AI seat costs: the right seat for each person, not the same seat for everyone

Why does the same AI seat for everyone cost more than it needs to?

Because many people only need the AI already included in software you pay for, a few need more, and one seat for everyone fits neither.

AI tools are sold per user per month, like the rest of your software. The usual approach is to buy the same paid seat for everyone. But many staff only draft the odd email or summarise a document, which the included tiers already do, while a few heavy users hit the limits of a standard seat. Premium seats cost several times as much: a ChatGPT Business Premium seat is £75 a month billed annually, against £15 for a Standard seat, and Claude Team is the same ex VAT (£75 and £15). The answer is the right seat for each type of user: included AI for light users, a standard seat for regular users, and premium only for proven heavy users.

What are the basic, standard and premium tiers?

Basic is AI included with software you already pay for, standard is a paid everyday seat, and premium is a high-usage seat.

Basic

AI chat that comes with software you already pay for. Good for drafting, summarising and quick questions.

• Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat: £0, included at no additional cost with eligible Microsoft 365 plans (agents are pay as you go). Source: Microsoft, as of 1 Nov 2026.
• Gemini in Google Workspace: built into every Business plan; Business Starter (£5.90, annual) has Gemini in Gmail only. Source: Google, as of 1 Nov 2026.

Standard

A paid AI seat for people who use AI most days: AI inside Word, Excel and Outlook, or a business chat seat with company data protection.

• Microsoft 365 Copilot Business (add-on): £16.10 a user a month ex VAT, billed annually. Page shows “£16.10 user/month, paid yearly”. Source: Microsoft, as of 1 Nov 2026.
• ChatGPT Business, Standard seat: £15 a user a month ex VAT, billed annually. Page shows “£15/month if billed annually”. Source: OpenAI, as of 1 Nov 2026.
• Claude Team, Standard seat: £15 a user a month ex VAT, billed annually. Page shows “£18 per seat/month if billed annually (incl. 20% VAT)”. Source: Anthropic, as of 1 Nov 2026.
• Google Workspace Business Standard (£11.80, annual) adds Gemini in Docs, Meet and more: £5.90 a user a month more than Starter, which also buys more storage and other features. Source: Google, as of 1 Nov 2026.

Premium

A high-usage seat for the few people who use AI heavily all day, for example long research, analysis or coding.

• ChatGPT Business, Premium seat: £75 a user a month ex VAT, billed annually. Page shows “£75/month if billed annually”. Source: OpenAI, as of 1 Nov 2026.
• Claude Team, Premium seat: £75 a user a month ex VAT, billed annually. Page shows “£90 per seat/month if billed annually (incl. 20% VAT)”. Source: Anthropic, as of 1 Nov 2026.
• Microsoft 365 Copilot Business for Cowork users: Microsoft has no separate premium seat. Power users keep Copilot Business (£16.10, the cheapest paid Copilot seat) and pay for Copilot Cowork by use, in Copilot Credits (see what seat prices don’t cover). Source: Microsoft, as of 1 Nov 2026.

Prices are per user per month, ex VAT, as shown on each vendor’s UK pricing page on 1 Nov 2026. Claude prices are shown including 20% VAT on Anthropic’s page; we show them ex VAT (÷ 1.2). Listed by tier, not by preference. Enterprise plans are mostly “contact sales” and are not included.

Which of your people are light, regular or power users?

Judge by what people do with AI each week, not by job title or seniority.

• Light users ask AI a few questions a week: rewording an email, summarising a long document, a quick explanation. Basic tier.
• Regular users use AI most days as part of their work: drafting reports and proposals, working through spreadsheets, preparing for meetings. Standard tier.
• Power users use AI heavily for hours a day: long research, data analysis, coding or building automations, and they hit usage limits. Premium tier. On Microsoft 365, power users are your Copilot Cowork users: Cowork runs long, multi-step tasks, needs a paid Copilot seat and is billed by use on top of it.

The split varies by firm. The example below uses 60% light, 30% regular and 10% power users as an illustration from general experience, not from any client’s data. Use your own split in the calculator.

What does it cost for a 100-person firm?

On Microsoft 365 at list prices, £1,610 a month with Copilot Business for everyone against £644 with the right seat for each: £11,592 a year less.

A fictional firm of 100 people: 60 light, 30 regular and 10 power users. It already pays for Microsoft 365, so Copilot Chat is included for everyone.

