Claude vs ChatGPT for business: which one should you choose?

At ezacae, the whole team works with Claude every day. The prices, limits and data rules in this article come from the official Anthropic and OpenAI pages, checked on October 22, 2026.

You want to give your team an AI assistant and you are torn between the two names that come up everywhere. Here is, use case by use case, what each one does, what it costs for 5 or 10 people, what it limits and what it does with your data.

Claude vs ChatGPT: what is the difference?

Claude and ChatGPT are two conversational AI assistants of the same kind: you write to them, they answer, draft, analyze and take action. Claude is made by Anthropic, ChatGPT by OpenAI. Each runs on several AI models, more or less powerful depending on your subscription.

As of October 22, 2026, Claude offers four models: Haiku 5.5, Sonnet 5.5, Opus 5.5 and Fable 5.1, the most powerful. The free tier gives access to Sonnet and Haiku, the Pro plan adds Opus, and Fable is reserved for the Max, Team Premium and Enterprise plans, according to Anthropic’s release notes and pricing page.

On the ChatGPT side, GPT-6 is rolling out on the Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise plans, and GPT-6 Pro is reserved for the Pro, Business and Enterprise plans. The Free and Go plans use GPT-5.6 Luna, according to OpenAI’s help center.

Which tool for which use case?

For most office tasks, both do the job: writing, summarizing, analyzing a file, searching the web. The real differences are image creation, the tier from which each feature is included, and integrations with office tools.

Use case	Claude	ChatGPT
Write, summarize, rephrase	Yes, free tier	Yes, free tier
Search the web	Yes, free tier	Yes, free tier
Work on a file or data	File creation and code execution, free tier	File and data analysis, free tier
In-depth research (a report on a topic from many sources)	Research, from the Pro plan	Deep Research, from the Plus plan
Work in Excel	Claude for Microsoft 365, from the Pro plan	Excel, PowerPoint and Google Sheets add-ons in the Business plan
Code with an agent	Claude Code, from the Pro plan	Codex, free tier (limited version)
Create an image	No: diagrams, charts and interactive visuals only	Yes, free tier
Work as a team	Team plan, from 2 to 150 people	Business plan, from 2 people

Sources: Anthropic and OpenAI pricing pages and help centers, checked on October 22, 2026 (links at the end of the article).

If your team produces visuals for social media or presentations, this is the only use case in the table where one of the two falls short. For everything else, the gap depends on the subscription more than on the tool.

Claude vs ChatGPT for coding

Both vendors offer a coding agent, meaning an assistant that reads a project’s code, changes it and runs commands: Claude Code at Anthropic, Codex at OpenAI. The official difference is access: Codex is included in ChatGPT’s free tier, Claude Code starts with the Pro plan.

According to the Codex pricing page, the Free and Go plans only give access to the GPT-6 Luna model, in the desktop app, subject to the rollout schedule. The Plus plan states an indicative range of 15 to 160 messages per 5-hour window on GPT-6.1 Sol. At Anthropic, Claude Code is included in the Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans, according to Claude’s pricing page.

On the quality of the code produced, neither vendor publishes a neutral comparison with its competitor, and we draw no verdict here. If you want to go further on these agents, our article on Hermes Agent explains what sets an agent apart from a simple chatbot.

Which one creates images?

ChatGPT creates images, even on the free tier. Claude does not: it produces diagrams, charts and interactive visuals, but no illustrations or photos.

Anthropic’s help center puts it this way: “Claude doesn’t generate photos or illustrations the way image-generation tools do.” Claude’s release notes from July to October 2026 announce no image generation. On the OpenAI side, the free tier FAQ lists image creation among the included features.

Claude vs ChatGPT pricing for a team of 5 to 10 people

For a team, both subscriptions cost exactly the same: $20 per user per month excl. tax billed annually, $25 billed monthly. For 5 people, budget $100 per month excl. tax on annual billing; for 10 people, $200, according to Claude’s pricing page and the ChatGPT Business page on October 22, 2026.

Plan	Claude	ChatGPT
Free	$0	$0
Entry level	No equivalent	Go: $8 per month
Individual	Pro: $20 per month, or $17 per month billed annually	Plus: $20 per month, monthly only
Individual, heavy use	Max: $100 or $200 per month	Pro: $100, $200 or $500 per month
Team, standard seat	Team: $25 per month, or $20 billed annually	Business: $25 per month, or $20 billed annually
Team, premium seat	Team: $125 per month, or $100 billed annually	Business: $125 per month, or $100 billed annually
Large company	Enterprise: $20 per seat per month billed annually, plus usage billed at API rates, 20 seats minimum	Enterprise: custom quote

Prices in US dollars excl. tax, per user for team plans. Sources: Claude pricing, Max plan, ChatGPT plans, ChatGPT Pro, ChatGPT Business, checked on October 22, 2026.

Two notes if you budget in euros. Claude’s French pricing page only shows prices in dollars. The French ChatGPT Business page shows “21 € par mois” for the standard seat and “105 € par mois” for the premium seat, without saying whether these prices include tax.

Claude vs ChatGPT usage limits by plan

Neither vendor publishes a numbered quota that would tell you which one is more generous. Each describes its limits in its own way, often as multiples of another tier.

