ChatGPT Business alternatives for small teams.

The short answer

For a team of 5 to 15 where only some people use AI every day, the alternatives to ChatGPT Business fall into four groups, and the right one depends on how evenly your team uses it:

• Another per-seat plan (Claude Team, Gemini in Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 Copilot) if everyone is a heavy daily user.
• A multi-model team subscription if you want several providers but are happy to keep paying per person.
• A model gateway or bring-your-own-key app if someone on the team is comfortable managing API keys and budgets.
• A shared pay-as-you-go wallet such as Drephos if usage is uneven and you would rather not pay for seats people barely touch.

Prices below were checked on 7 October 2026. They change often, so confirm them on each vendor's own pricing page before you decide.

What you are comparing against

ChatGPT Business is $25 per person each month on monthly billing, or $20 on an annual commitment, with a two-seat minimum. OpenAI bills every seat in the workspace at the start of each cycle, whether or not it is assigned, and self-serve workspaces pay by card. Each seat includes a set amount of usage; heavier use draws on workspace credits bought on top. It is a good plan for a uniform team of heavy users. It is a costly one for a team where three people use it daily and eight use it twice a month, because all eleven seats cost the same.

The four kinds of alternative

Per-seat plans from model makers and suites

Claude Team is Anthropic's equivalent: $25 per standard seat each month, or $20 billed annually, with premium seats for heavier users. If your team prefers Claude's writing and analysis, it is the like-for-like swap, and it has the same per-seat shape as ChatGPT Business.

Gemini in Google Workspace is included in Business Standard, at $14 per person each month on annual billing. Microsoft 365 Copilot Business is an add-on at $21 per person each month on an annual commitment, on top of the Microsoft 365 seat. Both make most sense if your team already lives in those suites. The guide to AI without a suite upgrade goes into that trade-off.

Multi-model team subscriptions

These apps put models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and others behind one login, often with shared prompt libraries and team folders. They solve the "we keep arguing about which model is better" problem. Many still price per person, so they cut the number of subscriptions without changing the shape of the bill. Where a plan advertises pooled credits, check whether the pool grows with each seat you add, and what happens when it runs out.

Model gateways and bring-your-own-key apps

OpenRouter puts hundreds of models behind one account and one balance, billed per token plus a platform fee, and lets an organisation give each member a budget that resets daily, weekly or monthly. It is infrastructure first: it has a basic chat page, but most teams pair it with a chat app.

Bring-your-own-key apps are those chat apps. You connect API keys from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google or a gateway, and pay for every token. LibreChat and Open WebUI are open source and self-hosted; TypingMind sells a hosted team version with its own subscription. Together this can be the cheapest option per message. The cost is everything around it: someone has to host or license the app, create and rotate keys, and manage budgets in one or more consoles.

A shared pay-as-you-go wallet

Drephos is built for the team in the short answer. There are no seats at all. The team shares one prepaid wallet, topped up in packs from $10 to $50, and credits come out only when someone runs a paid model. Owners set a monthly cap per member and see who spent what. One join link adds people, and it can be locked to your company email domain. Models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, DeepSeek and others are in the same workspace, and free models keep working with a zero balance.

Which one to pick

• Everyone uses AI hard, every day, and you are happy with one provider: stay on ChatGPT Business or switch to Claude Team. A fixed seat is simple and good value at that usage.
• You already pay for Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 and work inside those apps: try the AI built into the suite before buying anything separate.
• You want several providers and have someone technical: a gateway such as OpenRouter with a bring-your-own-key chat app gives the lowest unit cost.
• Usage is mixed, light or seasonal, and you do not want to manage API keys: a shared wallet such as Drephos means quiet months cost close to nothing.

What Drephos does not do

To be fair about the limits: Drephos is a web app, with no desktop or mobile app. It has no single sign-on, no enterprise contract or purchase-order billing, and it is a new product from a small UK company. A team that needs SSO, data residency guarantees or a negotiated contract should look at the enterprise tiers from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google or Microsoft instead. And a team of steady heavy users can pay less on a fixed seat than on usage.

If you want numbers for your own team, the cost calculator compares a year of ChatGPT Business seats with a Drephos wallet from your team size and usage pattern.