For most businesses, the Microsoft Copilot vs ChatGPT question is answered by the software you already pay for: Copilot if your company runs on Outlook, Teams and Excel, Gemini if it runs on Gmail and Google Docs, and ChatGPT or Claude for deep work on documents, analysis and writing. The suite tools win on convenience. The standalone tools usually win on reach and flexibility. Plenty of companies end up paying for one of each.
Disclosure: Qartmina is an OpenAI Select Partner. We use and deploy all four tools for clients, and this comparison doesn't favour any of them.
This article is part of our guide to AI agents for business. Every price and feature below was checked on the vendor's own pages on 24 October 2026.
Quick answer by software stack
Start from what your team opens at 9:00 every morning.
| Your stack | Start with | Add if needed |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 (Outlook, Teams, Excel, SharePoint) | Microsoft Copilot | ChatGPT or Claude seats for heavy writing and analysis |
| Google Workspace (Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Meet) | Gemini, already in most Workspace plans | ChatGPT or Claude seats for the same reason |
| Mixed, or mostly other tools (CRM, ERP, Slack) | ChatGPT Business or Claude Team | Connectors to the systems you use |
An assistant inside your email and files saves you the copy and paste. One outside them is more flexible, but you have to feed it.
What each tool is
Microsoft Copilot (sold as Microsoft 365 Copilot) is Microsoft's assistant inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams. Its edge is that it can reach your company's own emails, chats, meetings and files. Microsoft states that Copilot only shows a user data they already have at least view permission for. The free Copilot Chat doesn't connect to your files, emails or chats. That's what you're paying for.
ChatGPT is OpenAI's assistant. Companies buy it as ChatGPT Business (formerly Team) or ChatGPT Enterprise. It's a separate app that, on the Business plan, connects to Google Workspace, Slack, GitHub, Microsoft 365 and more. You bring the work to it.
Claude is Anthropic's assistant, sold to companies as Claude Team or Claude Enterprise. Like ChatGPT, it's a standalone app with connectors. Anthropic also offers Claude for Excel, PowerPoint and Word on all paid plans, with Claude for Outlook in beta, plus an add-on for Google Docs, Sheets and Slides.
Gemini is Google's assistant, and for businesses it comes inside Google Workspace. Google lists Gemini in Gmail on the Starter plan, and in Gmail, Docs, Meet and more from Business Standard upwards.
A connector is a link that lets the assistant read from, or act in, another system like your CRM. More in how to connect an AI agent to your ERP and CRM.
Microsoft Copilot vs ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini: comparison table
| Microsoft Copilot | ChatGPT Business / Enterprise | Claude Team / Enterprise | Gemini in Workspace | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Where it lives | Inside Microsoft 365 apps | Own app, plus extensions | Own app, plus extensions | Inside Google Workspace apps |
| Reads your company files and email | Yes, within user permissions | Through connectors you enable | Through connectors you enable | Yes, within user permissions |
| Meeting notes | Copilot in Teams meetings | Record mode (Mac app) | Not part of its Microsoft 365 apps | "Take notes for me" in Meet |
| Trains on business data by default | No | No | No | No |
| Where we see it fit best | Work inside Outlook, Teams, Excel | Broad tasks, research, analysis | Long documents, careful writing | Work inside Gmail, Docs, Sheets |
Now the money. List prices per user per month in US dollars, as checked on 24 October 2026, excluding tax. We've added any base licence the AI needs, because that's what you'll actually pay.
