Copilot vs ChatGPT vs Claude: which should you use?

The short answer

Start with what you already pay for. If you use Microsoft 365, your people can use Copilot Chat with their work accounts at no extra cost, though it only uses the web and files they attach, not your emails and documents. If you use Google Workspace, Gemini is included, and can work with your Gmail and Drive. Add ChatGPT Business or Claude Team when people need more than that, and test before you commit.

On features, in our experience, ChatGPT and Claude are roughly neck and neck and lead the field. Gemini is slightly behind them, and Copilot lags some way behind both. The lead changes every few months, so the right choice still depends on where your work and data live, and what your people actually need help with.

At a glance

Prices are approximate, exclude VAT, and were checked in November 2026. They change often, and some vendors price in dollars: check the vendor’s own pricing page before you buy.

Microsoft Copilot

The natural place to start if your business runs on Microsoft 365. But there are two quite different Copilots, and the difference is what Microsoft calls grounding: what Copilot draws on to answer.

Copilot Chat is included with your Microsoft 365 business plan and protected when people sign in with their work account. It’s grounded in the web: it uses public web information and any files you attach, but it can’t search your emails, files or meetings. Microsoft 365 Copilot, the paid add-on, adds work grounding: it works inside Outlook, Word, Excel and Teams and can draw on your emails, files, chats and meetings. Many businesses try the free one and assume that’s what Copilot is.

In our experience, though, both lag some way behind ChatGPT and Claude on features.

Microsoft 365 Copilot’s access to your files is its strength and its main risk. It sees whatever each person can see, so tidy your file permissions before you switch it on. Microsoft recommends an audit of permissions and sharing before a Copilot rollout.

Connecting Copilot to systems outside Microsoft 365 is harder than with ChatGPT or Claude. It means building agents in Copilot Studio, with Power Platform administration and usage-based charges on top of the licence.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT is the chatbot that started the current wave of AI when OpenAI released it in November 2022, and it has improved steadily since. OpenAI is one of the original “frontier” labs: the handful of companies building the most advanced AI models.

Since launch, OpenAI has added voice conversations, image generation, web search, deep research that works through a question across many sources, and an agent mode that can carry out tasks on its own. It’s the broadest general-purpose tool, and the one most people have already tried.

ChatGPT Business adds admin controls, a data processing agreement and no training on your data by default. It needs at least two seats.

Claude

Claude is made by Anthropic, another frontier lab, founded in 2021 by former OpenAI researchers. Claude has often been seen as slightly ahead of ChatGPT, particularly for writing, analysis and coding, though that’s arguable now: the two are close. Anthropic also created the Model Context Protocol (MCP), the open standard many tools now use to connect AI to other systems.

One oddity: Claude can’t generate images. If that matters to you, pair it with a tool that can, such as ChatGPT or Gemini, or choose one of those instead.

Claude Team has similar business protections to ChatGPT Business, and also needs at least two seats. Worth testing side by side with ChatGPT on your own work.

Google Gemini

If you run on Google Workspace, Gemini is included in your business plan, with the same data protections as the rest of Workspace. Unlike the free Copilot Chat, it can work with your own data: on every business plan, the Gemini app can draw on Gmail, Drive and Calendar as well as the web, and from Business Standard upwards Gemini also works inside Docs, Sheets, Drive and Meet.

As with Copilot, it sees whatever each person can see, so check your sharing settings first.

Beyond chat: proactive AI and your other systems

All four are mainly assistants: they wait for someone to ask. The bigger savings usually come from AI that works proactively: reading new orders as they arrive, chasing overdue invoices, preparing tomorrow’s production list. That needs AI connected to the systems your business actually runs on, such as your CRM, accounts, ERP or order system.

ChatGPT and Claude connect to other systems through connectors, including the open Model Context Protocol (MCP) standard that many software vendors now support. Copilot is at home inside Microsoft 365 but harder to connect to anything else. Gemini is strongest inside Google Workspace.

For work that should run on its own across several systems, a bespoke AI agent is often simpler and more reliable than stretching a chat assistant to do it.

How to choose

1. What do you already pay for? Use what’s included before buying anything new.
2. What do people want help with? Drafting emails, summarising documents, analysing spreadsheets and building simple assistants suit different tools.
3. Where does your data live? AI that works inside your existing email and files saves the most time, and needs the most care.
4. Do you want AI to do work on its own? Then how well it connects to your other systems matters more than the chat window.
5. Try it on real work. Give two or three tools to a few people for two to four weeks, on real tasks, then decide.

Whatever you choose, use business accounts and set some ground rules. Our free AI policy template and guide to using ChatGPT safely will help.