the current price on the provider’s site.