| Tool and plan | AI price | Base licence needed | Real cost per user per month | Billing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Copilot, small business (up to 300 users) | $21 add-on ($18 first-year promotion until 31 Dec 2026) | An eligible Microsoft 365 business plan, e.g. Business Basic at $7 | $28 with Business Basic ($25 during the promotion) | Annual commitment |
| Copilot, small business bundle | Included | Included | $23.50 Business Standard with Copilot, $32 Business Premium with Copilot | Annual commitment, paid yearly |
| Copilot, enterprise | $30 add-on | Microsoft 365 E3 at $39 or E5 at $60 | $69 on E3, $90 on E5. E7 at $99 includes Copilot | Annual commitment ($31.50 add-on if paid monthly) |
| ChatGPT Business | $20 standard seat, $100 premium seat | None | $20 ($25 if billed monthly) | Annual or monthly |
| ChatGPT Enterprise | Not published | None | Contact sales | Annual |
| Claude Team | $20 standard seat, $100 premium seat | None | $20 ($25 if billed monthly) | Annual or monthly |
| Claude Enterprise | $20 per seat plus usage at API rates | None | $20 plus usage, minimum 20 seats | Annual only |
| Gemini in Workspace | Included in the plan | Workspace Business Starter, Standard or Plus | $7 Starter (Gmail only), $14 Standard, $22 Plus | Annual commitment, billed monthly |
Sources: Microsoft's small business Copilot page, business plans page, enterprise Copilot page and enterprise plans page; OpenAI business pricing; Claude pricing; Google Workspace pricing.
Four things the table hides:
- ChatGPT and Claude don't replace your email suite. You'll still pay for Microsoft 365 or Workspace. So if you're a Microsoft company, compare Copilot's add-on with a ChatGPT or Claude seat, not with the bundle.
- Monthly billing costs more. Microsoft lists $38.40 and $28.20 for its two bundles on monthly billing. Google says an annual commitment saves 16% compared with its flexible plan.
- Prices vary by country. Checking the Google page from Germany, Business Standard showed €13.60 instead of $14. Get a local quote.
- Usage limits apply. ChatGPT and Claude both sell a premium seat with five times the usage of a standard one. Microsoft mentions usage-based billing for some advanced Copilot features.
Which tool for which task
Email and meetings
This is where the suite tools earn their price. In Teams, Microsoft says Copilot summarises key discussion points, including who said what, and suggests action items, during or after the meeting. Google's "Take notes for me" in Meet captures notes in a Google Doc and shares them with the team, in eight languages including English, French and German.
ChatGPT's record mode transcribes and summarises meetings too, but only in the Mac desktop app for now, with sessions capped at four hours. Claude's Microsoft 365 apps cover Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint, not Teams meetings.
Say your sales manager has eight client calls a week and wants a follow-up drafted after each. On Teams, that's Copilot's job. On Meet, it's Gemini's.
Long documents
For a 120-page tender file, what matters is the context window: how much text the model can consider at once (explained in AI agent token cost).
OpenAI lists a context window of 256,000 tokens for its reasoning models on Business, which it puts at about 320 pages of input. Anthropic lists up to 1 million tokens, depending on the model. Microsoft and Google don't publish a comparable figure on their plan pages, so we won't guess.
Bigger isn't always better. For a whole library of contracts, a proper knowledge base usually beats pasting everything in.
Analysis
Ask "why did gross margin drop in Q3?" and all four can help, in different ways. ChatGPT and Claude are good when you upload an export and ask open questions. Copilot and Gemini are better when the data's already in your workbook and you want the answer there.
Our rule: check every number against the source before it goes into a board pack. They still make arithmetic slips.
Writing
All four write well. What differs is where the draft lands. Claude for Word edits with tracked changes and replies to comment threads, which suits legal and HR teams who review line by line. Copilot and Gemini draft straight into Word or Docs. ChatGPT is handy for blank-page first drafts: a marketing brief, a job ad, a customer letter. Whichever you use, give it two or three samples of writing you like. That matters more than the tool.
Excel
Microsoft says Copilot in Excel builds and edits workbooks using tables, charts, PivotTables and formulas, across several sheets, and that it shows a plan you can confirm before it changes anything. That's the native option.
Claude for Excel builds models with formulas across several tabs and highlights the cells it changes. ChatGPT Business includes Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Google Sheets extensions. If your finance team lives in Google Sheets, Gemini in Sheets comes with Business Standard and up.
An illustrative case: your controller is rebuilding a 12-month cash forecast. With an in-workbook assistant, the formulas stay in the file where auditors can check them. With a chat window, someone has to rebuild the answer in Excel by hand. For audited work, we'd pick the in-workbook route.
Running two tools side by side
Two tools is normal. Here's the pattern we see most:
- One suite assistant for everyone. Copilot or Gemini, because email, meetings and files are where most people spend their day.
