Claude vs ChatGPT for business: UK plans, prices, data and how to choose

For most UK businesses, Claude vs ChatGPT is closer than the headlines suggest. On business plans they cost about the same, around £15 per user a month, and neither trains on your data by default. Claude is usually the better pick for long documents, careful writing and connecting to your own systems. ChatGPT is the better all-rounder if you want images, voice and the tool most of your staff already know. Whichever you choose, pay for a business plan, not a personal one.

Prices checked on 13 October 2026 against Anthropic's and OpenAI's UK pricing pages, and data-handling details against their own privacy and business-data pages. Both change often, so check before you buy. A note on where we stand: we build software for clients with Claude, and we connect clients' systems to all three assistants, so we've tried to be fair to both. This is general information, not legal advice.

Claude is made by Anthropic. ChatGPT is made by OpenAI. Both are general-purpose AI assistants that draft, summarise, analyse files, search the web and write code, and both have business plans with admin controls. The differences are in the detail:

• Claude is built around reading and writing. It handles very long documents in one go, its drafts tend to need less tidying, and it has add-ins for Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Outlook on paid plans. Anthropic also created MCP, the open standard many tools now use to connect AI assistants to other software.
• ChatGPT is the broader toolkit. It creates images, has a strong voice mode, connects to Google Workspace, Slack, GitHub and Microsoft 365 on the Business plan, and it's the assistant most of your staff will already have used.

A fair way to think about it: Claude is the careful colleague you hand the 80-page contract to. ChatGPT is the versatile one who can also mock up the poster. For most everyday office work, either will do a good job.

These are the two plans a small or medium-sized firm will usually compare. Both are self-serve, billed per seat, and let you mix cheaper standard seats with premium seats for heavy users.

	Claude Team	ChatGPT Business
Team size	2 to 150 people	2 to 200 people
Standard seat (annual)	£18 a month, including VAT	£15 a month (VAT not stated)
Premium seat (annual)	£90 a month, including VAT, 5x the usage	£75 a month, 5x the usage, no 5-hour limit
Training on your data	None by default	None by default
Single sign-on	Yes	Yes (SAML)
Admin	Central billing, usage analytics, domain verification, control over connectors	Central billing, roles, usage analytics, spend controls, control over third-party GPTs
Office apps	Claude for Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Outlook	Connects to Microsoft 365 files and email
Coding	Claude Code included	Codex included
Not included (Enterprise only)	SCIM, audit logs, custom data retention, role-based access	SCIM, custom role-based access, user analytics

For larger firms, Claude Enterprise is $20 per seat a month (billed annually) plus usage at API rates, and ChatGPT Enterprise is priced by OpenAI's sales team. Both add the compliance features most smaller firms don't need yet: SCIM user provisioning, audit logs and custom data retention.

Plan	Claude	ChatGPT
Free	£0	£0 (ad-supported)
Cheapest paid personal plan	Pro: £15 annual (£180 up front) or £18 monthly	Go: £7 (ad-supported)
Main personal plan	Pro, as above	Plus: £20
Heavy personal use	Max: from £90	Pro: from £89
Business, standard seat	Team: £18 annual or £22.50 monthly	Business: £15 annual or £18 monthly
Business, premium seat	Team: £90 annual or £113 monthly	Business: £75 annual or £90 monthly

Mind the VAT. Anthropic's UK page says its prices include 20% VAT, so a Claude Team standard seat is £15 ex VAT on an annual plan (£18.75 monthly). OpenAI's personal plan prices include VAT, but its Business prices don't say either way, so check at checkout. If the £15 turns out to be before VAT, the two are identical.

For a ten-person firm on annual plans, that's about £1,800 a year ex VAT for ten Claude Team seats, and £1,800 a year for ten ChatGPT Business seats, plus any VAT. For comparison, ten Microsoft 365 Copilot Business seats came to roughly £1,930 a year ex VAT when we priced Copilot on 10 October. Few firms need everyone on a paid seat on day one.

Usage limits. Neither plan gives fixed message counts. Claude's limits reset on a rolling five-hour window with weekly caps on top; a Team standard seat gets more than Pro. OpenAI describes Business as unlimited, subject to abuse guardrails, with premium seats free of the five-hour limit. In practice, heavy users tend to hit Claude's limits sooner, which is what premium seats are for.

