All five major AI assistants have a free plan, and most put their main paid plan at about $20 a month: ChatGPT Plus and Claude Pro at $20, Google AI Pro and Microsoft 365 Premium at $19.99, and Perplexity Pro at $20 a month or $17 a month on annual billing. The real differences are elsewhere: whether you can pay yearly, whether one subscription covers a family, what a small team must buy, and what happens if you ask for a refund.
This is a documentary comparison based on the providers’ official pages. We have not tested, benchmarked or ranked any of these assistants, so nothing here says which one writes, reasons or searches better. Feature descriptions and usage multiples are the providers’ own claims. We have no affiliate deal with OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft or Perplexity.
What this page covers
We compare ChatGPT (OpenAI), Claude (Anthropic), Google AI plans (Gemini), Microsoft 365 with Copilot and Perplexity on price, billing, team minimums, refunds and data use. If you are still working out which kind of assistant fits your work, start with our guide to choosing a general AI assistant for real tasks. If you need to weigh model quality against speed and cost for an API project, see comparing model quality, latency and cost.
Prices and plan details were checked on the providers’ official pages on 5 November 2026. Figures are in USD as shown to a US visitor and exclude sales tax. Prices vary by country, currency, taxes and promotions, so confirm the final amount at checkout.
Free plans
Every provider here offers a free tier, and none publishes exact caps for it:
- ChatGPT Free: OpenAI describes limited messages with uploads, image creation, voice, deep research and memory, plus text chats subject to abuse guardrails.
- Claude Free: Anthropic describes basic access with limited usage every 5 hours and every week, and no Opus access.
- Gemini app: a free baseline; Google describes its paid plans as multiples of this usage.
- Copilot: Microsoft offers a limited free version “subject to available capacity and limits”.
- Perplexity Free: search with citations and basic models, with limited daily usage.
A free plan is the cheapest way to test whether an assistant fits your tasks before you pay.
Entry and $20 plans
| Provider | Cheaper entry plan | Main paid plan | Annual billing |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Go: $8/month in the US; price varies by country | Plus: $20/month | Not offered for Go or Plus |
| Claude | None | Pro: $20/month | Pro: $17/month, $200 billed up front |
| Google AI plans | AI Plus: $4.99/month | AI Pro: $19.99/month | AI Pro: $199.99/year; AI Plus not confirmed |
| Microsoft 365 | Personal: $9.99/month; Family: $12.99/month | Premium: $19.99/month | Personal $99.99, Family $129.99, Premium $199.99 a year |
| Perplexity | Education Pro: $10/month for verified students | Pro: $20/month (blog) | Pro: $17/month billed annually (pricing page); annual total not confirmed |
ChatGPT Go is priced by country: OpenAI’s US documentation lists $8 a month, while its pricing page showed $5 when read from France. OpenAI says Go may include ads. Go and Plus are billed monthly only, according to OpenAI’s pricing FAQ.
Perplexity’s Pro price differs between two official sources: its blog post of 13 October 2026 says $20 a month, while its pricing page shows $17 a month when billed annually and no monthly-billing figure. Check the price at checkout.
Google AI Plus and AI Pro include Google One storage (400 GB and 5 TB) that can be shared with up to five others. Microsoft 365 Personal, Family and Premium bundle Copilot with the Office apps and 1 TB to 2 TB of storage. On Microsoft 365 Family and Premium, which cover up to six people, only the subscription owner gets the AI features. Microsoft no longer sells Copilot Pro; its blog says Microsoft 365 Premium replaces it.
Yearly cost of the $20 tier
If you keep the main paid plan for 12 months, here is what you pay before tax (our arithmetic):
| Plan | 12 months on monthly billing | Annual billing |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT Plus | $240 (20 × 12) | Not offered |
| Claude Pro | $240 (20 × 12) | $200 |
| Google AI Pro | $239.88 (19.99 × 12) | $199.99 |
| Microsoft 365 Premium | $239.88 (19.99 × 12) | $199.99 |
| Perplexity Pro | $240 (20 × 12, blog price) | $204 (17 × 12); annual total not shown |
Paying yearly saves about $40 on Claude Pro, Google AI Pro and Microsoft 365 Premium (our arithmetic). It also locks you in for a year, so it makes sense only once you know the assistant fits your work.
High tiers
Every provider now sells plans far above $20 a month, mostly for heavy individual use:
- ChatGPT Pro: three tiers at $100, $200 and $500 a month, monthly billing only. OpenAI says Pro includes up to $500 a month in API credits, with eligibility conditions, and unused credits expire.
