ChatGPT vs Claude for Small Business (2026)
By Ethan Halfhide · Updated October 4, 2026
ChatGPT vs Claude is close to a tie on price. Both have a free plan, a personal plan at $20 a month, and a team plan at $25 per person per month, or $20 when billed annually, with a two-seat minimum. What differs is what each plan lists, how each company uses your conversations, and which other software each one connects to. Everything below comes from OpenAI's and Anthropic's own pricing and help pages, checked on October 4, 2026. We did not test either product.
Last verified October 4, 2026
TL;DR: Quick answer
Do not choose on price, because the main plans cost the same. Read the two official feature lists against the work you actually do, run one real task through both free plans, and if the work involves customer or company information, start from a team plan (ChatGPT Business or Claude Team), where both companies say they do not train on your data by default. That default is not permission to share client-confidential or regulated material, so check your client agreements and any rules that cover the data first.
This page is narrow. It sets out what each company publishes about plans, prices, team seats and data use, so a business owner can decide what to pay for. It makes no claim about which assistant writes, reasons or codes better.
| Plan | ChatGPT | Claude |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free: $0 | Free: $0 |
| Low-cost | Go: $8/mo, may include ads | No plan listed |
| Personal | Plus: $20/mo | Pro: $20/mo, or $17/mo annual |
| Heavy use | Pro: $100, $200 or $500/mo | Max: $100 or $200/mo |
| Team seat | Business: $25/mo, or $20 annual | Team: $25/mo, or $20 annual |
| Team size | 2 seats minimum | 2 to 150 seats |
| Premium seat | $125/mo, or $100 annual | $125/mo, or $100 annual |
| Enterprise | Contact sales | $20/seat/mo plus API usage |
Team prices are per person per month, and "annual" means the monthly rate when billed annually. Claude Pro's annual price is charged as $200 up front. ChatGPT Plus and Pro are billed monthly. Claude Max is $100 a month for 5x Pro usage or $200 for 20x, billed monthly. Anthropic's pricing page lists no plan between Free and Pro.
The personal and team seat prices match. The differences are ChatGPT's Go plan, its $500 Pro tier, Claude Pro's annual discount, Claude Team's 150 seat cap, and Enterprise pricing, which Anthropic publishes and OpenAI quotes on request. Anthropic notes that its prices do not include applicable tax.
These are summaries of the feature lines on each official page. The plan cards on the two pricing pages do not give usage limits as message counts. OpenAI's cards use words like "limited", "more" and "expanded". Anthropic's use "more usage" and multiples of Pro. OpenAI's separate Learn pricing page gives estimated ranges of Codex messages per five-hour period for Plus and Business, as estimates and not fixed limits.
Model names on these pages change often. The names above are the ones shown on the check date.
One person: $20 a month on either ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro. Paying Claude Pro annually brings it to $17 a month, charged as $200 up front.
Five people on a team plan: 5 x $25 = $125 a month on either ChatGPT Business or Claude Team with monthly billing. With annual billing it is 5 x $20 x 12 = $1,200 a year on either one.
The smallest team plan is two seats on both, so $50 a month with monthly billing. Premium seats are $125 per person per month on both, or $100 billed annually.
Anthropic says its prices do not include applicable tax. We did not find a tax statement on the OpenAI pages we read, so assume tax may be added there too.
Read this part before anyone on your team uses either assistant with customer details, contracts or financials.
ChatGPT, personal plans. OpenAI says it may use content from its services for individuals to improve its models, and that you can opt out. The switch is under Settings, Data controls: turn off "Improve the model for everyone".
ChatGPT Business and Enterprise. OpenAI says that by default it does not use inputs or outputs from ChatGPT Business, Enterprise, Edu or its API to improve its models. Its Business help page says: "OpenAI won't train on your workspace's data."
Claude, personal plans (Free, Pro, Max). Anthropic's pricing page labels model training on these plans as "Opt-out". Anthropic says chats are used for training if you choose to allow it, if a conversation is flagged for safety review, or if you opt in some other way, and that Incognito chats are not used even when the model improvement setting is on. Check the setting in your own account.
Claude Team and Enterprise. Anthropic's pricing page lists model training as "None by default" on Team and Enterprise. Anthropic says that by default it will not use inputs or outputs from its commercial products to train its models, and it says Claude for Work includes its Team and Enterprise plans. The exceptions are feedback or bug reports you send, or data you choose to allow.
The pattern is the same for both: on a personal plan, training depends on a setting you have to check, and on a business plan your data is excluded from training by default.
A business plan changes the training default: the vendor says it does not train its models on your conversations by default. That is not a promise about security, and it is not permission to share a client's confidential or regulated information. Whether you may do that depends on your contracts and confidentiality agreements with clients, on any law or professional rules that cover the data, such as health, financial or personal data, and on the vendor's own terms for business plans, which this page does not cover, such as how long conversations are kept and who can access them. Check those before anyone pastes in client material. If you are not sure, leave it out.
We read OpenAI's and Anthropic's official pricing pages and help center articles on October 4, 2026, took prices from them and summarised the plan features they list. Figures come from the official pages listed under Sources. We did not test these products, run benchmarks or survey users. Prices and plan contents change often, so check the linked pages before you buy.
The main prices match: $20 a month for one person and $25 per person for a team, on both. So choose on fit. Check the two feature lists for the software you already depend on. If you cannot tell from the lists, run the same real task through both free plans this week and pay for the one whose answer you would have used. Whichever you pick, if the work involves customer information, start from a team plan, because by default the vendor does not train on it. That does not replace checking what your client agreements and any rules covering the data allow. If you are starting with ChatGPT, our guide to ChatGPT for small business covers which plan to pick.
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Get my AI score: it's freeThe main plans cost the same as of October 4, 2026: ChatGPT Plus and Claude Pro are both $20 a month, and both team plans are $25 per person per month billed monthly or $20 billed annually. Claude Pro drops to $17 a month if you pay annually. ChatGPT also has a lower-cost Go plan at $8 a month, which OpenAI says may include ads.
Yes. OpenAI lists a Free plan with unlimited text chats and limited uploads, image creation, voice and deep research. Anthropic lists a Free plan with chat on web, desktop and mobile, web search, file creation and Artifacts. Neither page gives the free limits as numbers.
On business plans, both companies say no by default. OpenAI says it does not use ChatGPT Business, Enterprise or API data to improve its models by default, and Anthropic lists model training as none by default on Team and Enterprise, unless you send feedback or choose to allow it. On personal plans it depends on a setting: OpenAI says it may use conversations to improve its models unless you turn off "Improve the model for everyone", and Anthropic labels its personal plans opt-out. A no-training default is not the same as permission to share a client's confidential or regulated information, so check your client agreements and any rules that cover the data as well.
With monthly billing, 5 x $25 = $125 a month on either ChatGPT Business or Claude Team. With annual billing, 5 x $20 x 12 = $1,200 a year on either one. Both require at least two seats.
Yes. One person paying for ChatGPT Plus and Claude Pro would spend $40 a month. A cheaper way to compare is to use both free plans on the same task first and only pay for the one you keep using.
We did not test them, so this page does not say. Both companies list coding tools on their paid plans: OpenAI lists Codex and Anthropic lists Claude Code. One way to decide is to try both on a real piece of your own work.