Which AI assistant should <em>your whole team</em> use?
Your employees already use AI, often on personal accounts you can't see. The real question is which plan to pay for, for whom, and with which guardrails.
Buying an AI assistant for a company is a different job from picking one for yourself. Answer quality still matters, but so do a per-seat price multiplied by headcount, a seat minimum, single sign-on (SSO, so people log in with their company account), what happens to conversations, and whether the tool sits inside the apps your team already opens every morning.
The short answer. Want the assistant your people already know and will actually open on day one? ChatGPT Business, $20 per seat per month on annual billing. Your team writes, reviews contracts or ships code? Claude Team, same entry price, with Premium seats for heavy users. Everything runs on Gmail and Drive? Gemini Enterprise. Need a European vendor? Mistral Vibe for chat, Dust for agents wired into your tools. And if you're a Microsoft 365 shop, Copilot is the obvious pick on paper, as long as you check that people use it.
Every price comes from the vendor's official pricing page or from our review pages, checked in 2026.
This ranking is editorial. Any sponsored spot is clearly labeled on its card, and affiliate links never move a score or a rank.
The right assistant for your team
Business at $20 per seat on annual billing, from 2 seats, no training on your data by default
Best for writing and analysisTeam at $20 per seat, $100 Premium seats for power users, SSO included
European agents on your toolsPro at €24 per seat before tax, EU or US hosting, SOC 2 Type II
6 AI assistants for business, side by side
The right-hand column answers the CFO's question: what does it cost per year to give 10 people the vendor's entry team plan, on annual billing where it exists? The 50-seat math and the security controls come further down.
| Best for | Yearly cost for 10 seats | Free plan | Team size | Visit | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ChatGPT | Highest employee adoption | $2,400 (Business, $20 per seat annual) | 4.2/5 | Business from 2 seats, $20 annual or $25 monthly | ✓ | From 2 to a few hundred employees | Visit → |
| 2 | Claude | Best for writing and analysis | $2,400 before tax (Team Standard, annual) | 4.2/5 | Team for 2 to 150 seats, $20 annual or $25 monthly | ✓ | Teams that write, analyze or code | Visit → |
| 3 | Gemini Enterprise | The natural pick on Google Workspace | $2,520 (Business edition, $21 per seat) | 4.0/5 | Business $21, Standard and Plus $30 per seat | — | Companies on Google Workspace | Visit → |
| 4 | Mistral Vibe (formerly Le Chat) | The European vendor's assistant | $2,998.80 before tax (Team, $24.99 per user) | 3.9/5 | Team $24.99 per user per month before tax | ✓ | SMBs that want a European vendor | Visit → |
| 5 | Dust | European agents on your tools | €2,880 before tax (Pro, annual) | 3.8/5 | Free with 500 one-time credits, then Pro €24 per seat | ✓ | Teams that want agents on their own tools | Visit → |
| 6 | Microsoft 365 Copilot | The logical pick on Microsoft 365 | Quote-based add-on, plus Microsoft 365 licenses | 3.6/5 | Copilot Chat included in eligible Microsoft 365 plans; Copilot Business quote-based | ✓ | Companies already on Microsoft 365 | Visit → |
Prices read on official pricing pages or taken from our review pages in 2026. Claude, Mistral and Dust list prices before tax. Dust bills in euros; we don't convert, so no made-up exchange rate sneaks in.
Is your tool missing from this page? Email us: hello@hackceleration.com
How we compared these assistants
Search for the best AI assistant for business and most of what comes back is written by vendors ranking themselves first, or by blogs that list a starting price without the seat minimum. Very few tell you what happens when an employee leaves, whether your chats train the model, or how many licenses sit unused after a quarter.
We went the other way. For each vendor, we read the official pricing for the team plan and the enterprise plan, then pulled out seven controls an IT lead or founder will ask about: SSO, automatic user provisioning, audit logs, data retention, training on your data, EU data residency, and connectors to internal tools. Then we turned every pricing page into a yearly bill for 10 and 50 people. Last, we read what companies that rolled these tools out actually report, starting with the disappointed ones.
