The ChatGPT Business plan (called ChatGPT Team until August 29, 2025) is OpenAI’s self-serve plan for teams. A Standard seat costs $25 per user per month billed monthly, or $20 billed annually. Every workspace needs at least two paid seats. Compared with Plus, you get a shared workspace, an admin console, SSO, company connectors, and OpenAI’s default promise not to train on your workspace data. It suits teams of 2 to 200 seats. Solo users usually do better on Plus or Pro, and bigger companies on Enterprise. Below: what’s included, the seat math, and who should skip it.
Key terms used in this guide: training data and API.
ChatGPT plans at a glance
Six plans, and only one of them was built for a team. Business is highlighted.
| Plan | Price (US, as of Oct 21, 2026) | Best for | Key limits | Admin and data controls |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Trying it out | Lowest limits | Personal settings only |
| Go | $8/month | Light daily use | More than Free, well below Plus | Personal settings only |
| Plus | $20/month | One person, daily use | Per-person caps | Personal data-controls toggle |
| Pro | From $100/month | Heavy solo users | Highest individual limits | Personal settings only |
| Business | $20/seat/month annual, $25 monthly, 2-seat minimum | Teams of 2–200 seats | Standard seat; Premium seat has 5x the usage | Admin console, roles, SSO, workspace data not used for training |
| Enterprise | Custom, through sales | Large orgs that need contracts | Custom | Contracted controls |
If you’re still choosing between the personal tiers, we’ve covered Plus vs Pro and Go vs Plus separately. This page is about the team plan.
What’s included in ChatGPT Business
Think of it as Plus with a front office attached. Same kind of chat product, but now someone owns it, someone pays for it, and someone can turn people on and off.
Workspace and seats
When you sign up, you get a workspace and the owner role. Here’s the part that trips people up: a seat is paid capacity, separate from the person using it. You buy seats, then assign them. Standard seats include ChatGPT, ChatGPT Work and Codex. Premium seats add the same access with 5x the usage and no five-hour limit. You can mix both in one workspace.
Admin console, roles and SSO
There are four built-in roles: owners, admins, analytics viewers and members. Only owners can buy, reduce or reassign seats. Admins handle invitations and routine member settings. SSO and domain verification come with the plan, and the owner sets them up under Access (SAML or OIDC options).
Connectors, projects and GPTs
Standard seats include GPTs, Projects, Apps, Company Knowledge, Agent mode and Deep Research. Apps are on by default for Business workspaces, which is handy and also something an admin should know about on day one. How connectors work (and which ones are worth turning on) is in our ChatGPT connectors guide.
Limits
Usage limits and model access change often, so we won’t print numbers that could be stale by Friday. Our ChatGPT message limit page tracks them, and OpenAI’s “ChatGPT Business models and limits” article is the official source. One useful detail: when a seat runs out of included usage, owners can buy workspace credits instead, with spend controls to cap it.
What’s not included
- API usage. It’s billed separately, and API credits don’t transfer to the workspace.
- Self-serve data export from the workspace.
- Invoice billing, purchase orders, wire or ACH. OpenAI points those buyers to a contracted offering.
ChatGPT Business price: the seat math
The headline ChatGPT Business price is simple. The annual rate saves you $5 per seat per month, and the monthly rate lets you walk away.
Here’s what that looks like on Standard seats, before tax:
| Team size | Monthly billing | Annual billing | Annual saves you |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 users | $50/mo($600/yr) | $40/mo($480/yr) | $120/yr |
| 5 users | $125/mo($1,500/yr) | $100/mo($1,200/yr) | $300/yr |
| 20 users | $500/mo($6,000/yr) | $400/mo($4,800/yr) | $1,200/yr |
A few things OpenAI’s help center says that affect real budgets:
- Adding a seat triggers an immediate prorated charge. Cutting seats only takes effect at the start of the next billing cycle.
- Removing a person doesn’t shrink your bill. The seat just frees up. You have to schedule a reduction yourself.
- Unused seats generally aren’t refunded once the cycle is committed.
