--- title: "Copilot vs ChatGPT: Which Fits Your Business?" description: "Microsoft Copilot vs ChatGPT: current per-tier pricing, which models run underneath, where your data lives, and when neither is the answer." canonical: "https://www.whatsnext-ai.com/blog/copilot-vs-chatgpt" published: "2026-09-30T09:46:12.933Z" updated: "2026-09-30T09:46:14.328Z" --- # Copilot vs ChatGPT: Which Fits Your Business? Microsoft Copilot vs ChatGPT: current per-tier pricing, which models run underneath, where your data lives, and when neither is the answer. ![App icons for Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and DeepSeek side by side on a dark phone screen](https://fgzcpjbyiakhjifaciaj.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/media/saradasish-pradhan-wowomn5sxws-unsplash.jpg) Until the end of 2026 Copilot is about two euro per user per month cheaper than ChatGPT. After that it reverses. The real difference is which models run underneath and where your data is allowed to live. Price is where most people start, so this piece starts there too, then covers the three questions the comparison articles skip. The integration argument, Copilot built for workplace productivity inside the Microsoft 365 ecosystem against ChatGPT as a standalone AI workspace, we covered properly in [what is Microsoft Copilot](https://www.whatsnext-ai.com/blog/what-is-microsoft-copilot) and [ChatGPT for business](https://www.whatsnext-ai.com/blog/chatgpt-for-business). ### What it costs per user The two vendors quote differently, which makes this harder than it should be. Microsoft publishes excluding VAT. OpenAI shows European visitors prices including VAT. Everything below is stated including VAT. For Microsoft that is our own conversion at the 21% Dutch rate, with Microsoft's published figure in brackets. For OpenAI the inclusive figure is the vendor's own. Microsoft 365 Copilot: - Copilot as an add-on to your existing Microsoft 365, annual: 18.88 euro per user per month (15.60 excl. VAT), as of 30 September 2026. Promotional rate running to 31 December 2026, first year only. After that 22.02 euro (18.20 excl. VAT) - Copilot add-on, monthly billing: 26.43 euro per user per month (21.84 excl. VAT), as of 30 September 2026 - Microsoft 365 Business Standard with Copilot, annual: 24.64 euro per user per month (20.36 excl. VAT) - Microsoft 365 Business Premium with Copilot, annual: 33.55 euro per user per month (27.73 excl. VAT) ChatGPT Business: - ChatGPT Business Standard, annual: 21 euro per user per month, from two users up, as of 30 September 2026 - ChatGPT Business Standard, monthly: 26 euro per user per month, as of 30 September 2026 - ChatGPT Business Premium: more usage than Standard, at a higher rate OpenAI does not publish in euros - ChatGPT Enterprise: custom pricing through sales The gap is small and it changes direction. While the Copilot promotion runs it is 18.88 against 21 euro, so Copilot is a little over two euro per user per month cheaper. Once the promotion ends it is 22.02 against 21, and ChatGPT is about a euro cheaper. Budget on the post-promotion rate, not the first-year one. The number underneath matters more either way: Copilot is an add-on to a Microsoft 365 licence you are probably already paying for, while the ChatGPT figure stands alone. ### Where each one falls short Neither vendor will write this down, so here it is: - Copilot is only as good as the state of your SharePoint. If your document management is a mess, Copilot retrieves the mess - ChatGPT does not know your organisation unless you feed it, either per conversation or through a custom GPT - Neither takes over a process that runs across your CRM, your quoting system and your document archive - With both, the return depends on whether your team learns to drive it, which is more often the bottleneck than the licence tier ### Which models sit underneath Few people ask, and it explains a lot. ChatGPT runs OpenAI's own models. Copilot does not, or not only: alongside its own models Microsoft offers models from OpenAI and from Anthropic inside Copilot, as subprocessors, and an administrator chooses which are switched on. That is a genuine advantage, because it means you are not locked to a single model vendor. It also has a consequence that lands directly in the next section, since not every one of those models falls under the same commitments about where your data may sit. ### Where your data lives This is where the two genuinely diverge, and neither is unconditionally strong. With Copilot, the EU Data Boundary applies to EU customers as a baseline rather than a paid extra. Microsoft states that EU traffic stays inside that boundary, and that prompts, responses and data retrieved through Microsoft Graph are not used to train the underlying models. Your data stays inside your own secure corporate tenant, under the permissions your users already have. One exception is rarely mentioned: according to Microsoft's own documentation, the Anthropic models it offers as a subprocessor currently sit outside that EU Data Boundary. We are an Anthropic partner ourselves, which is exactly why we raise it. This is the kind of detail you want before an administrator switches those models on. Stronger guarantees, Advanced Data Residency and Multi-Geo, are separate paid additions. With ChatGPT, data residency is not a baseline feature but an Enterprise one. Business gives you no training on company data by default, plus encryption and access control