Each tool's score is the one on its review page, identical across our site. The rank follows those scores weighted by the five criteria below, built for a team purchase. Perplexity and Grok stay out of the ranking: the first doesn't publish its enterprise pricing, the second is mostly built for individuals. Shopping for yourself only? Our comparison of AI assistants for personal use is the better read.
- Features and depthModel quality, but above all what the team plan gives the admin: SSO, user management, logs, retention. That's what separates a personal subscription from a business tool, so it carries the most weight.30%
- IntegrationsConnectors to your docs, inbox and business apps. An assistant that can't read your company data is just a writing tool.25%
- Value for moneyPer-seat price times headcount, the seat minimum, and what power users end up costing.20%
- Ease of useA license nobody opens still costs full price. The simpler the tool, the better the adoption.15%
- Customer supportWho answers when a setting breaks. Weak across the board, so it weighs less.10%
Affiliate links never change a score or a position.
Team plan pricing moves several times a year. Get the changes before your renewal
ChatGPT
ChatGPT starts with an edge no rival has: your people already use it. At large US companies that bought both Copilot and ChatGPT, employees drift back to ChatGPT on their own, and some Copilot rollouts were replaced by ChatGPT within weeks. For you, that means less training and faster adoption.
The Business plan (formerly Team) starts at two seats. A Standard seat is $20 a month on annual billing, $25 month to month. A Premium seat at $100 ($125 monthly) gives five times the usage, so keep it for people who actually hit the limits. On Business, Enterprise and the API, model training on your conversations is off by default.
Two things to fix on day one. Connectors (the apps that read your inbox, Drive or CRM) are managed from the admin console: check which ones are open and switch off anything your security team hasn't approved before you invite anyone. And EU data residency is limited to Enterprise, Edu and the API, for new workspaces: if legal requires it, Business won't cut it.
The complaint that keeps coming up from buyers is about how clear the security and privacy terms are. Ask for the contract documents before you sign, not after.
- Business from 2 seats at $20 per seat annual
- No training on your data by default on Business and Enterprise
- Standard and Premium seats can be mixed
- ✓The tool your employees already know
- ✓Widest range of uses: text, images, voice, search
- ✓Connectors to common tools from Business
- ✗EU data residency only on Enterprise
- ✗Connectors to review in the admin console before launch
- ✗Advanced admin controls kept for Enterprise
Our top pick to equip a small or mid-size company fast, with little pushback. If a contract demands EU hosting, go straight to Enterprise or look at Dust. Individual plans are covered in our full ChatGPT review.
Claude
Claude is the assistant a lot of writers, lawyers and engineers prefer for deep work. Some employees say they switched for one simple reason: their company picked it as its official AI model. On long-form writing and document analysis, it holds its own against ChatGPT and often comes out ahead, according to its users.
Team covers 2 to 150 people. A Standard seat costs $20 before tax per month on annual billing, $25 monthly, and a Premium seat $100 ($125). SSO is included from Team. Automatic provisioning from your directory (SCIM), audit logs and custom retention only come with Enterprise, which needs 20 seats and bills usage on top at API rates.
Understand the limits before you buy. They're set per member, not pooled: a Standard seat gives 1.25 times a Pro subscription's usage per session, a Premium seat 6.25 times. Heavy users hit them fast. One team of ten developers on Premium says only one person complains about running out, and that the people who burn through credits are often the ones keeping endless conversations open. Admins can also turn on usage credits instead of moving everyone to Premium.
On data: no training by default on Team and Enterprise. A deleted conversation disappears from the interface right away and is wiped from the back end within 30 days.
- SSO included from Team
- Standard and Premium seats in the same team
- No training by default on Team and Enterprise
- ✓Best on long documents and writing
- ✓Same entry price as ChatGPT Business
- ✓Usage credits an admin can switch on
- ✗Per-member limits that heavy users hit fast
- ✗No SCIM or audit logs before Enterprise
- ✗Enterprise needs 20 seats, usage billed on top
The best pick for a team of knowledge workers, tied with ChatGPT on score. Mix seats: Standard for most people, Premium for the handful who live in it all day. More in our Claude review.
