ChatGPT Business, Copilot, or a box in your office?
All three can draft, summarize and search. The differences are how you pay, where your client files are processed, and how strong the models are. Here’s the honest version.
| AdminOnsite | ChatGPT Business | Microsoft 365 Copilot Business | Another hire | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price model | One flat monthly price for the whole office | About $20–25 per user per month (Standard seat) | About $21–25 per user per month, on top of a Microsoft 365 plan | $40,000+ a year in salary |
| Where client files are processed | On a Mac mini in your office | On OpenAI’s servers | On Microsoft’s cloud | In your office |
| Training on your data | No — models run locally | Not by default for business plans | Not by default for business plans | — |
| Model quality | Strong for drafts, summaries and file search; behind frontier models on hard reasoning | Frontier models | Frontier models | Human judgment |
| Usage limits / credits | None — it’s your hardware | Included limits, credits beyond them | Some features usage-based | Working hours |
| Ownership | Yours after 24 months | Subscription | Subscription | — |
| Source code | Open source (AGPL) | Closed | Closed | — |
Competitor prices are US list prices on the vendors’ pages as of November 2026 (OpenAI, Microsoft) and may change. Promotional pricing excluded.
The math for a 10-person office
At $20–25 per seat, ten cloud AI seats run about $200–250 a month, and the bill grows with every hire. AdminOnsite Office is $399 a month whatever the headcount, includes the hardware, setup and support, and the box is yours after 24 months.
For a very small team that’s happy with cloud processing, per-seat AI can cost less. The case for AdminOnsite is privacy and a flat bill as you grow, not a lower price for everyone.
More detail: ChatGPT Business vs Plus, the per-seat cost calculator and is ChatGPT confidential?
Is ChatGPT Business unsafe for client files?
Not necessarily. OpenAI and Microsoft both say business data isn’t used to train their models by default, and both offer strong security controls. The difference is where the work happens: on their servers, or on a computer in your office. Some firms and some clients simply prefer the second.
When should I choose cloud AI instead?
If you need the strongest models for hard research or reasoning, have no confidentiality concerns about the files involved, or only a couple of people will use it, per-seat cloud AI can be the better fit. We’ll tell you that in the demo.
Can I use both?
Yes. Many offices keep a cloud tool for general questions and use AdminOnsite for anything that touches client files.
See it on your own files
Tell us about your office. We’ll set up a demo with documents like yours, so you can judge the drafts and summaries yourself.
- Your kind of documentsWe demo on sample files from your field: letters, workpapers or policies, not a canned script.
- Straight answers on priceFlat monthly plans for the whole office. No seats, no credits.
- Honest about fitIf cloud AI is the better choice for you, we’ll say so.