Neither wins outright. Here's how they compare on the jobs a typical small firm asks of them. These are our working judgements from using both, not benchmark scores.

Task	Claude	ChatGPT	Our pick
Long documents (contracts, tenders, policies, reports)	Reads very long files in one go; Anthropic lists a context window of up to 1 million tokens, depending on the model	Handles long files well, with smaller limits on some models	Claude
Writing (proposals, letters, policies, difficult emails)	Drafts tend to sound natural and need less editing	Fast and flexible; can need more editing to lose the AI tone	Claude, narrowly
Spreadsheets and analysis	Runs code on uploaded files; add-in works inside Excel	Runs code on uploaded files, with charts; strong at quick analysis	Even
Research	Web search and longer research tasks on paid plans	Web search and longer research tasks	Even
Coding and small scripts	Claude Code included on paid plans	Codex included on paid plans	Even; we use Claude
Images and graphics	Doesn't create photos or illustrations; makes charts, diagrams and designs	Creates images on every plan	ChatGPT
Voice conversations	Voice mode available	Mature voice mode	ChatGPT
Connecting to other systems	Connectors on every plan, including your own via MCP	Apps for major tools; custom MCP apps for admins (beta)	Claude, narrowly

The honest summary: if your work is mostly reading, writing and checking documents, Claude is usually the better fit. If it's a mix of writing, images, quick research and people who just want the tool they already know, ChatGPT is. The gap between them on everyday tasks is smaller than the gap between using either well and using it badly.

On business plans, no, not by default. The risk sits with personal accounts.

• Claude Team and Enterprise: Anthropic says it won't use inputs or outputs from its commercial products for training by default. The exception is feedback: a chat someone rates with a thumbs up or down can be kept for up to five years, and Team owners can switch rating off for the whole organisation. Deleted chats are removed from Anthropic's systems within 30 days.
• ChatGPT Business and Enterprise: OpenAI says it doesn't train on business data by default, encrypts it at rest and in transit, and offers a Data Processing Addendum. Custom retention periods are for qualifying Enterprise customers.
• Personal plans (Claude Free, Pro and Max; ChatGPT Free, Go, Plus and Pro): no business contract, and chats can be used for training unless each person switches it off. Anthropic says that where training is switched on, chats can be kept for up to five years. Keep client and personal data out of personal accounts.

Where the data is stored. OpenAI offers UK data residency for eligible ChatGPT Enterprise customers, though not on Business. We couldn't find UK data residency for Claude's own apps on Anthropic's pages when we checked, so if that's a hard requirement, ask Anthropic's sales team before you commit.

We've covered what staff should never paste in, and how to write it into a one-page policy, in our free AI policy template, so we won't repeat it here.

For a firm of 5 to 50 people, the Team and Business plans cover what matters:

• Sign-in: both support single sign-on, so people use their work account and lose access when they leave. Claude Team also verifies your domain; ChatGPT Business supports multi-factor authentication.
• Billing: one bill, seats added mid-term, and a mix of standard and premium seats. Claude Team takes card payment only; invoicing needs Enterprise.
• Connections: on Claude Team, only owners can add connectors for the organisation; members then switch them on. On ChatGPT Business, admins control which apps and third-party GPTs are allowed.
• Usage: both show basic usage analytics, so you can see who's actually using their seat.

What you don't get below Enterprise on either: automatic user provisioning (SCIM), audit logs and custom retention. If your clients or insurers ask for those, budget for Enterprise.

Yes, and this is where an assistant goes from handy to genuinely useful. Out of the box, both work on what you type, paste or upload. Connected, they can look things up in your own tools.

• Claude has a directory of ready-made connectors on every plan, and lets you add your own through MCP (Model Context Protocol), the open standard Anthropic created for connecting AI to other software. Free accounts get one custom connector; paid plans have no stated limit. Its Microsoft 365 add-ins put it inside Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Outlook.
• ChatGPT Business connects to Google Workspace, Slack, GitHub, Microsoft 365 and more. Custom MCP apps, including ones that can make changes, are in beta for Business and Enterprise, and only admins and owners can switch them on.

MCP is now supported by both, so a connector built for one usually works with the other. That's useful: you aren't locked in. If a ready-made connector exists for your accounts package or CRM, start there. If your data lives in a job system or spreadsheet nobody makes a connector for, that's when a small custom one is worth building.