- A smaller group of standalone seats (ChatGPT or Claude) for the people who do heavy analysis, research and writing: finance, strategy, marketing, legal.
Illustrative maths for a 50-person Microsoft company: Copilot Business for all 50 at $21 is $1,050 a month. Adding 10 ChatGPT Business or Claude Team standard seats at $20 adds $200. Each group gets the tool that fits.
Set one written data rule for both, name one owner, and review after three months. Cancel seats nobody opens.
Data and model training
All four vendors make the same core commitment on their business plans: your company's data doesn't train their models by default.
- Microsoft states that prompts, responses and data accessed through Microsoft Graph aren't used to train foundation models. Copilot is covered by the EU Data Boundary. Microsoft also notes that in busy periods requests can be routed to data centres in other regions, with extra safeguards for EU users.
- OpenAI says it does not train on ChatGPT Business or Enterprise data by default, unless you opt in, for example through feedback. Enterprise admins control retention. Data residency in ten regions, including the EU and UAE, is listed for Enterprise, not Business.
- Anthropic says it won't use inputs or outputs from its commercial products to train models by default. Feedback sent with the thumbs up or down button is the exception. The Enterprise plan adds custom data retention controls and audit logs.
- Google says your Workspace content is not reviewed by humans or used to train generative AI models outside your domain without permission, and that Gemini follows existing sharing permissions. Data regions are listed on the Enterprise plan.
Two practical points matter more than the fine print. The suite tools see whatever a user can see, so if your SharePoint or Drive permissions are messy, they'll surface files people shouldn't find. Clean up access first. And tell staff not to send feedback on chats that contain client data. For the legal side, see our guide to AI agents, GDPR and the EU AI Act, and for the risks once these tools start taking actions, AI agent security.
How to decide
The whole decision takes about a month, not a quarter:
- List five real tasks per department. "Summarise supplier emails", not "use AI".
- Match each task to where its data lives. Email and meetings point to Copilot or Gemini. Exports and research point to ChatGPT or Claude.
- Trial with 5 to 10 people for a month. All four offer trials or monthly billing on smaller plans.
- Measure minutes saved per task. Even a rough log beats opinions.
- Buy for the groups that saved time. Not for the whole company on day one.
If a vendor calls their tool the best AI for business, full stop, ask which tasks they tested. Then test yours. For where these tools are heading, see AI trends for 2027. If you'd like help running the trial, that's part of our AI consulting work.
FAQ
Is Microsoft Copilot better than ChatGPT for business?
Neither is better across the board. Copilot is the stronger fit if your company lives in Outlook, Teams and Excel, because it works inside those apps on your own files and emails. ChatGPT is the stronger fit for open-ended work like research, drafting and analysis on documents you bring to it. Many companies end up using both.
How much does Microsoft Copilot cost per user?
As checked on 24 October 2026, Microsoft lists the Copilot Business add-on at $21 per user per month on an annual plan, on top of an eligible Microsoft 365 plan, or bundles like Business Standard with Copilot at $23.50. For large companies, the Copilot add-on is $30 per user per month on top of a plan such as Microsoft 365 E3 at $39. Prices exclude tax and vary by region.
Do ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot and Gemini train on our company data?
Not by default on their business plans. OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft and Google all state this on their own privacy pages. The main exception is feedback: if staff choose to share a conversation as feedback, OpenAI and Anthropic say that data can be used to train their models, so set an internal rule on it.
Can we use two AI tools at the same time?
Yes, and it's common. A typical setup is Copilot or Gemini for everyone, inside email and meetings, plus a smaller group of ChatGPT or Claude seats for analysts, writers and managers who do heavy document and analysis work. Set one data rule for both, and review usage after three months.
Which AI tool is best for Excel?
If you work in desktop Excel every day, Copilot is the native option and edits workbooks with tables, charts, PivotTables and formulas. Claude for Excel and the ChatGPT Excel extension also work inside the workbook. If your spreadsheets live in Google Sheets, Gemini in Sheets is included from Business Standard upwards.
Not sure which tool fits your team? Book a call and we'll map your real tasks to the right one, or the right two.
