Quick answer
There is no single winner. Claude (Anthropic) and ChatGPT (OpenAI) are both general chat assistants, and the right one depends on your tasks, plan prices and data settings. As of October 7, 2026, Claude Pro is $20 billed monthly, ChatGPT Plus is $20 a month, and each lists a team seat at $20 billed annually.
Key takeaways
- Both are general chat assistants from different companies; this page names no winner, and the choice turns on your tasks, the price on the day and your data settings.
- As of October 7, 2026, each vendor's own page lists a team standard seat at $20 billed annually, or $25 billed monthly.
- On individual plans each vendor documents a setting that controls whether your chats are used for training; on their team plans each page says there is no training on your content by default.
- Both can connect to outside apps, and each vendor's help page ties what is available to plan or settings, so check each vendor's connector list for the exact app before paying.
- Test your three most common tasks on both free plans before you buy a seat.
Should a small business use Claude or ChatGPT?
There is no single winner. Claude (from Anthropic) and ChatGPT (from OpenAI) are both general chat assistants, and the right one depends on your tasks, the plan price on the day and the data settings you need. This page does not rank them or use a benchmark.
The tables use only each vendor's own pages, checked on October 7, 2026.
For the wider picture of where an assistant fits, start with our practical guide to AI automation for small business.
What do Claude and ChatGPT cost for a small business?
As of October 7, 2026, both vendors list a free plan, a paid individual plan at $20 a month billed monthly, and a team standard seat at $20 a seat billed annually. The table is a dated snapshot, not a quote.
| As of October 7, 2026 | Claude (Anthropic) | ChatGPT (OpenAI) |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | $0, "free for everyone" | The free version "is available to everyone" |
| Paid individual plan | Pro: $20 if billed monthly, or $17 a month on the annual subscription | Plus: $20 a month, billed monthly; OpenAI's help page says annual billing is not supported for Plus |
| Team plan, per seat | Standard seat: $20 per seat a month if billed annually, $25 if billed monthly | Business standard seat: $20 a month if billed annually, $25 a month if billed monthly |
| Team size listed | 2 to 150 | 2-200 |
| Other tiers | Max, premium seat, Enterprise: see the pricing page | Go, Pro, premium seat, Enterprise: see the pricing page |
Read from Colombia, OpenAI's pricing pages displayed Colombian pesos, and prices can differ by country. The ChatGPT Plus figure comes from OpenAI's help page, which prints dollars. The Business seat dollar figures are the caption text under the price displayed from our location, which was in local currency. Claude's page showed dollars. ChatGPT Go appeared only in pesos, so it is left out.
Caveats. Anthropic's page says prices do not include applicable tax, that usage limits apply, and that price and plans are subject to change at its discretion. OpenAI's help page says Plus subscriptions may include usage limits, such as message caps. OpenAI's individual pricing page says of the Go plan "This plan may include ads."; the other plan blocks there and Anthropic's pricing page say nothing about ads on the pages we read.
How do their data and training settings differ?
On individual plans, each vendor documents a setting that decides whether your chats are used for training, and on team and business plans each says there is no training on your content by default.
| As of October 7, 2026 | Claude (Anthropic) | ChatGPT (OpenAI) |
|---|---|---|
| Individual plans (Free, Pro, Max / Free, Go, Plus, Pro) | Anthropic's privacy article on consumer products: "you choose to allow us to use your chats and coding sessions to improve Claude" | OpenAI's policy: "we may use your content to train our models. You can opt out of training through our privacy portal" |
| Where to change it | Model-improvement setting in privacy settings | "Improve the model for everyone" in Data controls, or the privacy portal |
| Chats kept out of training | "Your incognito chats are not used to improve Claude, even if you have enabled model improvement in your privacy settings" | Temporary chats "are not used to improve OpenAI models" |
| Feedback buttons | Thumbs up/down stores the related conversation, which Anthropic may use to "train our AI models" | Thumbs up/down: "the entire conversation associated with that feedback may be used to train OpenAI models" |
| Team and business plans | Pricing page, Team: "no model training on your content by default" | Data controls page: "By default, OpenAI does not use content from ChatGPT Business, Enterprise, Edu, or ChatGPT for Healthcare workspaces to train its models" |
Both vendors' pricing pages label model training on individual plans as opt-out: Anthropic's row reads "Opt-out" and OpenAI's reads "Opt-out available". Anthropic's privacy article words the same default as a choice to allow, so read both. Anthropic's article lists conversations "flagged for safety review" as a case where chats may be used; OpenAI's data controls page says temporary chats "may be retained for up to 30 days for safety purposes". One is about use, the other about storage.
If you handle regulated data such as patient records, read the vendor's contract terms and ask your adviser first.
How do apps and file connections compare?
Both assistants can connect to outside apps, and each vendor's help page ties what is available to plan or settings, so check each vendor's list for the exact app you use.
