In 20 seconds
- As of October 23, 2026, ChatGPT costs $0, $8 (Go), $20 (Plus) or $100–$500 (Pro) a month. Microsoft sells Copilot inside Microsoft 365: Personal $9.99 a month, Family $12.99, Premium $19.99 and a monthly-only Pro plan at $99.99. Copilot Pro is no longer sold.
- For businesses, Microsoft 365 Copilot is a $30-per-user add-on billed yearly ($31.50 monthly with an annual commitment); ChatGPT Business is $25 per user monthly or $20 billed annually. Microsoft says Copilot prompts and responses at work aren't used to train foundation models.
- Copilot isn't only OpenAI any more: Microsoft's Copilot blog says GPT-6 Astra is rolling out in Copilot Cowork and Copilot Studio and that Claude Opus 5.5 and GPT-6 Sol are joining model choice, though its business pricing page still lists GPT-5.X. ChatGPT runs only OpenAI models.
Contents
ChatGPT vs Copilot is less a choice between two chatbots than between two ways of paying for AI as of October 23, 2026. OpenAI sells ChatGPT as its own subscription, from a free plan to $500 a month. Microsoft folds Copilot into Microsoft 365, so the same subscription that buys Word, Excel and OneDrive storage also sets your Copilot limits. At work, Microsoft 365 Copilot is a per-user add-on that reads your organization's email, files and meetings.
This comparison is based on OpenAI's pricing pages and help center, Microsoft's Copilot pricing pages, support articles, Learn documentation and Copilot blog, checked October 23, 2026, plus a news-integrity study by the European Broadcasting Union. Prices are US list prices before tax. For every ChatGPT plan in detail, see ChatGPT plans compared.
The short version
- Price at about $20: ChatGPT Plus costs $20 a month. Microsoft 365 Premium costs $19.99 a month or $199.99 a year, and covers up to six people.
- Cheapest paid option: ChatGPT Go at $8, or Microsoft 365 Personal at $9.99, which also includes the Office apps and 1 TB of storage. Microsoft 365 Family costs $12.99.
- Top consumer tier: ChatGPT Pro at $100, $200 or $500 a month; Microsoft 365 Pro at $99.99 a month, billed monthly only.
- Copilot Pro is no longer sold; Microsoft ended support on August 1, 2026.
- At work: Microsoft 365 Copilot is $30 per user a month billed yearly, on top of a Microsoft 365 plan. ChatGPT Business is $25 monthly or $20 billed annually.
- Models: as of October 23, 2026, Copilot offers OpenAI and Anthropic models at work; ChatGPT offers only OpenAI's.
How much do ChatGPT and Copilot cost for individuals?
Last verified: October 23, 2026 (full rows, including annual prices, in 2026-10-23/data/P32-plans-compared.csv)
Microsoft's annual prices are $99.99 for Personal, $129.99 for Family and $199.99 for Premium; Pro has no annual option. ChatGPT Pro also comes in $200 and $500 tiers and is billed monthly only, per OpenAI.
Microsoft's plans differ from ChatGPT's in three ways:
- What you get besides AI. Every Microsoft 365 plan includes the Office apps and cloud storage: 1 TB on Personal, 2 TB on Family and Premium, and 5 TB shared on Pro.
- Sharing. Family, Premium and Pro cover up to six people, but Microsoft's plan notes say the AI features are "only available to subscription owner and cannot be shared."
- How limits are described. Microsoft measures Copilot use in "AI credits" and labels plans "higher than free" (Personal and Family), "extensive" (Premium) and "highest" (Pro), without numbers. OpenAI doesn't publish fixed message caps for most of ChatGPT either.
The free Copilot is "a limited free version of Copilot subject to available capacity and limits," per Microsoft. Free ChatGPT runs GPT-6 Luna and may show ads.
What happened to Copilot Pro?
Microsoft's support page says "Copilot Pro is no longer available for purchase," and that existing subscribers could keep it "until they cancel or support ends on August 1, 2026." It points to Microsoft 365 Premium as the replacement.
