Buying an AI Tool
ChatGPT Business pricing: the sticker is $20. The number you need is annual.
Quick answer: as of September 14, 2026, ChatGPT Business costs USD 20 per user per month on an annual plan or USD 25 per user per month billed monthly, with a two-seat minimum. It includes a shared workspace, an admin console, and a default of no training on your data. It does not include user provisioning, audit logs or data residency; those are on ChatGPT Enterprise, which has no published price and a reported floor of around 150 seats. For a team of five to fifty, the number that matters is not USD 20. It is seats times price times twelve, plus setup, compared against the assistant you may already pay for. The free method for getting to that number is at practicalmethods.ca/guides/buying-an-ai-tool.
Every ChatGPT plan, in one table
OpenAI sells six plans. Only two are for organisations. The rest are individual accounts, and the difference matters more than the price.
| Plan | Price (USD) | Sold to | Trains on your data |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | 0 | Individuals | Yes, unless you opt out |
| Go | About 8 a month | Individuals | Yes, unless you opt out |
| Plus | 20 a month | Individuals | Yes, unless you opt out |
| Pro | 100 or 200 a month | Individuals | Yes, unless you opt out |
| Business | 20 a seat annual, 25 monthly, 2-seat minimum | Organisations | No, by default |
| Enterprise | No published price, reported around 60 a seat, roughly 150-seat minimum, annual prepaid | Organisations | No, by default |
Business was called Team until August 2025. The price dropped by USD 5 on April 2, 2026. Most comparison articles online still show the old USD 25 and 30 figures.
What Business includes, and what it does not
Included at USD 20 a seat: a shared workspace with central billing, an admin console to add and remove people, higher usage limits than Plus, shared projects and custom GPTs across the team, and the contractual default that your inputs are not used to train models.
Not included: automated user provisioning, audit logs, data residency in a chosen region, and the compliance paperwork some regulated firms need. Those live on Enterprise. Sources checked for this post disagree on whether single sign-on is on Business or Enterprise only, so confirm that on the pricing page before you count on it.
For most firms of five to fifty, the missing items do not matter. For a firm handling health, legal or financial records, one of them may be the whole decision, and the tier that has it is the tier you are pricing.
Why a team should not buy Plus seats
The cheapest-looking option is five Plus accounts at USD 20 each, monthly, no minimum, no admin. It is the wrong option for a team, for two reasons that have nothing to do with features.
Plus accounts train on your data unless each person opts out, and the opt-out is a personal setting nobody can check. Business turns it off for everyone by default. That is the difference between a policy and a hope.
Plus accounts belong to the person, not the firm. When someone leaves, their conversations, prompts and custom GPTs leave with them. Business seats are reassigned by the admin. For a team that builds anything reusable, that is the reason to pay the same USD 20 for a Business seat instead.
From the sticker to the annual number
The sticker is USD 20. Here is what a firm actually writes down. Illustrative only, not a quote.
| Monthly plan | Annual plan | |
|---|---|---|
| Six seats | 6 × 25 × 12 = USD 1,800 | 6 × 20 × 12 = USD 1,440 |
| Setup: one afternoon building shared projects and templates | Your time, not a fee | Your time, not a fee |
| Training: one hour, run by the person who owns it | Your time | Your time |
| In Canadian dollars at 1.37 | About CAD 2,466 | About CAD 1,973 |
The annual plan saves USD 360 on six seats. The monthly plan lets you cancel after the ninety-day review if nobody is using it in week three. On a first purchase, the monthly plan is usually the better deal even at the higher rate, because the risk that the tool is wrong is worth more than the discount. Take the annual rate at renewal, once usage has proved it.
Then add the row most pricing posts leave out: the assistant you may already pay for. If your firm is on Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, Copilot Chat or Gemini is already there at USD 0 extra for general drafting. Put it in the same table. Zero is a real number, and it is the number a lot of small firms should have chosen.
Enterprise, and why it is not for you yet
ChatGPT Enterprise has no public price. Procurement reports in 2026 put it around USD 60 a seat with a minimum of roughly 150 seats and an annual prepaid contract, which sets an entry point near USD 108,000 a year. None of that is official, and all of it is out of reach for a firm of fifty. If a sales conversation steers you there, the question to ask is which specific item on the Business tier is missing for your job. If the answer is one you cannot name, you are on the right tier already.
The questions to ask before paying
These are from the deal criterion in the free method, and they apply to any per-seat tool.
Do you pay for the seats you have, or the seats people use? Business bills assigned seats. Someone has to review them monthly.
What is the price at double the seats? Per-seat pricing is linear, which is fair, and it means growth is a cost, which is worth writing down.
Which feature you need lives one tier up? If it is on Enterprise, the price is not USD 20.
What did the vendor do at the last price change? In this case, cut it. That is worth knowing too.
What does the tool you already pay for cost for the same job?
Run those, score the job, the adoption and the trust alongside the deal, and the sticker stops being the decision. The full method, five articles, is free at practicalmethods.ca/guides/buying-an-ai-tool.
Frequently asked questions
How much does ChatGPT Business cost per month?
USD 20 per user per month on an annual plan, or USD 25 per user per month billed monthly, with a minimum of two seats, as of September 14, 2026.
What is the difference between ChatGPT Business and ChatGPT Team?
They are the same plan. Team was renamed Business in August 2025. The price was cut by USD 5 per seat on April 2, 2026.
Does ChatGPT Business train on my data?
No, by default. Business and Enterprise workspaces exclude your inputs from model training. Individual plans such as Plus use your data unless each person opts out.
Is ChatGPT Business worth it over Plus for a small team?
The seat price is the same at USD 20. Business adds central billing, an admin who can reassign seats, shared projects, and no training on your data for everyone. For any team of two or more that builds reusable prompts or handles client information, Business is the tier to price.
What is the minimum number of seats for ChatGPT Business?
Two. There is no published maximum, though very large organisations are routed to Enterprise.
How much does ChatGPT Enterprise cost?
OpenAI does not publish a price. Reported 2026 contracts average around USD 60 per seat per month with a minimum of roughly 150 seats and an annual prepaid term. Treat those figures as reported, not official.
Should I choose monthly or annual billing?
On a first purchase, monthly. It costs USD 5 more per seat and lets you cancel after a ninety-day review if week-three usage is low. Switch to annual at renewal once the tool has proved it is used.
Is there a cheaper alternative for a small business?
Often, the assistant bundled with your office suite. Copilot Chat comes with eligible Microsoft 365 plans and Gemini with Google Workspace Business Standard and above, at no extra cost for general drafting. Try that on the real job before buying ChatGPT Business.
Criteria: Buying an AI Tool
Five articles. Narrowing, the job, the adoption, the trust, the deal.
Read the free methodThe list is not the decision. It is how you find the one or two things that are.
Not a review, not rankings, not software advice. A method.