Anthropic's help page says web connectors are available for all users, that on team and enterprise plans an owner needs to enable them, and that Claude inherits each person's permissions from the connected service. Separately, for connectors you add yourself by web address (custom connectors), it says "Free users are limited to one custom connector", and that on Team and Enterprise plans "Connectors are only available in private projects". OpenAI's help page says app availability depends on the app, your ChatGPT plan, region, workspace, role, model and interface. For its event-triggered tasks it says "The task can access only the connected account and information allowed by its existing app permissions"; that sentence covers those tasks, not every connection.
On the business side, OpenAI's pricing page lists Google Workspace, Slack, GitHub, Microsoft 365 and more, and Anthropic's Team plan lists Microsoft 365, @Claude and more.
On the office-suite side, Anthropic's pricing page lists Claude in Chrome, Claude for Microsoft 365 and Claude for Microsoft Outlook as not on Free and included from Pro up. OpenAI's pricing page lists Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Google Sheets extensions as limited on Free and Go and included on Plus. These are different integrations, so a "yes" on both does not mean they work the same way.
Which one fits which task?
Start from what you do each week, and test both on your own files. The pages cannot tell you which answer will suit your customers; they show which features each lists, and each suggestion below rests on one.
- Drafting emails and replies. Check each vendor's connector list for your inbox, whether Gmail or Outlook. Anthropic's pricing page names Claude for Microsoft Outlook from Pro, and OpenAI's help page names new Gmail messages as an event for triggered tasks; each is one example, not a full list. Then try both on your own task. See our AI email responder guide.
- Summarising long PDFs. Both publish limits, in different units. Anthropic's pricing page lists a context window that "varies by model" and gives no page count. OpenAI lists, for Plus, an input maximum of about 40 pages of text for its instant responses and about 320 pages for its reasoning responses. So upload your longest real document to each and check.
- Spreadsheets and quotes. Anthropic's pricing page lists creating and editing files with code execution on every individual plan, including Free. OpenAI's lists data analysis as limited on Free and included from Go, and Excel and Google Sheets extensions from Plus. Check the arithmetic before a number goes into a quote.
- Meeting notes. OpenAI's pricing page lists a record mode: not on Free or Go, included on Plus and Pro. The Claude pricing page, as read on October 7, 2026, has a plan table that lists no recording feature. That describes the page, not what Claude can do. If you use Claude, our page on AI meeting notes compares the tools built for this job.
- A team that shares prompts and files. Both list team plans from two people, with no training on your content by default. Compare admin features on each pricing page.
To decide from listed facts: OpenAI's page lists record mode on Plus and Pro only, so check that line if meetings matter; compare the Microsoft 365 lines on both pages if you live in Office; and confirm your headcount fits the listed team sizes, 2 to 150 for Claude's Team plan and 2-200 for ChatGPT Business.
What should you do this week?
Run the same three real tasks on both free plans, then buy one seat of whichever you would reopen tomorrow. Pick weekly tasks, such as a customer reply, a one-page summary and a price table.
- Strip names and account numbers from test material.
- Paste the same inputs and prompt into both free plans.
- Score each answer on whether you could send it with light edits.
- Check the training setting for your plan before customer details go in.
- Buy a monthly seat, not an annual one, until you have used it for a month. The annual team price is the lower one, so you trade a few dollars for freedom to leave.
Switching costs are mostly your saved prompts, so keep them in your own document.
How was this page made?
It was built from each vendor's own public pages, opened on October 7, 2026, and every price and plan statement is tied to a sentence on those pages. No third-party review, benchmark or video was used for a vendor fact. This page was drafted with Claude, an AI model made by Anthropic, and checked against each vendor's published material on October 7, 2026.
What is missing: ChatGPT Go's price appeared only in local currency, so it is left out. We do not name models, because this page compares plans. Re-check prices before you buy.
FAQ
Is Claude better than ChatGPT?
This page cannot say, and we did not use a benchmark. What differs in the vendors' own documents is plans, prices, features, data settings and connected apps. Run your own three tasks on both free plans and compare the results.
Can I use the free plans for my business?
Both vendors offer a free plan. ChatGPT's own FAQ says its Free plan is designed for individuals, and on both vendors' individual plans training depends on a setting you control. If client details go in, read the data table first or use a team plan.
Do I need a team plan or can I share one login?
Use separate seats. ChatGPT's own pricing FAQ says its Go, Free and Plus plans are designed to be used by individuals, and Claude lists a team plan for groups of 2 to 150; the Anthropic pages we read make no equivalent statement about individual plans either way. A team plan also changes the training default.
What do the prices include?
Anthropic's pricing page says its prices do not include applicable tax, that usage limits apply, and that price and plans can change at its discretion. OpenAI's help page says Plus subscriptions may include usage limits. Check both pages on the day you buy.
Can I switch later?
Both vendors' pages list monthly billing for the plans compared here, so a month on one costs little.