At Claude, paid plans have a per-session limit, which resets every 5 hours, and a weekly limit, with no published number, according to Anthropic’s help center. The Pro plan gives at least 5 times the usage of the free tier, the Max plan 5 or 20 times that of Pro. On the Team plan, a standard seat gives more usage than the Pro plan, and a premium seat 5 times that of a standard seat.

At ChatGPT, the Free and Go plans advertise unlimited text chats, but files, images, voice and data analysis have their own limits, according to OpenAI’s help center. The Business plan shows “Unlimited*” for everyday chats, the asterisk pointing to fair use. It also sets precise caps on some models: 15 messages per month with the Pro model for a standard seat, 50 per week for a premium seat, according to the Business plan limits page. Even the ChatGPT Pro plan does not include unlimited use of the GPT-6 Pro model.

In practice, for a team, the premium seat is both vendors’ answer to heavy users: 5 times the usage of a standard seat, at one as at the other.

Claude vs ChatGPT privacy: what happens to your company data?

On team and enterprise plans, neither Anthropic nor OpenAI uses your conversations to train their models by default, and both provide the data processing agreement required by the GDPR. The difference is where data is stored: Claude stores data in the US, ChatGPT offers Europe on its Enterprise plan.

The details, offer by offer:

• Claude Team and Enterprise: “By default, we will not use your inputs or outputs from our commercial products” to train models, except for feedback your users choose to send, according to Anthropic’s privacy center. The data processing agreement, with the European Union standard contractual clauses, is included in the commercial terms.
• Claude storage: “Note that data is stored in the US”; processing may go through Europe, with no guaranteed storage in Europe, according to Anthropic.
• ChatGPT Business and Enterprise: no training by default, and OpenAI signs a data processing agreement, according to its enterprise privacy page. The Enterprise plan can store and process data in Europe (help center). For the Business plan, storage in Europe is rolling out, and a copy of each exchange stays stored in the US for abuse detection (help center).
• Individual plans: at Claude (Free, Pro, Max), each user chooses whether their conversations are used for training, under Settings, Privacy; they are kept for 5 years if the user agrees, 30 days otherwise, according to Anthropic. At ChatGPT (Free, Go, Plus), conversations may be used for training, with an option to opt out.

If your staff use individual accounts today for company documents, they, not the company, control this setting. That is the strongest argument for moving to a team plan, whichever vendor you pick. To frame that move, see our AI implementation services.

Should you get both?

For most teams, no: at the same price and with similar use cases, a single tool for everyone keeps the budget, contracts and internal rules simple. The case that justifies a second subscription is a regular need for images, which Claude does not cover.

Taking both team subscriptions doubles the budget: $400 per month excl. tax for 10 people billed annually, instead of $200, based on prices as of October 22, 2026. A middle ground is to keep a ChatGPT subscription only for the people who produce visuals. If your data must stay in Europe, that criterion comes before all others and points to the ChatGPT Enterprise plan.

The bottom line

Claude and ChatGPT are on par for most office work and cost the same for a team. Choose ChatGPT if your team creates images, and its Enterprise plan if your data must be stored in Europe; otherwise, the choice comes down to how your team prefers to work. Either way, go with a team plan rather than individual accounts. At ezacae, the whole team works on Claude Team.

Want your team to get real value from it? Discover our AI training, or let’s talk about your situation on a 30-minute discovery call.

Frequently asked questions

Claude or ChatGPT for Excel?

Both integrate with Excel, but not at the same tier. Claude for Microsoft 365, which includes Excel, is available from the Pro plan, according to Claude’s pricing page. ChatGPT offers Excel, PowerPoint and Google Sheets add-ons in its Business plan, according to its business pricing page.

What about Gemini or Copilot?

Gemini, from Google, and Copilot, from Microsoft, are the two other assistants often compared with Claude and ChatGPT; we do not cover them here. For an automated agent, the logic changes: you do not buy a subscription, you pick the AI model for each task. Our LinkedIn prospecting agent (in French) uses Jev to sort posts and Grok 4.6 to write messages, through OpenRouter, a service that gives access to many models with a single account.

Sources

• Anthropic, Claude pricing (plans, prices excl. tax, Team from 2 to 150 people, Enterprise, Claude Code, Claude for Microsoft 365, models by plan, relative limits): claude.com/pricing, checked on October 22, 2026.
• Anthropic, Max plan: support.claude.com, checked on October 22, 2026.
• Anthropic, release notes (models, no image generation): support.claude.com, checked on October 22, 2026.
• Anthropic, Claude and images: support.claude.com, checked on October 22, 2026.
• Anthropic, usage limits: support.claude.com, checked on October 22, 2026.
• Anthropic, privacy (training, data processing agreement, storage): training, agreement, storage, individual plans, checked on October 22, 2026.
• OpenAI, Codex and individual plan pricing and limits: learn.chatgpt.com/docs/pricing, checked on October 22, 2026.
• OpenAI, ChatGPT Go, Plus, Pro and free plans: Go, Plus, Pro, free, checked on October 22, 2026.
• OpenAI, ChatGPT models: help.openai.com, checked on October 22, 2026.
• OpenAI, ChatGPT Business (pricing, limits): pricing, limits, checked on October 22, 2026.
• OpenAI, enterprise privacy and storage in Europe: privacy, Enterprise, Business, checked on October 22, 2026.

Article written with the help of AI, reviewed and approved by the author.