Gemini Enterprise
If your company runs on Gmail, Docs, Drive and Calendar, Gemini has a concrete edge: it reads what's in there with nothing to install. User reviews all come back to that point, the deep hookup with Gmail, Docs, Drive and Calendar. Outside that world, it loses most of its appeal next to ChatGPT or Claude.
There are two ways in, and that's the number one source of confusion. The first is Google Workspace itself: Gemini is limited on Business Starter and built into the apps from Business Standard. The second is Gemini Enterprise, Google's agent platform, sold per seat: $21 for the Business edition, $30 for Standard and Plus.
Every Gemini Enterprise edition except Frontline gets the full set of connectors. Storage is pooled across the company: 25 GiB on Business, 30 on Standard, 75 on Plus. On hosting, Workspace data regions, which let you pick where files are stored, are limited to the Workspace Enterprise plan.
Support is the weak spot in its score.
- Reads Gmail, Docs, Drive and Calendar with nothing to install
- Full connectors on every edition except Frontline
- Pooled storage from 25 to 75 GiB depending on edition
- ✓No new tool to roll out on Workspace
- ✓Included in Workspace from Business Standard
- ✓Trial on the Business edition
- ✗Little reason to pick it outside Google Workspace
- ✗Two overlapping offers, Workspace and Enterprise
- ✗Data region choice limited to Workspace Enterprise
The right call if Workspace is already your office. Check what your Workspace plan includes before paying for Gemini Enterprise. Full details in our Gemini review.
Mistral Vibe (formerly Le Chat)
Mistral is France's best-known AI lab, and its assistant got a new name in 2026: Le Chat is now Vibe, with a Work mode for everyday tasks and a Code mode for developers. If you still see Le Chat in search results, it's the same product. Its French is one of the strengths users mention most, which matters if you have teams in Europe.
Team costs $24.99 before tax per user per month, a bit more than ChatGPT Business or Claude Team. Enterprise, on quote, adds SAML SSO, connectors and custom deployments, including on your own servers. It's the only plan in this ranking that advertises that option.
Read the data settings closely. Every plan lets you opt out of training. On Vibe Enterprise, training is off by default at the admin level; on individual plans, it's on by default and it's up to you to switch it off. And a thumbs up or down on an answer lets Mistral use that exchange.
The recurring complaint in reviews: support that most customers outside Enterprise contracts describe as close to nonexistent.
- European vendor, strong in French
- On-premises deployment possible on Enterprise
- Training opt-out on every plan
- ✓Low Pro entry price at $14.99 before tax
- ✓Work and Code modes in one tool
- ✓SAML SSO and connectors on Enterprise
- ✗Team a little pricier than ChatGPT and Claude
- ✗Weak support outside Enterprise
- ✗Rename makes documentation harder to find
A good pick if a European vendor carries weight in your decision. If you need EU data hosting guaranteed in writing, ask for it in the Enterprise contract.
Dust
Dust isn't just another chat window. It's a Paris-based platform for building agents that pull from your company's tools. You pick the AI model from several providers and decide which sources each agent can read. For a support or sales team, that's often more useful than a general assistant.
Pricing runs on credits and is shown in euros. A Pro seat costs €24 before tax per month on annual billing, €30 monthly, with 8,000 credits. A Max seat costs €120 with 40,000 credits. Credits don't roll over, and heavy users hit the ceiling unless they're on Max or Enterprise. Outside Enterprise, a workspace is capped at 3 connectors, so pick them carefully.
On security, Dust ticks a lot of boxes from the entry plan: SSO with Okta, Entra ID or JumpCloud, SOC 2 Type II, and hosting in the US or the EU. You pick the region when you create the workspace and can't change it later. Enterprise adds SCIM, a single-tenant setup and custom contracts.
Getting connections and permissions right takes some time.
- EU or US hosting from the entry plan
- SSO with Okta, Entra ID and JumpCloud
- Several AI models in one interface
- ✓SOC 2 Type II certified
- ✓Agents that read your internal tools
- ✓Free plan to try it out
- ✗Credit billing is harder to forecast
- ✗3 connectors max outside Enterprise
- ✗Billed in euros, not dollars
The best European option if you want agents rather than a plain assistant, and EU hosting without signing an enterprise contract.