How much do they cost for businesses?
| Plan | Paid yearly (per user/month) | Paid monthly (per user/month) | What it includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT Business | $20 | $25 | ChatGPT and Codex; 2+ users |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot (enterprise add-on) | $30.00 | $31.50, with annual commitment | Requires a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot Business (add-on) | $21.00 ($18.00 promotion) | $25.20 | For existing Business plans; promotion July 1 to December 31, 2026, first year |
| Microsoft 365 Business Standard with Copilot | $23.50 | $28.20 | Office apps plus Copilot, up to 300 users |
| Microsoft 365 Business Premium with Copilot | $32.00 | $38.40 | Adds advanced security, up to 300 users |
| Microsoft Copilot Chat | Included | Included | For Microsoft Entra users with an eligible Microsoft 365 subscription |
Table 1For a company already on Microsoft 365, Copilot is an add-on from $21 per user; ChatGPT Business is a separate $20–$25 seat. Source: Microsoft's Copilot business and enterprise pricing pages and OpenAI's pricing page, checked October 23, 2026.
Last verified: October 23, 2026
Microsoft adds usage-based charges on top of the license. Its business pricing page says Copilot Cowork, Copilot Autopilot and the Work IQ API are billed through Copilot Credits, while everyday chat and Copilot in the Office apps are included. Our Autopilot and Work IQ explainer covers how those credits work. On OpenAI's side, Business workspaces with flexible pricing can buy extra workspace credits to keep working.
Which models do ChatGPT and Copilot use?
ChatGPT uses only OpenAI's models. Since October 7–8, 2026, its Chat tab has run GPT-6 Sol on paid plans and GPT-6 Luna on Free and Go, per OpenAI's release notes, and GPT-6.1 Sol is available "in Work and Codex, not Chat."
As of October 2026, Microsoft mixes OpenAI and Anthropic models in the business Copilot, and its own pages aren't all up to date:
- Microsoft's business pricing page still lists "Latest OpenAI models: GPT-5.X," plus "Model Choice."
- A Microsoft 365 admin message-center post (MC1483844, September 30, 2026), which isn't on a public Microsoft page and was read through mc.merill.net, a community mirror of the message center, says GPT-6.1 Sol and Claude Sonnet 5.5 began rolling out to Cowork and Copilot Studio that day, with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Chat following. It says Claude Sonnet 5.5 "additionally requires the Anthropic subprocessor to be enabled in your organization."
- Microsoft's Copilot blog says GPT-6 Astra is "rolling out in Copilot Cowork and Copilot Studio," and a later post says "Claude Opus 5.5 and GPT-6 Sol are joining model choice in Microsoft Copilot."
- Microsoft's September 25 launch post for the new Copilot says frontier models "like Astra and Fable" are billed by usage, not covered by the per-user license.
Microsoft's pages for individuals don't name any models. Its Learn documentation also notes a rename: "Microsoft 365 Copilot is now named Microsoft Copilot," with "no changes to security, compliance, and privacy for organizations."
How do they work with Microsoft 365?
This is where the two differ most.
- Copilot sits inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams. Microsoft says Personal, Family and Premium subscribers get Copilot in the desktop apps; on Family, only the subscription owner can use it there. At work, Microsoft 365 Copilot can search across work data, including line-of-business apps through "100+ connectors," per Microsoft's enterprise page.
- ChatGPT connects to Microsoft 365 from the outside. Its SharePoint app can find, summarize and compare files a user can already open, and, where enabled, create folders and update files. OneDrive works only for work or school accounts: "Personal OneDrive accounts are not supported." Administrator-managed SharePoint sync is limited to eligible Enterprise and Edu workspaces, per OpenAI's help center.
Privacy, training and ads
| ChatGPT (Free, Go, Plus, Pro) | Copilot (personal Microsoft account) | Business plans | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Training on chats | Can be used unless you turn off Improve the model for everyone | Can be switched off: Training on conversation activity and Training on voice conversations | ChatGPT Business, Enterprise and Edu not used for training; Microsoft says work prompts and responses "aren't used to train foundation models" |
| Ads | Free and Go only | Microsoft's privacy page describes ad-personalization controls and says opted-out data may still be used for "advertising" purposes | None on ChatGPT Business; Microsoft's work data and Bing queries "aren't shared with advertisers" |
| Memory | Settings in ChatGPT | Personalization and memory can be turned off | Admin-controlled |
Table 2Both companies let consumers opt out of training, and both exclude business data from training by default. Source: OpenAI's data-controls and ads help articles; Microsoft's Copilot privacy-controls page and enterprise data protection documentation, checked October 23, 2026.
Last verified: October 23, 2026
Two caveats on Microsoft's side. Its consumer privacy page says it "applies only to the older version of the Microsoft Copilot app," and it doesn't state whether training is on by default. For organizations, Microsoft's enterprise data protection page says "Anthropic models are currently excluded from the EU Data Boundary" and in-country processing commitments, which matters for EU customers that turn on Claude in Copilot. On ChatGPT's ads, see our ads explainer.