through SSO, but the guarantee that data stays in a named region is not part of the entry plan. In short: a hard requirement that data stays inside the EU is closer to satisfied on Copilot's base plan, provided the Anthropic models stay off. The same requirement on ChatGPT means a conversation with sales about Enterprise. ### What you can build on top The best use cases day to day are predictable enough: Copilot for work already happening in Office, ChatGPT for writing, research and code. The layer above that is where they separate. Microsoft has Copilot Studio, for assembling your own assistants with little or no code. It is billed separately through consumption credits, so budget for a cost on top of the licences. What it does and does not handle is in [Copilot Studio agents](https://www.whatsnext-ai.com/blog/copilot-studio-agents). OpenAI has two. A custom GPT is your own configured version of ChatGPT with fixed instructions and your own documents. Codex is included with the business plans and is a different tool: it runs agents in parallel in their own cloud environments and can start on its own, on a schedule or on an event in Gmail, Slack or GitHub. It is built around code and repositories rather than business processes. Copilot Studio is more accessible. Codex is more powerful and narrower. ### When neither one is the answer Eventually the question stops being which subscription and becomes whether a subscription is the answer. At [Borgh](https://www.whatsnext-ai.com/cases/borgh-answers-every-product-question-in-seconds-across-15000-skus), every online product question across more than 15,000 SKUs went through a specialist by email, with the delay that implies. From the published case: - Borgh now gives 24/7 specialist advice across more than 15,000 SKUs, with the same team and no extra advisors - At Borgh a correct recommendation for a product that is actually in stock takes seconds instead of an email thread - At Borgh a conversation costs roughly 1,000 times less than manual specialist advice, about half a cent - Borgh went from research to production in thirteen weeks And the line from the case that captures the difference: if What's Next disappeared tomorrow, Borgh would still have a working system. That is not an argument against either product. It is a different kind of solution, for when the answer has to come out of your systems and land somewhere [a chat window](https://www.whatsnext-ai.com/glossary/chatbot) cannot reach. ### Choosing - Everything sits in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem and your team works in Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams: Copilot - Mixed stack, or you would rather not be tied to one vendor: ChatGPT - Hard requirement that data stays in the EU: Copilot on the base plan with the Anthropic models off, or ChatGPT Enterprise - The process repeats and runs across several systems: neither. That is when you build [something of your own](https://www.whatsnext-ai.com/ai-agents) We sell neither licence, so on the Copilot-or-ChatGPT question we have nothing riding on the answer. On that last bullet we do, and we would rather say so ourselves. What we see in practice: most companies buy a subscription and then leave it alone, because nobody learned to use it properly. No comparison fixes that. [Training](https://www.whatsnext-ai.com/ai-training) does, and yes, that is also something we sell. Not sure which side your processes fall on? Book a [free advisory call](https://www.whatsnext-ai.com/contact) and we will work out which part a subscription handles well and which part it does not. Sources: Microsoft pricing and terms from the Dutch Microsoft 365 Copilot pricing page, accessed 30 September 2026. EU Data Boundary and third-party model statements from Microsoft Learn privacy documentation, updated 18 August 2026. OpenAI pricing and terms from OpenAI's Dutch pricing page, accessed 28 September 2026 and unchanged on 30 September 2026. Borgh figures from the published case study on this site. ## Frequently asked questions ### Should I use Copilot or ChatGPT? Neither is better in the abstract. On price it switches: until the end of 2026 Copilot is about two euro per user per month cheaper, and after that ChatGPT is about a euro cheaper. What decides it is where your data is allowed to live and whether the tool reaches the files your team already works in. ### Is Copilot worth the cost? Watch the promotional rate before deciding. The 18.88 euro figure applies to the first year only and runs to 31 December 2026; budget on 22.02 euro. Remember it is an add-on to a Microsoft 365 licence you already pay for, so compare total cost per head rather than the two advertised rates. ### How much does Copilot cost per month? As an add-on to your existing Microsoft 365: 18.88 euro per user per month including VAT on annual billing, a promotional rate running to 31 December 2026 and applying to the first year only. After that 22.02 euro. Monthly billing is 26.43 euro. ### Which AI models does each one use? ChatGPT runs OpenAI's own models. Copilot runs a mix, including models from OpenAI and from Anthropic offered as subprocessors, with an administrator choosing which are enabled. ### Does my data stay inside the EU? With Copilot the EU Data Boundary applies to EU customers as a baseline, except for the Anthropic models offered as a subprocessor. With ChatGPT, data residency is an Enterprise feature and is not part of the entry business plan.