ChatGPT alternatives and AI tools for small business, compared on price and limits

Pick by the task you need done and what you can spend. Every figure below was read on the vendor's own page and carries the date we checked it. Where we could not read it, the cell says so.

Compare ChatGPT alternatives Find tools by small-business task

ChatGPT and four alternatives at a glance

Checked 2 Oct 2026 · US-dollar prices where we could read them

ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot and Mistral: free plan, first paid plan and team seat
Assistant	Free plan	First paid plan	Team or business seat
ChatGPTOpenAI · baseline	Yes, there is a Free plan at no charge chatgpt.com checked 2 Oct 2026	Plus, US$20/month billed monthly (OpenAI help centre). The cheaper Go plan exists, but its US-dollar price is not verified: the help centre gives no figure, and the pricing page we could load showed the Australian price (A$13/month) and says Go may include ads help.openai.com checked 2 Oct 2026	Business standard seat US$20/user/month billed annually, US$25 billed monthly; the help centre says pricing may vary by country. For 2 to 200 people help.openai.com checked 2 Oct 2026
ClaudeAnthropic	Yes, US$0 claude.com checked 1 Oct 2026	Pro, US$20/month billed monthly, or US$17/month on the annual plan (US$200 up front) claude.com checked 1 Oct 2026	Team standard seat US$20/seat/month billed annually, US$25 billed monthly; for 2 to 150 people claude.com checked 1 Oct 2026
GeminiGoogle	Yes, US$0/month with a Google Account gemini.google checked 2 Oct 2026	Google AI Plus, US$4.99/month (2x the free usage limits, 400 GB storage); Google AI Pro is US$19.99/month (4x the free usage limits, 5 TB storage) gemini.google checked 2 Oct 2026	Gemini Enterprise Business edition from US$21 per seat/month, up to 300 seats; Standard and Plus editions from US$30 per seat/month gemini.google checked 2 Oct 2026
Microsoft CopilotMicrosoft	Yes. Microsoft describes Microsoft Copilot (free) as available free of cost, for general questions and answers and web-based tasks, on the web, desktop and mobile apps and in Edge. support.microsoft.com checked 2 Oct 2026	Microsoft 365 Personal, US$9.99/month, includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook with Copilot and 1 TB storage; Premium is US$19.99/month microsoft.com checked 1 Oct 2026	Microsoft 365 Copilot Business add-on from US$18.00/user/month paid yearly (page shows it reduced from US$21.00); Business Standard with Copilot US$23.50/user/month paid yearly microsoft.com checked 1 Oct 2026
Mistral (Vibe)Mistral AI	Yes, free tier on web and mobile mistral.ai checked 1 Oct 2026	Pro, US$14.99/month excluding taxes mistral.ai checked 1 Oct 2026	Team, US$24.99/user/month excluding taxes; up to 30 GB storage per user, domain verification, data export mistral.ai checked 1 Oct 2026

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292 of 329 facts verified across 64 tools See all eight assistants and their features →

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Choose a general comparison, the free options, or tools organised around small-business work.

Browse AI tools by task

Start with the work you need done, then compare each tool's price, limits and listed features.

A general assistant for the team ChatGPT Business · Claude Team Claude Team: Standard seat US$20/seat/month billed annually, US$25 monthly AI inside the office suite Microsoft 365 Copilot Business Microsoft 365 Copilot Business: The add-on needs an existing Microsoft 365 plan Writing and email Grammarly Grammarly: Free: 100 AI prompts a month Design and social graphics Canva Canva: Pro US$144/year for one person Docs and a shared knowledge base Notion Notion: Free and Plus list only a trial of Notion AI Automating routine steps Zapier Zapier: Free: 100 tasks a month and two-step Zaps only Meeting notes Fireflies · Otter Fireflies: Free: limited AI summaries, 400 minutes of storage per team, 20 AI credits Customer records and follow-up HubSpot CRM HubSpot CRM: Starter from US$15/month per seat Website chat and support Tidio Tidio: Starter: 100 billable conversations and 50 Lyro AI agent conversations

How to read the comparison tables

Three things appear in every cell, so you can judge the figure yourself.

Verified

The price, limit or feature appeared on the linked vendor page when we checked it.

Not verified

We could not confirm the detail on the vendor page that day, so we do not guess. Check with the vendor.

The date

Prices change. The date under each cell tells you how old the figure is. The full list is in the fact ledger.

Guides from the archive

302 guides on choosing and using AI tools, grouped by topic.

Study and education 11 Small business and operations 42 Customer support and sales 31 Writing and content 22 Design, image, video and voice 17 Automation and no-code 70 Choosing and pricing a tool 63 Technical and developer topics 15 Other guides 31

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Common questions about our comparisons

Where do the prices, limits and features come from?

We read each detail on the vendor's own pricing or product page and link to that page. We also show the date we checked it.

Why does a table cell say "not verified"?

It means we could not confirm the price, free-plan limit or feature on the vendor page that day. We leave the cell marked instead of filling in a guess.

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Not on these comparison pages today. If that changes, the page will say so next to the link.

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