ChatGPT Business and Claude Team cost the same: $20 per seat per month billed yearly, $25 monthly, with $100 and $125 Premium seats for heavy users. Gemini isn’t sold that way for small teams. It comes inside Google Workspace, where Business Standard is $14 per user per month on a yearly plan. So pick Gemini if you already live in Workspace and want help inside Gmail and Docs. Pick ChatGPT Business or Claude Team if you want the stronger standalone assistant, and decide between them on admin controls and how each connects to your own systems.
Who this is for: a business of 2 to 150 people choosing one AI subscription for staff. Who should look elsewhere: if you need SCIM, a signed BAA for health data, data residency, or invoice billing, none of these three self-serve plans gives you that. You need ChatGPT Enterprise, Claude Enterprise, or a Google Workspace Enterprise plan. If you’re putting AI inside your own software, you want an API, and our guide to which AI model your business should use covers that.
Every price and feature below was read on the vendor’s own page on 2026-10-14: OpenAI’s ChatGPT Business billing article, ChatGPT Business overview, and pricing page, Claude’s pricing page (Team & Enterprise tab), and Google Workspace pricing. Prices are in US dollars. ChatGPT’s pricing page showed us local currency, so the dollar figures come from OpenAI’s help center. Prices can differ by country.
The short answer
| If you… | Buy |
|---|---|
| Already pay for Google Workspace and mostly want help with email, docs, and meetings | Gemini in Workspace. Business Standard or higher |
| Want the assistant to reach your own system through an MCP server, and want owners to control who adds it | Claude Team, or ChatGPT Business with developer mode |
| Have more than 150 people on one self-serve plan | ChatGPT Business (up to 200 seats) |
| Have a few heavy users and many light ones | Either ChatGPT Business or Claude Team. Both let you mix Standard and Premium seats |
| Need a BAA, SCIM, or data residency | An Enterprise plan, not any of these |
Price for 3, 10, and 25 seats
| Yearly cost | 3 seats | 10 seats | 25 seats | 10 seats, 2 of them Premium |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT Business, billed yearly | $720 | $2,400 | $6,000 | $4,320 |
| ChatGPT Business, billed monthly | $900 | $3,000 | $7,500 | $5,400 |
| Claude Team, billed yearly | $720 | $2,400 | $6,000 | $4,320 |
| Claude Team, billed monthly | $900 | $3,000 | $7,500 | $5,400 |
| Google Workspace Business Standard, 1-year plan | $504 | $1,680 | $4,200 | No Premium tier |
| Google Workspace Business Standard, flexible | $604.80 | $2,016 | $5,040 | No Premium tier |
| Google Workspace Business Plus, 1-year plan | $792 | $2,640 | $6,600 | No Premium tier |
Our math, from the list prices. The Premium column is 8 Standard seats plus 2 Premium seats ($100 a month yearly, $125 monthly) on both ChatGPT and Claude. Google’s flexible plan is $16.80 for Business Standard and $26.40 for Business Plus. Google also shows 10% off for 12 months for new customers on Starter and Standard, limited to “the first 20 users added”. We left that out.
Three notes on reading this:
- Workspace isn’t only an AI plan. Those prices include business email, 2 TB of storage per user on Standard, and Meet. If you’d pay for Workspace anyway, Gemini costs you nothing extra.
- Business Starter is cheaper but thinner. At $7 on a yearly plan, Starter gets Gemini in Gmail and “Chat with Gemini AI”, while Gemini in Docs, Sheets, Drive, and Meet starts at Standard (Google’s comparison table).
- API use is separate everywhere. OpenAI: “A ChatGPT Business subscription does not include API usage.” Claude Team is the exception that helps a little: Anthropic lists “Up to $500 per month in pooled API credits” on Team.
Feature comparison
| ChatGPT Business | Claude Team | Gemini in Google Workspace (Business plans) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard seat, yearly / monthly | $20 / $25 | $20 / $25 | Business Standard $14 / $16.80 |
| Heavy-user tier | Premium $100 / $125, “5x more usage than Standard seats” | Premium $100 / $125, “5x more usage than standard seats” | None. Business Plus ($22 / $26.40) adds storage and security, not AI usage |
| Team size | 2 seat minimum, up to 200 seats for workspaces created since Aug 24, 2026 | ”For teams of 2 to 150” | Up to 300 users on Business plans |
| Training on your data | ”OpenAI won’t train on your workspace’s data" | "No model training on your content by default” | Content isn’t “used for Generative AI model training outside your domain without permission” (Privacy Hub) |
| Office agent | ChatGPT Work on web, desktop, and mobile | Claude Cowork | Workspace Studio agents |
| Coding agent | Codex included | Claude Code included | Not listed on the Workspace page |
| SSO | SAML SSO | SSO | Google accounts |
| SCIM, role-based access, audit API | Enterprise only | Enterprise only | Not compared |
| Data residency | Enterprise only (10 regions) | Not listed on Team | Enterprise plan (“Enterprise data regions”) |
| BAA for health data | Not on self-serve. OpenAI lists BAAs among “sales-led options" | "HIPAA-ready offering” on Enterprise only | Not checked |
| Billing | Card only. No invoicing, POs, or net terms on self-serve | Card. No ACH or invoicing on Team | Not compared |
ChatGPT rows come from OpenAI’s pricing page Business column and its Business overview. Claude rows come from the Team column on claude.com/pricing. Workspace rows come from Google’s pricing page unless linked. All read 2026-10-14.
