AI Assistants Compared: What Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot and Gemini Are Actually Good For

Last checked: October 2026.

If you want an AI assistant for emails, documents and day-to-day admin, you may already be paying for one. This guide helps you work out whether what you have is enough, and if not, which one suits the way you work.

A note on fairness: we draft our guides with help from Claude, one of the four tools compared here. So we have tried to be just as blunt about its weak spots as about the others'.

Start with what you already pay for

Before you buy anything, check what came with your email and office software. Many small businesses will not need to spend another penny.

If you use Microsoft 365 for business (Outlook, Word, Excel, Teams):

• You get Copilot Chat free with business plans.
• It is a chat window, a bit like the others in this guide. Its answers come from the web, not from your own emails or files.
• You can upload a file for it to read. But it can only do a limited amount inside Word, Outlook and Excel themselves.
• To have Copilot work properly with your own emails, files, meetings and Teams chats, you need the paid Copilot Business add-on. This is an extra you pay for on top of your plan. More on price below.

If you use Google Workspace for business (Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Meet):

• Gemini features are included in Workspace business plans at no extra cost.
• On the cheapest plan, Business Starter, that mainly means Gemini in Gmail and a basic version of the Gemini app.
• Gemini in Docs, Sheets and Meet starts from Business Standard.
• More use of the advanced features (such as image and video creation) needs a paid add-on called AI Expanded Access.

If you use neither, or you use the free personal versions of Gmail or Outlook, you are choosing from scratch. Every tool here has a free plan, so you can try before you pay.

The four tools in plain English

All four do the same basic thing. You type a request in everyday words, and they write, summarise or explain. The real differences are where they live and what they can see.

• ChatGPT (made by OpenAI). The best known. A general all-rounder that sits in its own app or website, separate from your email and documents.
• Claude (made by Anthropic). Mainly used in its own app or website. Paid plans also include add-ins (small extras that sit inside another program) for Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Tends to be strong at writing and at reading long documents.
• Microsoft Copilot. Built into Microsoft 365. Its big advantage is working inside Outlook, Word, Excel and Teams, but the useful version of that costs extra.
• Google Gemini. Built into Google Workspace. The same idea as Copilot, but for Gmail, Docs, Sheets and Meet.

A simple way to think about it: Copilot and Gemini come to your work. With ChatGPT and Claude, you mostly take your work to them, by pasting text or uploading a file.

How they do on everyday jobs

For most admin tasks, all four are good enough. The gaps are smaller than the adverts suggest. What matters more is whether the tool can see the thing you are working on.

Drafting emails and replies

• Copilot (paid add-on) and Gemini can draft inside Outlook or Gmail, with the email thread already in front of them. That saves the copy-and-paste step, which adds up over a week.
• ChatGPT and Claude both write good drafts. Usually you paste the email in and copy the reply back out.
• Claude for Outlook is an add-in on Claude's paid plans. It can draft replies and summarise threads inside Outlook, leaving drafts unsent for you to check. It is still in beta (an early test version), and it needs a Microsoft 365 business mailbox.
• Free Copilot Chat can draft an email, but it cannot read your inbox. It works more like ChatGPT here.

Summarising long documents and email threads

• Claude and ChatGPT both handle long documents well when you upload or paste them.
• Copilot (paid) and Gemini can summarise a thread or document where it already sits, without you moving it anywhere.
• All four can miss a detail or misread a point in a long document. Check the summary against the original before you act on it.

Working with spreadsheets

• Copilot in Excel (paid add-on) and Gemini in Sheets can help inside the spreadsheet itself, such as explaining a formula or tidying a column. Gemini in Sheets needs Business Standard or above.
• ChatGPT and Claude can read a spreadsheet you upload and explain or analyse it. They are handy for writing a formula you can then paste into Excel or Sheets.
• Be careful with sums. All four can get figures wrong, sometimes without any sign of doubt. Never copy a total into a tax return or invoice without checking it.

Meeting notes

• Copilot Business works with your Teams meetings. If your meetings happen in Teams, this is one of the strongest reasons to pay for it.
• Gemini can take notes in Google Meet on Business Standard and above, but not on Business Starter.
• ChatGPT and Claude mostly work from what you give them. You paste in a transcript or your rough notes and they tidy them up.
• ChatGPT Record is the exception. On paid plans, it can record a meeting, write out what was said and turn it into notes. For now it only works in the ChatGPT app for Mac, not on Windows. Always get people's permission before you record them.