Microsoft 365 Copilot
On paper, Microsoft 365 Copilot is the obvious choice for a Microsoft 365 company: it works in Outlook, Teams, Word and Excel, where your people spend their day. Copilot Business covers small and mid-size companies up to 300 users, as an add-on on top of each employee's Microsoft 365 license. We only publish prices we could read on an official page, so get the per-user figure from Microsoft or your reseller.
Start free before you buy. Copilot Chat is included at no extra cost in eligible Microsoft 365 plans: it answers questions and drafts text, without reading your internal files. If your teams don't open it, they won't open the paid version either.
That's Copilot's main risk, and it's well documented. At large companies, most licensed employees barely touch it: one analyst puts it at six or seven in ten using it basically zero. A US drugmaker paid for 20,000 seats and its staff kept opening ChatGPT, using Copilot only when it was forced on them in Outlook or Teams. A big consulting firm reportedly runs about 16,000 ChatGPT seats against 2,000 for Copilot. Consultants also report Copilot Chat rollouts swapped for ChatGPT within weeks: slower answers, no memory, a shorter context.
Copilot also only shines when your data is well organized in Microsoft 365. Messy folders give messy answers.
- Right inside Outlook, Teams, Word and Excel
- Copilot Chat included in Microsoft 365 at no extra cost
- Copilot Business for companies up to 300 users
- ✓Nothing new to install on Microsoft 365
- ✓Reads your files, email and meetings
- ✓Free Chat tier to gauge interest
- ✗Paid add-on on top of Microsoft 365
- ✗Low adoption documented at large companies
- ✗Only useful if your data is well organized
Worth it if your teams already use Copilot Chat and ask for more. Otherwise, buy a few licenses for the people who live in Outlook and Excel, measure, then expand.
What each plan actually does with your data
This is the part most comparisons skim, and the first thing your IT or security lead will ask. Here's what the official pages show, control by control. When something isn't on the page, we don't make it up: we tell you what to ask.
Single sign-on (SSO)
Included from Claude Team and from Dust's entry plans (Okta, Entra ID, JumpCloud). Enterprise only at Mistral, via SAML. With Microsoft and Google, sign-in runs through the Microsoft 365 or Workspace account you already manage. For ChatGPT Business, get the included sign-in method confirmed in writing.
Automatic provisioning (SCIM)
SCIM ties the assistant to your directory, so someone who leaves loses access without anyone remembering to remove them. Claude keeps it for Enterprise, and so does Dust. Without SCIM, add the AI account to your offboarding checklist, right next to email.
Training on your conversations
Off by default on ChatGPT Business and Enterprise, Claude Team and Enterprise, and Vibe Enterprise. On Mistral's individual plans it's on by default, so an employee on a personal account trains the model with your data unless they switched it off. That's the simplest argument for paying for a team plan.
EU data residency
OpenAI limits European residency to Enterprise, Edu and the API, for new workspaces. Dust lets you pick EU or US at workspace creation, from the entry plan. At Google, choosing the data region is part of the Workspace Enterprise plan. Anthropic and Mistral don't list EU residency on their pricing pages, so ask for it in the contract.
Audit logs and retention
Claude keeps audit logs and custom retention for Enterprise; a deleted conversation is wiped from its servers within 30 days. If your industry requires a record of who asked what, those two features usually decide the move to Enterprise, whatever the vendor.
Connectors to your tools
Available from ChatGPT Business, under admin control. Complete on every Gemini Enterprise edition except Frontline. Capped at 3 on Dust outside Enterprise. A connector gives the assistant access to whatever the employee can see, so clean up your Drive sharing permissions before you plug anything in.
- Ask for the exact list of controls in the plan you're buying, not the tier above.
- Confirm training is off by default, then check it in the admin console.
- List active connectors before you invite the first employee.
- Add AI account removal to your offboarding process.
- Get data hosting confirmed in writing if a client or contract requires it.
What it costs for 10 and for 50 employees
A per-seat price means little until you multiply it. Three things drive the bill: seat count, annual versus monthly billing, and what your power users cost. The math below uses official list prices, with no currency conversion.