The difference that matters for a business with its own system
Most comparisons stop at seat price and model quality. For a business with its own orders, stock, or bookings system, the bigger question is how staff reach that system from the assistant. Today that means a custom MCP server. The three plans handle it very differently.
Claude Team. Custom connectors using remote MCP work on Team. Only “Owners and Primary Owners can add them to Team plans”, then each member connects and authenticates themselves (Anthropic, custom connectors). Owners can also “disable specific tool calls that render interactive connectors.” The pricing page lists “Admin controls for remote and local connectors” on Team. This is the cleanest owner-controlled setup of the three.
ChatGPT Business. OpenAI’s pricing page lists “Developer mode (beta)”, “Apps connecting to internal tools”, “Create & share Plugins”, and “Share Plugins with your workspace” on Business. The “Connector registry”, a central list for admins, is Enterprise only. The rules for who can add a custom MCP server and which actions can write are in our guide to connecting company data to ChatGPT.
Gemini. The consumer Gemini app accepts a custom MCP server URL, but Google’s help page says “this feature isn’t available if you sign in with a work or school Google Account” (Gemini Apps Help). For work accounts, Google points to Gemini Enterprise, Business edition, where a team admin can add a custom MCP server. Google labels that feature pre-GA: it’s “subject to the ‘Pre-GA Offerings Terms’” (Gemini Enterprise help). Gemini Enterprise is a separate subscription from Workspace.
So if “staff ask the assistant about our own system” is the main reason you’re buying, Claude Team and ChatGPT Business both support it on the plan you’d buy anyway. With Gemini, it means a second product that’s still in pre-GA. The connector itself is the same MCP server either way. Some work tools already ship their own. GoodDay, a project management app, says it “ships with a native MCP server” and names Claude and Cursor as clients (GoodDay AI page, checked 2026-11-11). For a tool like that, you build nothing. You only need a plan that lets you add a custom connector. Before you connect anyone’s server, ours included, run through 12 safety checks for MCP servers.
Usage limits
None of the three publish a message count for business seats. Anthropic says usage “depends on the length and complexity of your conversations, the model you choose, and the features you use, so there’s no fixed message count”, and that on Team “Standard seats give more than Pro and Premium seats give 5x more than Standard.” OpenAI says Premium includes “5x more usage than Standard seats, no 5-hour usage limit.” Both let a workspace buy extra usage: OpenAI calls it workspace credits, Anthropic calls it extra usage at API rates.
The practical move is the same for both. Start everyone on Standard. After a month, move the two or three people who hit limits to Premium. OpenAI lets owners swap seat types between members with no extra charge. Anthropic lists “Mix and match seat types” on Team.
How to decide in two weeks
- List your three main jobs. For example: answer customer emails, summarize supplier PDFs, look up orders. Our guide to using ChatGPT for business has a list of what works and what doesn’t.
- Run the same jobs on two plans for a week each. Use real but non-sensitive files. Both ChatGPT Business and Claude Team offer monthly billing, so a month on each costs $25 a seat, with a 2-seat minimum.
- Check the admin screens, not just the chat. Who can add connectors, who can see usage, how you remove a leaver.
- Then commit to yearly billing, which saves 20% on both.
If you want AI features built into your own software instead, see our AI integration service.
FAQ
Is ChatGPT Business the same as ChatGPT Team?
Yes. OpenAI says “ChatGPT Team was renamed to ChatGPT Business on August 29, 2025.” Guides that still say “Team” are describing the same plan, often with old prices.
Is Claude Team worth it compared with ChatGPT Business?
At the same $20 price, it comes down to which assistant your team prefers on its own work, and admin needs. Claude Team includes up to $500 a month in pooled API credits and owner-controlled custom connectors. ChatGPT Business allows up to 200 seats against Claude Team’s 150.
Do ChatGPT Business, Claude Team, or Gemini train on my company’s data?
Not by default. OpenAI says it won’t train on Business workspace data. Anthropic lists “No model training on your content by default” for Team. Google says Workspace content isn’t used for model training outside your domain without permission. Consumer plans differ: OpenAI’s pricing page shows “Opt-out available” for training on Free, Go, Plus, and Pro.
Is ChatGPT Business HIPAA compliant?
Not on self-serve. OpenAI says BAAs need “a contracted offering instead of self-serve ChatGPT Business.” Anthropic lists its “HIPAA-ready offering” on Enterprise only.
What is the cheapest AI subscription for a small team?
If you already pay for Google Workspace Business Standard or higher, Gemini is already included. Otherwise ChatGPT Business and Claude Team both start at $40 a month for the 2-seat minimum on yearly billing.
If your team needs the assistant to read your own system, that’s an MCP server, and it works with ChatGPT Business and Claude Team alike. See MCP servers for how we scope one.