If your business already runs on Microsoft 365, start with Copilot: the free Copilot Chat is already in your Office apps, and the paid add-on can work across your mail, meetings and files. If your tools are mixed, or most of your AI use is thinking and drafting from scratch, ChatGPT is the better buy.
Plenty of Microsoft shops end up with both: Copilot for work inside documents and meetings, ChatGPT for everything else. Prices below were checked on 24 October 2026.
Disclosure: BeLateral makes Able°, which gives you your own AI agent, so weigh our view accordingly.
What does each cost a small team?
Copilot Chat: included. Since September 2025, Microsoft 365 business plans include Copilot Chat at no extra cost, in a side panel in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote. It can see the file you have open, but it can't search across the rest of your work data (Computerworld).
Copilot Business: $21 per user per month. This is the paid add-on for organisations with up to 300 users. It needs an eligible Microsoft 365 Business plan (Basic, Standard, Premium or Apps for Business) and an annual commitment (Microsoft Learn, updated 19 October 2026). The $21 list price is from Office Watch; Microsoft has run promotional discounts and bundles with Business Standard and Premium, so ask your reseller what's on offer. Larger organisations pay $30 per user.
ChatGPT Business: $25 per user per month, or $20 billed yearly, with a two-seat minimum. Premium seats with five times the usage cost $125 a month, or $100 billed yearly (OpenAI help centre). Individuals can start on the free plan or Plus at $20 a month.
For a five-person team already on Microsoft 365, the paid add-ons come out close: about $105 a month for Copilot Business against $100 for ChatGPT Business on yearly billing. With costs that close, let where the work happens decide.
At a glance
| Microsoft Copilot | ChatGPT | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | Inside Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams and other Microsoft 365 apps | Its own app on web, desktop and mobile |
| Free option | Copilot Chat, with Microsoft 365 business plans | Free plan |
| Paid option for a small team | Copilot Business, $21/user/month, annual | Business, $25/user/month ($20 yearly) |
| Best at | Working with files, mail and meetings you already have | Open-ended writing, planning and analysis |
| Needs | An eligible Microsoft 365 plan | Just an account |
| Weak spot | Little advantage outside Microsoft's apps | Your files have to be uploaded or connected |
Where does Copilot save time?
Everywhere the material is already inside Microsoft 365.
Editing a document you have open. Summarising a long draft, tightening a section or rewriting a paragraph in a different tone, without copying anything into another window. The free Copilot Chat covers much of this.
Meetings. Notes, action items and a recap generated from the Teams meeting itself. In a small team where the same person always takes notes, this is the most concrete saving.
Email. Drafting replies in context and summarising a long thread. How much time it saves depends on how routine your correspondence is.
Spreadsheets. Explaining or suggesting a formula, or describing what a range of data shows, which helps anyone who'd rather not ask a colleague for Excel help.
The paid add-on matters when the answer depends on several sources: "What did we agree with the supplier last month?" needs your mail, meetings and files together, and that's what Copilot Business is for.
Where does ChatGPT save time?
Before the work exists, and anywhere outside Microsoft.
Thinking from scratch. Planning a launch, weighing two job candidates' strengths, working out what to do next. There's no document to open, because the thinking is the work.
A first draft of something new. A proposal, a policy, a job advert, a difficult message to a supplier. The blank page is where most people lose time.
Mixed tools. If half your files are in Microsoft, some in Google Drive and the rest in a system nobody integrates with, ChatGPT doesn't mind. You can paste what matters, upload files, or connect Google Drive, SharePoint or OneDrive so it can search them when you ask.
Explaining things. A contract clause, a supplier's terms, a tax concept. This is a conversation and rarely needs your files.
Which should you choose?
Copilot, if your team is standardised on Microsoft 365 and your days are full of documents, email and Teams meetings. Start with the free Copilot Chat and add Copilot Business only for the people who outgrow it.
ChatGPT, if your tools are mixed, you want to try something today with no procurement step, or your work leans towards drafting and thinking rather than editing existing files.
Both, if you're on Microsoft and also do a lot of open-ended work. It's common, and it's tidy enough as long as each tool has its own job.
Gemini instead, if you're on Google Workspace. Copilot's main advantage disappears there, and the comparison becomes ChatGPT against Gemini: see ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini.
Neither, if what you need is something that remembers you, runs on a schedule and keeps work moving between your questions. Both are assistants you go to. AI usage vs an AI agent explains the difference.
How to run a pilot without wasting licences
Copilot Business is bought per user on a yearly commitment, so the easy mistake is licensing the whole team on day one.
Start everyone on the free Copilot Chat. Pick the two or three people whose work is heaviest on documents and meetings, give them the paid add-on (or ChatGPT Business, if that's the contender) and set a review date a month out. Give them three real jobs to try: one document, one meeting, one decision.
At the review, count active users rather than licences, and ask which tool produced something they'd send, which got there faster, and which they'd open again tomorrow. If nobody has opened it by week three, change the tasks before you change the tool.
Common questions
Do I need Microsoft 365 to use Copilot?
For Copilot inside Word, Outlook and Teams, yes. Copilot Business is an add-on to an eligible Microsoft 365 Business plan, and the free Copilot Chat comes with those plans. Without Microsoft 365 you lose the main reason to choose it.
Is Copilot more secure than ChatGPT?
Not automatically. Copilot inherits your Microsoft 365 tenant's permissions and controls, which is easier to audit if Microsoft is already your system of record. ChatGPT Business has its own admin and data controls, and OpenAI says it doesn't train on business data by default.
Can we try Copilot Business without a long commitment?
The add-on is sold on an annual commitment, so keep the pilot small. The free Copilot Chat lets everyone try in-app help first, and a reseller can tell you about any current trial or promotional pricing.
What happens to our ChatGPT conversations if we switch to Copilot?
They stay in ChatGPT. Neither tool imports the other's history, so export anything you need and rewrite saved instructions for the new tool. Budget an afternoon per person for a heavy user, and almost nothing for a light one.