Claude

• No image generation. If you want social graphics or mock-up photos, you'll need another tool.
• Usage limits bite sooner for heavy users on standard seats, so a few people may need premium seats.
• Team plans stop at 150 people, and payment is by card only below Enterprise.
• No UK data residency that we could find for its own apps.

ChatGPT

• Drafts can sound generic and often need a firmer edit before they go to a client.
• Custom connections to your own systems are still in beta and admin-only on Business.
• UK data residency is Enterprise-only.
• Because so many staff use it personally, the risk of client data going into personal accounts is higher. A business plan and a short policy fix most of that.

If your business runs on Microsoft 365, add Copilot to the shortlist. Copilot Chat comes with eligible Microsoft 365 business plans at no extra cost, and the paid version works across your emails, meetings and files. It's the easiest safe starting point for a Microsoft 365 firm, but it only sees what's in Microsoft 365. Our Copilot vs ChatGPT comparison covers its plans, UK prices and licensing in detail.

Plenty of firms end up with two: Copilot Chat for everyone, plus a handful of Claude or ChatGPT seats for the people who write, research or analyse the most.

• Your work is mostly documents: contracts, tenders, specifications, policies or reports. Claude Team.
• You want one tool for writing, images and quick research: ChatGPT Business.
• You live in Excel: try Claude's Excel add-in on a Team seat for a month, alongside ChatGPT on an uploaded copy of the same file, and keep whichever your team actually uses.
• You want AI to work from your own systems: either works; Claude's connectors are a little further along today. Check which ready-made connectors exist for your tools first.
• You're on Microsoft 365 and new to AI: start with Copilot Chat, then add a few Claude or ChatGPT seats where it falls short.
• You have more than 150 people, or need UK data residency: ChatGPT Enterprise, or talk to Anthropic's sales team about Claude Enterprise.
• Staff already pay for ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro themselves: move them onto a business plan you control, whichever brand it is.

If you can't decide, run both for a month. Two seats of each costs well under £100 on monthly billing. Give each the same three real tasks, and see which one people keep opening in week four.

Claude and ChatGPT are general assistants. Neither knows how you price a job, which supplier rates are current, what's in your job management system, or how your monthly report is put together, unless someone tells it or connects it.

For drafting, summarising and research, that doesn't matter. It matters for repeated, data-heavy work, such as quoting from your own rates or producing the same report every month. That needs the assistant connected to your data, or a small tool built around your process. For example, a UK specialist supplier we worked with went from about 1–2 hours to about 5 minutes per quote with a quoting tool built around its own pricing.

Ready-made connectors are improving month by month, so check those first. Bespoke work only makes sense when they don't fit.

Frequently asked questions

Is Claude better than ChatGPT?

For long documents and careful writing, usually yes. For images, voice and an all-in-one toolkit, ChatGPT is better. On business plans they cost about the same and neither trains on your data by default, so the right choice depends on the work you'll give it.

What can Claude do that ChatGPT can't?

Not much that ChatGPT can't attempt, but Claude handles very long documents in one go, works inside Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Outlook through add-ins, and lets every plan add custom connectors to other systems. ChatGPT, in turn, creates images, which Claude doesn't.

Why are people switching from ChatGPT to Claude?

The reasons people give are mostly about writing that sounds less like AI, better handling of long documents, and coding. For a business, switching is cheap to test: both have monthly plans, so you can run them side by side on real work before committing.

Is Claude Pro or ChatGPT Plus OK for business use?

They're personal plans. There's no business contract, and chats can be used for training unless the user switches it off. They're fine for public information. For client or personal data, use Claude Team, ChatGPT Business or another business plan.

Is Claude free?

There's a free plan with limited usage, Sonnet and Haiku models, web search and connectors. Claude Pro is £18 a month (or £15 a month paid annually) including VAT, and Claude Team starts at £18 per user a month on an annual plan.

Can we use Claude and ChatGPT together?

Yes. Some firms give most staff one and a few heavy users the other. Keep both on business plans, cover both in one AI policy, and remember that connectors built on MCP generally work with either.

If you've picked your assistant and want it working from your own systems, such as your accounts, CRM or job records, our free guide covers it step by step for Claude, ChatGPT and Copilot: connect ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot to your business, safely.

IT providers: you're welcome to share this page with clients. See how we work alongside MSPs on our partner page.

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