Premium is a different scale. One Premium plus one Standard seat meets the two-seat minimum at $120amonthonannualbilling($150 monthly). Most teams don’t need Premium for everyone. Give it to the two or three people who live in ChatGPT all day.
A low-cost way to start: buy a handful of monthly seats first, then switch to annual once you know who actually uses it. That’s you paying $5 extra per seat to keep your options open.
Bottom line on ChatGPT Business pricing: it’s the same $20 a head as Plus, as long as you commit annually. So the real question isn’t cost. It’s what you get for the same money.
ChatGPT Business vs Plus: when separate accounts are enough
That question is exactly what ChatGPT Business vs Plus comes down to. Five people on Plus pay $100 a month. Five Business seats on annual billing also pay $100 a month. Same bill, different building.
| Question | A team of Plus accounts | ChatGPT Business |
|---|---|---|
| Who owns the account? | Each person, personally | The company workspace |
| Data and training | Each person checks their own settings | Workspace data isn’t used for training |
| Admin control | None | Owners, admins, analytics viewers |
| Sign-in | Individual logins | SSO and domain verification available |
| Billing | One card per person, or expense reports | One central bill |
| Sharing work | Screenshots and copy-paste | Shared links, Projects and GPTs in one place |
| When someone leaves | Their account walks out with them | Owner reassigns the seat |
| Minimum | 1 | 2 seats |
Plus is plenty when:
- It’s you, or you and one trusted person, and nothing sensitive goes in.
- Everyone works alone and nobody needs to share prompts, files or GPTs.
- You’re testing. Our Is ChatGPT Plus worth it breakdown helps you decide that.
Plus stops being enough when:
- Client data, contracts or internal numbers are going into chats.
- You want one person to own access and billing.
- You’ve caught yourself pasting a good prompt into Slack for the fifth time.
That last one is surprisingly common, and it’s usually the moment teams switch.
ChatGPT Business vs Enterprise: when to talk to sales
OpenAI’s own wording is blunt: Business is the self-serve plan for teams, and if you need a larger deployment or contracted controls, look at Enterprise. Here’s what that means in practice. The question to ask is ChatGPT Business vs Enterprise: do you need things a credit card can’t buy?
Talk to sales if any of these are true:
- You need more than 200 paid seats. That’s the cap on new Business subscriptions since August 24, 2026.
- Your finance team wants invoices, purchase orders, bank transfers, ACH or net terms.
- You need Zero Data Retention or a BAA. OpenAI lists those under contracted offerings, not self-serve Business.
- You want an Enterprise-only setting like disabling shared links for the whole workspace. On Business, members can delete links they made, but you can’t switch sharing off for everyone.
You won’t be stuck if you outgrow Business, either. OpenAI says an existing Business workspace can be upgraded to Enterprise through sales while keeping the workspace and its data. Enterprise pricing is custom, so we won’t guess a number.
Data privacy and admin controls
This is the section most owners read twice. Here’s what OpenAI says, and then what it means.
On training, OpenAI’s Business overview says it plainly: “OpenAI won’t train on your workspace’s data.” That commitment comes from the Business Terms and OpenAI’s Enterprise Privacy page. OpenAI also says the same commitments apply when your workspace uses Codex. It describes data as encrypted in transit and at rest.
What owners and admins can control:
- Who’s in the workspace, their roles and their seat types
- Sign-in rules through SSO and verified domains
- Billing, credits and spend controls
- Usage analytics (analytics viewers get this)
What they can’t do, and this surprises people: by default, admins and owners can’t read every member’s private chats. Each person keeps their own chat history and chooses what to share. Teammates only see a conversation if someone sends a shared link. Collaboration here doesn’t mean surveillance.
Two other limits worth knowing. Members can’t export their own workspace data through Settings, and you can’t stop members from inviting others if there are free seats.
One more thing, and it matters: this is not legal or compliance advice. If you work in healthcare, finance, law or any regulated field, ask your compliance team before putting client data in any AI tool. For the everyday version of that question, read our guide on whether it’s safe to use AI tools at work.
How to set it up
Setup takes about ten minutes. Take screenshots as you go, with no personal or company data in them.
Step 1: Create the workspace
Sign in with the account you want as the owner, pick Business if the plan options appear, and choose your seat count and billing frequency at checkout. You need at least two paid seats.