10 employees: a small team gearing up
ChatGPT Business: $2,400 a year on annual billing. Claude Team Standard: $2,400 before tax. Gemini Enterprise Business: $2,520. Mistral Team: $2,998.80 before tax. Dust Pro: €2,880 before tax. Copilot Business: quote-based, on top of Microsoft 365. The gaps are small at this size, so pick on usage, not price.
50 employees: an established company
ChatGPT Business and Claude Team: $12,000 a year each. Gemini Enterprise Business: $12,600. Mistral Team: $14,994 before tax. Dust Pro: €14,400 before tax. At 50 people, Claude Enterprise becomes an option (20-seat minimum): $12,000 in seats, plus usage at API rates.
Annual vs monthly, and your power users
On ChatGPT Business and Claude Team, monthly is $25 instead of $20: annual saves $600 a year on 10 seats. Premium seats at $100 add up fast. Five Premium seats on a team of twenty double the bill. Keep them for people who have really hit the limits.
- Count the people who already use AI every week, not your total headcount.
- Pay monthly during the pilot, switch to annual once usage is measured.
- Budget a line for Premium seats or usage credits.
- Add Microsoft 365 or Workspace licenses when the assistant depends on them.
Equip your teams in five steps
The biggest risk isn't picking the wrong assistant. It's paying for licenses nobody opens. Companies that get it right tend to follow the same path.
Map the AI already in use
Step 1Ask your teams which tools they already use, and on which account. In many companies, the most advanced people and the executives already pay for a personal plan. They're your first champions, and your first risk: their data goes to accounts you don't control.
- Capture
- Tool, account, use
Run a 10 to 15 person pilot
Step 2Pick a mix: a salesperson, someone in support, a lawyer, a developer, a manager. Give them the frontrunner for a few weeks, on monthly billing. Torn between two assistants? Split the pilot. Some large companies bought both before deciding.
- Size
- 10 to 15 people
Lock down the workspace before inviting anyone
Step 3Before the first invite: turn off unapproved connectors, confirm training is disabled, enable SSO if your plan includes it, and pick the hosting region if the tool asks at creation, like Dust. Some of those choices can't be undone.
- Irreversible
- Hosting region on Dust
Measure real usage
Step 4After a few weeks, look at who actually uses it and for what. Admin consoles show activity per member. Note who hit the limits too: they're your candidates for Premium seats or usage credits.
- Watch
- Weekly actives, limits hit
Buy for real usage, review at renewal
Step 5Move active users to annual billing. Keep everyone else on a free tier or Copilot Chat. Before each renewal, audit again: a license unused for three months gets pulled.
- Rule
- One license per active user
Other names you'll run into, and why they're not here
These tools come up in every search. They're not bad, but each is missing either public enterprise pricing or a plan built for teams.
Perplexity: great for research, no public enterprise price
Quote-basedPerplexity is excellent at searching and citing its sources. Pro costs $17 a month on annual billing. Its Enterprise Pro and Enterprise Max plans add SSO, connectors, data retention controls and SOC 2, but their price isn't listed: you have to ask. A good add-on for a research team, not a company's main assistant.
- Pro
- $17 a month, annual
Grok: built for individuals
Off topic hereGrok scores 3.8 out of 5 in our review, with support rated 3.1. Its strengths are mostly about personal use. For a team, the top five tools in this ranking give you more admin control.
- Score
- 3.8 out of 5
A chatbot for your customers: a different job
Different needAn internal assistant helps your employees. A chatbot answers your customers on your site or on WhatsApp. Different tools, different pricing. If that's what you need, see our WhatsApp chatbot comparison.
- For
- Support and sales
Autonomous AI agents
Next stepAn AI agent doesn't just answer: it chains actions inside your tools, like qualifying a lead or triaging a ticket. Dust bridges the two. To go further, read our AI agent definition and our AI agent ranking.
- Difference
- It acts, not just answers
What IT leads wish they'd known first
These come from admin forums and from companies that rolled these tools out. They help you dodge the most expensive mistakes.
Mix seat types instead of upgrading everyone
BudgetOn Claude Team and ChatGPT Business, Standard and Premium seats sit side by side. A buyer weighing ten Premium seats was told by other teams that only one person in ten ran short. Start on Standard and upgrade case by case. On Claude, admin-enabled usage credits often cost less than one more Premium seat.
