AI costs
What AI costs a team per seat: ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot and Cursor
US per-seat prices for the AI tools teams pay for, what ten seats cost in a year, and three ways teams overpay.
The short answer: a standard business AI seat costs about $20 to $25 per person per month in the US. Ten people on one tool cost roughly $2,400 a year. Premium seats run about five times that.
Most teams now pay for at least one AI tool, and many pay for two or three without noticing: a chat assistant, a coding assistant and an AI add-on inside their office suite. Here is what each costs per seat, and what a 10-person team spends in a year.
| Tool | Plan | Monthly billing | Yearly billing | 10 seats, one year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT Business | Business (Standard seat) | $25 | $20 | $2,400 |
| ChatGPT Business | Business (Premium seat) | $125 | $100 | $12,000 |
| Claude Team and Enterprise | Team (Standard seat) | $25 | $20 | $2,400 |
| Claude Team and Enterprise | Team (Premium seat) | $125 | $100 | $12,000 |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot | Copilot Business (add-on) | $25.20 | $21 | $2,520 |
| GitHub Copilot | Copilot Business | $19 | n/a | $2,280 |
| Cursor for Teams | Teams (Premium seat) | $30 | n/a | $3,600 |
US list prices from vendor pages, checked October 2026. Business chat plans have a two-seat minimum.
Three ways teams overpay for AI
- Two chat assistants for the same people. If half the team uses one and half the other, pick one for everyone and keep a couple of seats of the second for specialists.
- Premium seats by default. Premium seats cost about five times a standard seat. Most people never hit the standard limits. Start everyone on standard and upgrade the few who do.
- An office-suite AI add-on on top of a chat assistant. Microsoft 365 Copilot earns its price when people live in Word, Excel and Outlook. Otherwise it often duplicates the chat tool.
Add your AI seats to the stack calculator to see them next to the rest of the bill.