Plans, prices and data policies checked on vendor pages on 23 September 2026.
Price stopped being the tiebreaker this year. ChatGPT Business and Claude Team both list US $20 per user per month on annual billing. Microsoft’s Copilot Business add-on lists CAD $24.43 per user per month on an annual promotion that runs to 31 December 2026. For a 25-person Alberta company, the gap between the three is a rounding error next to the cost of staff not using whichever one you pick.
So the choice comes down to where your files live and what your privacy policy says.
Short answer. Standardize on the assistant that already sits where your documents live. A company that runs on Microsoft 365 should usually start with Copilot, because it works inside Outlook, Teams and Word under the permissions you already set. Choose ChatGPT or Claude when the heavy work is writing and analysis and the files live elsewhere.
The three plans side by side
All three business plans say they do not train their models on your company’s data by default. They differ on where your data is stored, what they connect to, and how many seats a small company can buy. None of the three publishes a Canadian storage option for its small-business plan today.
| Microsoft 365 Copilot Business | ChatGPT Business | Claude Team | |
|---|---|---|---|
| List price, annual billing | CAD $24.43 per user per month, promotional to 31 December 2026, on top of an eligible Microsoft 365 plan | US $20 per user per month, standard seat | US $20 per user per month, standard seat |
| Monthly billing | CAD $34.20 | US $25 | US $25 |
| Heavier-use seat | No separate tier listed | Premium seat, US $100 annual or US $125 monthly | Premium seat, US $100 annual or US $125 monthly |
| Seats | Up to 300 users | At least 2 | 2 to 150 |
| Trains on your data by default | No, per Microsoft’s Copilot privacy page | No, per OpenAI’s business data page | No, per Anthropic’s privacy centre |
| Canadian data storage | No Canada commitment listed for Copilot Chat. In-country processing for Canada is planned for 2027 | Canada offered to new Enterprise customers. Region choice for Business is still rolling out | Claude.ai data is stored in the US |
| Works with | Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams and your Microsoft 365 data | Microsoft 365, Google Drive, Slack, GitHub and more through connectors | Google Drive, Gmail, Google Calendar, Microsoft 365, Slack, GitHub |
| Admin basics | Retention through Microsoft Purview | SAML single sign-on, admin console, roles | Single sign-on, domain capture, roles, spend caps |
Prices move and promotions end. Check the vendor page on the day you buy.
The privacy step Alberta companies skip
If your company uses a service provider outside Canada to handle personal information, Alberta’s PIPA asks you to say so. Your privacy policy has to name the countries involved and the purposes, and tell people who at your company can answer their questions.
None of that stops you using a US-hosted assistant. It means the privacy policy gets updated before staff paste client names, employee records or patient details into one. Most small companies have a privacy policy written before any of these tools existed, and nobody has opened it since.
The other half is a written list of what staff may and may not put into the tool. That list matters more than the vendor’s storage region. A US-stored chat about a public tender is low risk. A Canadian-stored chat holding a client’s payroll file is still a problem if nobody approved it.
For the wider rules that apply to Alberta businesses using AI, see Canada has no AI law. Your Alberta business still has rules.
When Copilot is the right call
Copilot fits companies that already live in Microsoft 365, keep their files in SharePoint and OneDrive, and run meetings in Teams. It works inside the apps staff already open every morning, and it reads company data under the same permissions people already have.
That last point cuts both ways. Copilot respects existing permissions, so a SharePoint site shared with the whole company is readable by anyone’s Copilot. Tidy the sharing on sensitive folders before rollout. It is the unglamorous first week of every Copilot project.
Microsoft’s newer agent feature, Copilot Cowork, became generally available on 16 June 2026 and needs the full Microsoft 365 Copilot licence. Microsoft’s pages do not confirm it is included in Copilot Business, so ask your reseller before you plan around it.
When ChatGPT is the right call
ChatGPT Business suits teams whose work is drafting, research and analysis across mixed tools, especially when the files sit in Google Drive or Slack as much as Microsoft 365. Premium seats let a few heavy users carry more work without upgrading everyone.
The mixed seat model is the practical advantage for a small company. Twenty people on standard seats and three analysts on Premium is a plan you can buy today without an enterprise contract.
When Claude is the right call
Claude Team fits companies that do long-document work, such as proposals, contracts, reports and policy files, and want the assistant to work across those files for a whole task. Cowork, Anthropic’s agent feature, is on every paid plan.
The ceiling is 150 seats on Team. A company above that moves to Enterprise, which Anthropic prices as a seat fee plus usage.
One standard, not three
Pick one assistant for the company. Allow a second one only for a named group with a named reason, such as a proposal team that needs long-document work. Then write the approved-use list once, train people once, and support one tool.
Three tools means three privacy reviews, three sets of habits and nobody who is good at any of them.
What it costs a 25-person team
Illustrative list-price arithmetic, before taxes and reseller pricing.
| Plan | 25 seats per month, annual billing |
|---|---|
| Copilot Business add-on | CAD $610.75, plus the Microsoft 365 plan you already pay for |
| ChatGPT Business, standard seats | US $500 |
| Claude Team, standard seats | US $500 |
The licence is the small number. The larger cost is the hours between buying seats and staff using them on real work. The Canada-Alberta Productivity Grant can cover half of eligible training costs for existing staff. Here is how it applies to AI training.
Common questions
Which AI assistant should an Alberta company standardize on?
The one that sits where your documents already live. For most companies on Microsoft 365, that is Copilot. For teams working across Google Drive, Slack and mixed tools, ChatGPT Business or Claude Team. Then pick one, write the approved-use list and train people on their own work.
Do any of them store our data in Canada?
Not on the small-business plans, based on vendor pages checked 23 September 2026. ChatGPT Enterprise offers Canada to new Enterprise customers. Microsoft lists in-country processing for Canada as planned for 2027. Claude.ai data is stored in the US. Update your privacy policy to match.
Will they train on our company’s data?
Each vendor says its business plans do not use your company data to train models by default. Read the setting for user-submitted feedback, which some vendors treat separately, and have an administrator confirm the defaults on your own account after setup.
Can staff keep using personal ChatGPT or Claude accounts?
Personal accounts sit outside your admin controls, your single sign-on and your retention settings. When someone leaves, their chat history leaves with them. Move work use onto the company plan and say so in the approved-use list.
Do we need training before rollout?
Yes. Seats alone rarely change how people work. A short, hands-on session on the team’s own documents sets the approved uses and shows each role where the tool earns its place. See AI training workshops for teams.
Next step
If you want help choosing and rolling out one assistant, from the privacy policy update to the first trained team, see the services or AI consulting across Alberta.
About ZAK
ZAK is a Calgary-based AI strategist helping Canadian business leaders turn AI confusion into practical automation, agents, governance, and measurable business systems. Implementation is delivered through ORKA AI.