[Screenshot 1: plan picker and seat count at checkout]
Step 2: Decide what happens to your personal account
Joining Business doesn’t automatically move your old chats or cancel a personal subscription. You can keep the two separate or merge. Merging copies supported content over, you can’t pick individual chats, and there’s no undo. Think before you click.
[Screenshot 2: workspace switcher in the profile menu]
Step 3: Invite people and assign roles
Invite by email and give each person a seat type. Make one other person an admin so you’re not the single point of failure. Invitees can join if a matching paid seat is free.
[Screenshot 3: Members page with roles and seat types]
Step 4: Set sign-in and connectors
If you have an identity provider, owners can set up SSO from the Access page. Then check which apps are switched on. They’re enabled by default, so review them before your team does.
[Screenshot 4: SSO tab in the admin console]
Step 5: Build your first shared project
Pick one boring, repeatable job, like client onboarding notes or weekly report drafts. Create a project, add your standard instructions and files, and share it. Then tell people to try it for a week. If you want ideas for what to run first, our guide to using ChatGPT in a business covers use cases so we don’t repeat them here.
[Screenshot 5: a shared project with instructions and files]
Is it worth it? Three examples
A freelancer with an assistant
Two people, two seats: $40 a month on annual billing, $50 monthly. Two Plus accounts would cost the same $40 on annual-equivalent math, so you’re really paying for the workspace, not the chatbot. Worth it if the assistant touches client files, because then you control access. If it’s just the two of you drafting emails, stay on Plus and keep the $40.
An 8-person agency
Eight Standard seats on annual billing: $160 a month, $1,920 a year. That’s exactly what eight Plus accounts would cost. Suddenly the decision is easy, because you pay nothing extra for the admin console, shared projects and no-training default. If one person burns through usage, swap in a single Premium seat: seven Standard plus one Premium is $240 a month, or $2,880 a year. Start monthly if you’re not sure who’ll use it.
A 40-person company
Forty Standard seats: $800amonthonannualbilling($9,600 a year), $1,000 monthly. Now the admin tools matter more than the chat. SSO, roles and a single invoice save real hours. The trap is buying 40 seats for 40 people when only 15 will use it daily. Pilot with a group first. And remember the ceiling: at 200 seats, you’re in Enterprise territory anyway.
One honest note across all three: seats don’t make anyone good at AI. Our piece on AI training for employees covers the part the license can’t.
Alternatives in one table
ChatGPT isn’t the only team plan. Prices below are US list prices as of October 21, 2026. Always check the vendor’s page before buying.
| Option | Price per user/month | Seats and requirements | Best for | Official page | Our page |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT Business | $20 annual / $25 monthly (Standard) | 2–200 seats | General-purpose team chat, projects, GPTs | OpenAI help center | This article |
| Claude Team | $20 annual / $25 monthly (Standard); $100/$125 Premium | 2-seat minimum | Writing, analysis, teams that like Claude | Anthropic support | Claude for teams |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot Business | $21 annual; $18 promo through Dec 31, 2026 | Up to 300 users, needs a Microsoft 365 plan | Teams living in Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams | Microsoft | Copilot vs ChatGPT |
| Gemini in Google Workspace | Business Standard lists at about $14 annual, Gemini included | Google Workspace subscription | Teams already on Gmail, Docs and Drive | Google Workspace Admin Help | – |
The quick rule: pick the tool your team already opens every morning. If that’s Outlook, start with Copilot. If it’s Gmail, check Gemini. If it’s neither, ChatGPT Business or Claude Team is a fair fight at $20 a seat.
Seats don’t make a team good at AI. Skills do.
Buying ChatGPT Business gets everyone a login. It doesn’t teach anyone to write a good prompt or spot a bad answer. If you want your team to actually use it well, give everyone short daily lessons instead of a one-hour kickoff nobody remembers.
Coursiv’s 28-Day AI Certificate Program gives your team bite-sized daily practice and a certificate at the end. Prefer to look at the full catalog first? Start with the AI Certificate Program page, which includes a ChatGPT course among its options.