Example A: Microsoft 365 Copilot

The paid seat is Microsoft 365 Copilot Business at £16.10 a user a month, paid yearly. Regular users and power users (your Copilot Cowork users) get it; instead of a seat for everyone, light users stay on the included Copilot Chat:

Saving: £966 a month, £11,592 a year (60% less). Ex VAT, list prices as of 1 Nov 2026; annual-billing prices shown per month.

Copilot Cowork: this saving holds while Cowork usage stays under about £96.60 per power user a month, about 15,700 Copilot Credits at Microsoft’s UK pack rate (our calculation: £966 ÷ 10 power users, at £153.80 per 25,000 credits). Packs are bought whole: 6 packs (150,000 credits, 15,000 per power user) cost £922.80 a month and still leave a saving; a seventh pack takes Cowork to £1,076.60, more than the saving.

Both totals above are seat costs only. Cowork is charged for the tasks people run, not per seat, so if the same power users would run the same Cowork tasks under either plan, the Cowork bill is the same in both and the saving does not change. The line above is the cautious reading, counting Cowork against the right-seat plan only. See what seat prices don’t cover.

Example B: Copilot Chat plus ChatGPT Business seats

Here regular users get a ChatGPT Business Standard seat and the 10 power users get Premium. Even with the more expensive power seats, the right seat for each costs less than a Standard seat for everyone:

Saving: £300 a month, £3,600 a year (20% less). Ex VAT, list prices as of 1 Nov 2026; annual-billing prices shown per month.

The saving is smaller in Example B because power users move up to a premium seat. That is the point: the aim is not the cheapest seat for everyone, but the seat that matches the work.

What would the right seat for each person save your firm?

Enter your headcount, your split of users and the seats you are considering. It opens on Example A.

What seat prices don’t cover

Seat prices are the predictable part of AI costs. Usage-based charges, set-up and training come on top, and they can grow faster than the seat bill.

• Tokens. AI used through an API, or by agents, is usually charged by the amount of text processed, in units called tokens: input tokens (what you send, including documents and earlier conversation), output tokens (what comes back) and, on reasoning models, the model’s working before it answers. Longer prompts, bigger documents and longer answers cost more.
• Agents priced per task. Some agents are charged per task, per goal achieved or by how long or complex the request is, so the same agent can cost very different amounts from one job to the next.
• Pay-as-you-go Copilot features. Microsoft’s Copilot business pricing page says some advanced AI features use usage-based billing “and may result in charges based on usage, beyond your license fees”. Source: Microsoft, as of 1 Nov 2026.
• Copilot Cowork. Generally available since 16 Jun 2026, Cowork runs long, multi-step tasks for a user. It needs a paid Microsoft 365 Copilot seat, and each task is billed by use in Copilot Credits: Microsoft’s UK business pricing page shows it as “Usage-based”. Microsoft’s UK Copilot Studio page prices Copilot Credit capacity packs at £153.80 a pack a month for 25,000 credits, and does not state whether that includes VAT; that is £0.006152 a credit (our calculation). Microsoft’s pay-as-you-go price, $0.01 a credit, is published in US dollars only, with no UK pay-as-you-go price. Microsoft sells those packs as a Copilot Studio licence, so check with Microsoft or your partner how your Cowork use will be billed. Microsoft’s Copilot Credits guide gives rough estimates of 100 to 300 credits for a light task, 300 to 700 for a medium task and more than 700 for a heavy one, and publishes no typical monthly figure per user. Admins can set spending limits. Sources: Microsoft Copilot business pricing, Microsoft Copilot Studio pricing (UK packs), Microsoft’s Cowork announcement and Microsoft’s Copilot Credits guide, as of 1 Nov 2026.
• Compute. Running your own models, fine-tuning them or heavy data work needs GPU and cloud compute, usually billed by the hour or by use.
• The engineering around agents. Someone has to build, test and maintain the “harness” around an agent: its instructions, tools, data connections, guardrails and monitoring. That is staff or partner time, and it carries on after launch as models, prices and your processes change.
• Training. Staff need training in prompting and in what data they may use. The time spent learning is a real cost, and the return depends on it.

Use the right measure for the job. For the business case, use return on investment: what a specific workflow gains over time against what it costs. For budgeting and business-as-usual forecasting, use total cost of ownership: seats plus usage, set-up, maintenance and training, forecast month by month with room for usage to grow. Set spend limits and check usage reports before you scale.

We are writing a follow-up guide on usage-based AI costs: tokens, agents and compute. Join the newsletter to hear when it is published.

What is the return on tiering AI seats?

Seat sums show cost avoidance. The real return is measured per workflow, over a meaningful period, not per seat.