- Claude Max at $100 a month and Ultra at $200 a month, monthly. Anthropic describes Max as 5x Pro usage with $100 a month in API credits, and Ultra as 10x Pro weekly usage with $200 a month in API credits.
- Google AI Ultra at $99.99 or $199.99 a month, described by Google as 5x and 20x AI Pro limits; annual billing was not shown.
- Microsoft 365 Pro at $99.99 a month, monthly billing only.
- Perplexity Max at $200 a month or $2,000 a year ($167 a month), with annual billing only on the web.
Over a year, a $100 tier costs $1,200 and a $200 tier $2,400 on monthly billing (our arithmetic). Google’s tiers come to $1,199.88 and $2,399.88. Perplexity Max is the only high tier here with a published annual price.
Team plans and minimums
| Plan | Annual billing | Monthly billing | Seats |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT Business | $20 per user/month | $25 per user/month | Minimum 2 users |
| Claude Team standard seat | $20 per seat/month | $25 per seat/month | 2 to 150 seats |
| Claude Team premium seat | $100 per seat/month | $125 per seat/month | Within the same 2 to 150 seats |
| Claude Enterprise | $20 per seat/month plus usage at API rates | Not shown | Minimum 20 seats |
| Perplexity Enterprise Pro | $400 per seat/year | $40 per seat/month | Minimum not stated |
| Perplexity Enterprise Max | $3,250 per seat/year | $325 per seat/month | Minimum not stated |
For a five-person team on the standard seat, ChatGPT Business and Claude Team both come to $1,200 a year on annual billing or $1,500 on monthly billing (our arithmetic). Perplexity Enterprise Pro would be $2,000 a year on annual billing (our arithmetic). Anthropic says a Claude Team shares up to $500 a month in pooled API credits and that a premium seat gets 5x the usage of a standard seat. OpenAI offers nonprofits up to 75% off Business or Enterprise. Before rolling out a team plan, read our guide to deploying a team AI assistant with human review.
Refunds and cancellation
Refund rules differ more than prices:
- ChatGPT: refund terms were not confirmed on the pages we could read.
- Claude: payments are non-refundable except as required by Anthropic’s Consumer Terms or by law. You request a refund through in-app support, and a refund does not cancel the subscription. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the billing period; cancel at least 24 hours before the next billing date. Monthly API credits are never refundable. App Store purchases are refunded through Apple. On Team, removing members gives no credit or refund.
- Google: under the Google One terms, you request refunds from the seller, cancelling keeps access until the end of the period, and trials convert to paid automatically unless cancelled. Google promises at least 30 days’ notice of price increases.
- Microsoft: Personal, Family and Premium offer a one-month free trial and renew automatically unless cancelled in your Microsoft account. Refund terms were not confirmed.
- Perplexity: US customers can get a refund within 24 hours on monthly plans. For annual plans, Perplexity’s Refunds article says 72 hours, while its Max article says 48 hours. Customers in the EU, UK and Turkey get 14 days. Only one refund is allowed per customer, and cancellation takes effect at the end of the billing cycle.
Are your chats used for training?
On ChatGPT’s consumer plans, OpenAI’s pricing page says your content is used to train models and that opting out is possible. For Claude, Google, Microsoft and Perplexity, our 5 November 2026 data does not record a training setting, so check each provider’s privacy settings before you start. Whatever you choose, do not paste confidential client data, personal data or trade secrets into any assistant until you have checked those settings and your own rules. Our guide to classifying data before using AI tools shows how to sort what is safe to share.
How to decide
Start on the free plans and use each assistant on your real tasks for a week. If you need more, the $20 tier is the usual next step. Pick the plan whose billing and refund rules suit you: Claude Pro, Google AI Pro and Microsoft 365 Premium offer annual billing; ChatGPT Plus does not. If you already pay for Microsoft 365 or Google One storage, a bundled plan may replace a subscription you have now. For households, remember that Microsoft limits AI features to the subscription owner. For teams, ChatGPT Business and Claude Team have the same standard-seat price and a two-seat minimum. For a closer look at two of these, read ChatGPT vs Claude: plans and prices.
- Test the free plan on your own tasks before paying.
- Check whether you already pay for Microsoft 365 or Google One.
- Choose monthly billing until you are sure; switch to annual only where it is offered.
- For teams, check the seat minimum and whether removing members gives a refund.
- Read the refund rule before paying: some windows are only 24 to 72 hours.
- Review the training and privacy settings, and keep confidential data out until you have.
- Confirm the final price, taxes and currency at checkout.
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