- Gap
- $20 vs $100 per seat
Teach your team to stretch their usage
UsagePeople who hit the limits are often the ones running one giant conversation. Three habits help: start a new chat per topic, use the standard model for most work, and save extended thinking for the hard questions.
- Payoff
- Fewer Premium seats
Turn off connectors before the first invite
SecurityOn ChatGPT Business they're managed from the admin console. Before the first invite, open the list, switch off anything not yet approved, then reopen the ones your security team signed off on, one at a time. Otherwise an employee can plug in their inbox or a shared Drive on day one.
- Applies to
- ChatGPT Business
Pick the EU at creation on Dust
DataOn Dust, the hosting region is set when you create the workspace and can't be changed later. If there's any chance you'll need EU hosting, pick it now: moving means rebuilding the workspace.
- When
- At workspace creation
Explain the thumbs up on Mistral
DataOn Mistral, rating an answer with a thumbs up or down lets the vendor use that exchange. Tell your team: one absent-minded click on a sensitive chat is enough.
- Applies to
- Mistral Vibe
Pilot monthly, buy annual
BudgetMonthly costs 25% more on ChatGPT and Claude, but you can drop a seat anytime. Pay monthly during the pilot, then go annual for active users only. On 10 seats, that's $600 a year.
- Saving
- $600 a year on 10 seats
Need something a little different? Go here
This page compares plans for equipping a team. These pages go deeper on one tool or a related need.
Free, Plus and Pro plans and their limits.
You lean toward ChatGPTOur full ChatGPT reviewEvery plan, its limits and its price.
You lean toward ClaudeOur full Claude reviewUsage limits explained, and the settings that help.
You want agents, not an assistantBest AI agentsTools that act inside your software.
You want to answer customersBest WhatsApp chatbotsSupport and sales over messaging.
You're leaving ChatGPTChatGPT alternativesThe other options, tool by tool.
AI assistant for business · FAQ
Will a business plan use my data to train the AI?
Not by default with the major vendors: training is off on ChatGPT Business and Enterprise, Claude Team and Enterprise, and Vibe Enterprise. The real risk is your employees' personal accounts, where it's often on by default. That alone is a reason to pay for a team plan.Which AI assistant can keep data in the EU?
Dust lets you pick the EU from its entry plan, when you create the workspace. OpenAI keeps EU residency for Enterprise, Edu and the API. Anthropic and Mistral don't list it on their pricing pages, so get it in writing in the contract.Do I need Copilot if we already pay for Microsoft 365?
Not necessarily. Start with Copilot Chat, included at no extra cost in eligible Microsoft 365 plans. If your teams use it and want it to read their files, buy Copilot Business for those people only. Plenty of companies pay for licenses most staff never open.How much does an AI assistant cost for a team of 10?
About $2,400 a year for ChatGPT Business or Claude Team on annual billing, $2,520 for Gemini Enterprise Business, $2,998.80 for Mistral Team, and €2,880 before tax for Dust Pro. Monthly billing adds a quarter on ChatGPT and Claude.Can different teams use different assistants?
Yes, and it's common: Claude for legal and engineering, ChatGPT for everyone else, for example. It doubles the admin work, with two consoles and two offboarding steps. Do it only if your pilot shows a real gap in how teams use them.What's the difference between an AI assistant and an AI agent?
An assistant answers when you talk to it. An agent chains actions on its own inside your tools, like triaging tickets or updating a CRM. Dust sits between the two: specialized assistants that read your sources and can take action.What happens to a departing employee's AI account?
With SCIM, it's removed automatically when you take them out of your directory. Claude and Dust keep SCIM for Enterprise. Without it, add the AI assistant to your offboarding checklist next to email, or their conversations stay reachable.Is Mistral a real alternative to the US assistants?
Yes for European languages and a European vendor. Le Chat is now called Vibe, with a Team plan at $24.99 per user before tax. Its limits: weak support outside Enterprise and fewer connectors than ChatGPT. For European agents wired into your tools, look at Dust too.