1. Cost avoidance (from list prices)

Cost avoidance is the difference between a standard seat for everyone and the right seat for each person. In Example A that is £966 a month, or £11,592 a year; in Example B, £300 a month, or £3,600 a year. These are list-price sums anyone can check, not forecasts.

2. Return per workflow (the business case)

Measure return on investment per workflow or use case, not per seat. Pick specific pieces of work, such as drafting proposals, answering support requests or month-end reporting, record how long they take and what they cost before AI, then measure again over a meaningful period, such as three to six months. Count everything the workflow costs, including usage charges and set-up time. A seat that pays back on one workflow may do little on another.

We would like to publish real-world examples. If you have a public example of measured AI return that can be shared, email enquiry@pricemarketplace.com.

3. Hours saved × staff cost (an estimate)

With assumptions of 0.25 to 0.5 hours saved a week for light users, 0.5 to 1.5 for regular and 2 to 4 for power users, at £30 an hour, the example firm would save 50 to 115 hours a week, worth roughly £6,500 to £14,950 a month.

How should you roll out AI seats?

Start everyone on basic, track usage, and upgrade on evidence.

1. Start everyone on basic. Turn on the AI chat that comes with your existing software for all staff.
2. Track usage for four to eight weeks. Use the admin usage reports to see who uses AI, how often, and who hits limits.
3. Upgrade on evidence. Move people to standard seats when they use AI most days, and to premium seats only when they regularly hit standard limits.
4. Review every quarter. Move unused paid seats back down. Seat counts can usually change at renewal, so time reviews before annual commitments renew.

Checklist before you buy AI seats

• Count your people as light, regular and power users from what they actually do, not job titles.
• Give everyone the basic tier first (AI chat included with software you already pay for).
• Buy standard seats only for people who use AI most days, and premium seats only for proven heavy users.
• Prefer monthly billing for the first few months if the price difference is small, so seats can move.
• Check usage reports every month; move unused paid seats down and upgrade on evidence.
• Confirm prices, VAT, minimum seats and commitment terms on the vendor’s page or in a written quote before you buy (the price table below shows what each page said; “not stated” means ask).
• Ask what is billed on top of the seat: usage-based features such as Copilot Cowork, agents, API use and any credits, and set spend limits before you scale.
• Set a written rule for what data staff may put into AI tools, and check each tool’s data protection terms.

Prices and sources

Every price below was read from the vendor’s own UK pricing page. Prices are per user per month in pounds, ex VAT, and can change at any time. Minimum seats and commitment terms come from the same pages on 1 Nov 2026 (ChatGPT Business also from OpenAI’s Business plan page). “Not stated” means the public page did not say: ask the vendor or get it in a written quote.

* Shown including 20% VAT on the vendor’s page; ex-VAT figure is the shown price ÷ 1.2. ChatGPT Business prices: the page does not state VAT; the UK price data it loads marks them as ex tax. Google Workspace prices are for whole plans, not AI alone, on the annual plan; Google also offers a Flexible monthly plan with no commitment at a higher price, and introductory offers for new customers, which we do not use here.

Usage-based, not in the table: Copilot Cowork. Needs a paid Microsoft 365 Copilot seat (Copilot Business, £16.10, is the cheapest), then billed by use in Copilot Credits. UK Copilot Credit capacity pack: £153.80 a pack a month for 25,000 credits, VAT not stated on the page (£0.006152 a credit, our calculation). Pay as you go: $0.01 a credit, US dollars only; no UK pay-as-you-go price published. Sources: Microsoft Copilot business pricing, Microsoft Copilot Studio pricing (UK packs), Microsoft’s Cowork announcement and Microsoft’s Copilot Credits guide, as of 1 Nov 2026.

Not included, because we could not verify a public UK price:

• Microsoft 365 Copilot Business: monthly-payment price (the page offers “Pay monthly” but showed no figure).
• ChatGPT Enterprise: contact sales, no public price.
• Claude Enterprise: published in US dollars only (US$20 a seat a month plus usage at API rates); not converted to pounds.
• Google Workspace Enterprise: contact sales. Google “AI expanded access” add-on: no price shown on the pricing page.
• Google Workspace flexible prices (£7, £14, £22) are noted but not used in the calculator.
• Copilot Credits (used by Copilot Cowork): no UK pay-as-you-go price is published; Microsoft shows $0.01 a credit in US dollars only.

Figures are based on public list prices and general experience only, never any client’s actual usage, bills or contracts. This page is general information, not advice or a quote. Sponsors never get a higher ranking.