ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini vs Perplexity
Which AI assistant should a small team actually pay for in 2026? Team pricing, data-privacy defaults, and what each of ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity is genuinely best at.
Updated 2026-07-13.
If our best AI tools guide answers “which categories of AI are worth paying for,” this one answers the narrower question people actually type: which single assistant should a small team standardise on? The four that matter for business are ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity. They now cost within a few dollars of each other at the team tier, so the decision is about workflow fit, not price.
One thing that used to be a differentiator no longer is: all four now default to not training on your business-tier data. Privacy is table stakes; pick on what each is best at.
The team-tier prices
| Assistant | Team/business plan | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT Business | A ~$5 cut took effect April 2026 | |
| Claude Team | $20/seat/mo annual ($25 monthly), 5-150 people | A $100/seat “Premium” seat adds more usage |
| Gemini | bundled into Google Workspace (Business Standard ~$18/user/mo) | not sold standalone for most teams |
| Perplexity | Enterprise Pro $40/seat/mo ($400/yr) | a research engine, priced accordingly |
Prices for ChatGPT, Perplexity, and the Google USD figures come from corroborated secondary sources because those vendors block direct page fetches; Claude’s are from its own pricing page. Confirm the exact current seat price at checkout before you commit a team.
What each is best at
ChatGPT (Business) has the broadest ecosystem: the most third-party integrations (Slack, Drive, Salesforce, and dozens more connectors), strong coding and agentic tool use, and the largest library of custom GPTs. Business and Enterprise data is not used for training by default, with SOC 2 and ISO 27001 behind it. It is the safe mainstream default when you want one assistant that plugs into everything.
Claude (Team) tends to edge out the others on coding and agentic development workflows (via Claude Code), long-context reasoning over big documents, and careful, structured writing and analysis. Team data is not used for training by default; Enterprise adds SCIM, audit logs, and a HIPAA-ready option. Pick it if your team’s core work is code or long-form analysis.
Gemini is the pragmatic choice for anyone already living in Google Workspace, because it is bundled into the suite (roughly from Business Standard at $18/user/mo) rather than bought as a separate seat. Its strength is native depth inside Gmail, Docs, Sheets, and Meet. If you are on Workspace, you may already be paying for “good enough” AI without a second subscription.
Perplexity is a different tool: a real-time web-search-and-answer engine with inline citations, not a general chat or coding assistant. At $40/seat it is the priciest here, but for market scans, research, and “answer this with sources, fast,” nothing else is purpose-built the same way.
How to choose
- Already on Google Workspace: start with Gemini - it is effectively bundled from Business Standard up, the cheapest path to capable AI in your email and docs.
- Core work is coding or long structured analysis: Claude Team.
- You want the widest integrations and a mainstream default: ChatGPT Business.
- You mainly need cited, up-to-date research: Perplexity Enterprise Pro, likely alongside one of the others.
The most common mistake in this category is buying all four. A small team needs one general assistant, plus at most one specialist (usually Perplexity for research). Standardise on one, and only add a second when a specific workflow demands it.