Writing marketing copy

• ChatGPT and Claude are both strong here. Many people find Claude's writing sounds a little more natural. Others prefer ChatGPT. Try the same request in both before you decide.
• ChatGPT can also make images, which helps for social media posts. The free plan only allows a limited number. Claude does not make photos or illustrations (it can draw simple charts and diagrams). That is a real gap if you want pictures as well as words.
• Copilot and Gemini are fine for a quick draft, but are not usually the first choice for this.

Research

• All four can search the web and give you a summary with links, including on their free plans.
• Gemini sits close to Google Search, and Copilot close to Microsoft's Bing.
• Always open the links. These tools sometimes summarise a source wrongly, or quote one that says something different.

Quick comparison

Prices are roughly right as of October 2026, but they change often. Several of these tools bill in US dollars, so the pound price moves with the exchange rate.

"Per user" means you pay once for each person who uses it.

Prices change often, so please check the official pricing page (linked at the end of this guide) before you sign up. Where we say "around", the price wasn't clear in pounds, so we have rounded to the nearest £5.

Which one fits your situation

There is no single winner. The right choice depends mostly on the software you already use every day.

You live in Outlook and Teams

• Start with free Copilot Chat. Use it for a few weeks for drafting and quick questions.
• Consider the Copilot Business add-on if you keep wishing it could see your inbox, files or Teams meetings. That is what you are paying for.
• On price: £16.10 per user a month paid yearly, or £19.32 paid monthly (ex VAT). There is a first-year offer of £13.80 a month for yearly sign-ups until 31 December 2026.
• If you are buying Microsoft 365 anyway, a Business Standard with Copilot bundle is listed at £18.10 per user a month, paid yearly (ex VAT).

You are on Google Workspace

• Use the Gemini features you already have before you pay for anything else.
• On Business Starter? Moving up to Business Standard is what brings Gemini into Docs, Sheets and Meet.
• Only look at the paid add-on if you hit a specific limit. Note which task it was, so you know what you are buying.

You mostly write and research

• If your work is proposals, web pages, newsletters, social posts or long reports, ChatGPT or Claude will probably suit you best. They are likely to fit better than Copilot or Gemini.
• Try the free plan of both with the same real tasks for a week. Pick the one whose writing needs less fixing.
• Choose ChatGPT if you also want images. Choose Claude if long documents and the feel of the writing matter most.

You only use AI now and then

• A free plan is probably enough. Free plans have usage limits, so you may get cut off on a busy day. That is annoying, but it is not a reason to pay on its own.
• Pay when the limits get in your way often, or when you need the business-level privacy covered in the reality check below.

If you're weighing up paying for any tool, start with what you might already own.

Maybe what you really want is jobs that run by themselves, such as saving every new form entry into a spreadsheet. That is automation rather than an AI assistant. See our comparison of n8n, Make and Zapier costs in the UK.

The reality check

They make confident mistakes. All four will sometimes state something wrong in the same calm, sure tone they use for things that are right. Check facts, figures and dates. Take extra care with anything legal, tax-related or financial.

Free and personal plans may train on your chats. On most consumer plans (the free and personal paid ones), your chats may be used to train the AI (improve future versions). You can switch that off in the settings. ChatGPT's Free, Go, Plus and Pro plans and Claude's consumer plans both work this way. Business plans generally don't. Claude's Team plan has training off by default, and Microsoft's business plans include extra protection for business data. Google says it does not use your Workspace data to train its AI models.

Never paste customers' personal data into a free or personal plan. Names, addresses, health details and bank details are covered by UK GDPR (the UK's data protection law). Switching off training doesn't make a personal account the right place for client records. If you need AI to handle customer data, use a business plan and check its terms first. This is a reminder to think about GDPR, not legal advice.

Prices and features change every few months. Plans get renamed, features move between tiers, and dollar prices move with the exchange rate. Check the official pricing page on the day you sign up, not a guide (including this one).

Paying for all of them is a waste. The differences are smaller than the marketing suggests. Pick one, use it every day for a month, and learn what it is good and bad at. You will get far more from one tool you know well than from four you half know.

Official pages to check

• ChatGPT pricing
• Claude pricing
• Microsoft Copilot for business (UK)
• Google Gemini subscriptions and Google Workspace pricing

This guide is independent and drafted with AI, then reviewed and fact-checked against hands-on experience with these tools before publishing (see How we make our guides). Tool interfaces change from time to time — if a button has moved, the overall steps still apply. The tools named are common examples, not the only options.