What do independent evaluations say?
The most relevant study is from 2025 and predates the models both services ran in October 2026. On October 22, 2025, the European Broadcasting Union and the BBC published a study in which journalists from 22 public broadcasters in 18 countries rated more than 3,000 news answers from ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini and Perplexity. They found that 45% of all answers had at least one significant issue and 31% had serious sourcing problems. Gemini had significant issues in 76% of its answers, "more than double the other assistants"; the release doesn't give separate rates for ChatGPT or Copilot. It doesn't support ranking ChatGPT against Copilot. Microsoft's chief executive has argued that companies should treat AI models as if they could be compromised, as our story on Satya Nadella's "emergency brake" post explains.
Which should you pick?
| If you mainly… | Consider | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Already pay for Microsoft 365 Personal or Family | Copilot, included | Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook at no extra cost, with higher limits than free |
| Want the cheapest paid AI plan | ChatGPT Go ($8) | Cheapest paid tier of the two; may show ads |
| Want AI plus Office apps and storage for a household | Microsoft 365 Premium ($19.99) | Up to six people and 2 TB, with "extensive" Copilot use for the subscription owner only |
| Want the full ChatGPT, including Work and Codex | ChatGPT Plus ($20) | GPT-6 Sol in Chat; GPT-6.1 Sol in Work and Codex |
| Code with an AI agent | ChatGPT Plus or Pro | Codex comes with Plus; Microsoft says Copilot's Code mode reaches Premium and Pro subscribers in preview later in 2026 |
| Need a company-wide assistant grounded in Outlook, Teams and SharePoint | Microsoft 365 Copilot | Built into the apps and Microsoft Graph; $30 per user yearly |
| Want a team AI tool that isn't tied to Microsoft 365 | ChatGPT Business | $20–$25 per seat; connects to SharePoint as an app |
| Want both OpenAI and Anthropic models at work | Microsoft 365 Copilot | Claude Opus 5.5 and GPT-6 Sol in model choice, per Microsoft's Copilot blog |
Table 3Options by need, based on the prices, features and settings above; the fit depends mostly on whether you already pay for Microsoft 365.
For ChatGPT against other assistants, see Claude vs ChatGPT vs Gemini and ChatGPT vs Perplexity.
What's confirmed and what may change
- Confirmed (official pages, October 23, 2026): all prices above; Copilot Pro's end of sale; family-sharing rules; Microsoft's business add-on structure and promotion dates; the training and data-protection statements.
- Confirmed but inconsistent across Microsoft's pages: which models business Copilot offers. The pricing page says GPT-5.X, while the Copilot blog describes GPT-6 Astra, GPT-6 Sol and Claude Opus 5.5. A message-center post, seen only through a community mirror, adds GPT-6.1 Sol and Claude Sonnet 5.5.
- Not published: Copilot credit allowances per consumer plan; which models consumer Copilot uses; whether consumer Copilot training is on by default in the new app; when Microsoft 365 Pro launched (it appears on Microsoft's pricing page, but no announcement was found).
About this story
Based on the sources linked below. How we report: Editorial standards.
Sources · 17
- ChatGPT Work and Codex pricing — OpenAI
- ChatGPT release notes — OpenAI Help Center
- Ads in ChatGPT — OpenAI Help Center
- Data controls in ChatGPT — OpenAI Help Center
- SharePoint app and setup in ChatGPT — OpenAI Help Center
- Copilot pricing plans for individuals — Microsoft
Show all 17 sources
- Microsoft Copilot plans for individuals — Microsoft
- About Microsoft Copilot Pro — Microsoft Support
- Microsoft 365 Copilot business pricing — Microsoft
- Microsoft 365 Copilot for enterprise — Microsoft
- Enterprise data protection in Microsoft Copilot — Microsoft Learn (updated August 18, 2026)
- Microsoft Copilot privacy controls — Microsoft Support
- Introducing the new Copilot with Home, Code and Autopilot — Official Microsoft Blog (September 25, 2026)
- More Models, One Copilot — Microsoft Copilot Blog
- Available today: OpenAI GPT-6 Astra in Microsoft Copilot — Microsoft Copilot Blog
- MC1483844: GPT 6.1 Sol and Claude Sonnet 5.5 beginning to roll out — Microsoft 365 message center, via the community mirror mc.merill.net (September 30, 2026)
- AI's systemic distortion of news is consistent across languages and territories — EBU (October 22, 2025)
Comments (0)