Which AI Should We Pay For? · Lesson 4 of 4
Decide, write it down, set a 60-day review
10 minutes. One choice, one page, one date on the calendar.
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You know what you already pay for. You've compared the business plans. You have a real monthly number for each option. Now you choose.
The good news: this is not a forever decision. It's a 60-day decision with a review built in. That takes most of the pressure off. You're not picking the "best AI." You're picking a sensible starting point and agreeing to check it.
These are starting points, not rules. They come straight from Lesson 1. Find the line that matches you.
- You're on Google Workspace Business Standard or Plus. You already pay for Gemini across Gmail, Docs, Sheets and Meet. Start there. Your extra cost is $0. Only buy another assistant if the 60-day review shows a real gap.
- You're on Google Workspace Business Starter. Compare two things from Lesson 3: upgrading everyone to Business Standard, against buying Claude Team or ChatGPT Business seats for only your Daily people. If most of your team is Daily, the upgrade often wins. If only a few are, seats often win.
- You're on Microsoft 365, and your Daily people live in Outlook, Word, Excel and Teams. Start with the Copilot Business add-on for the Daily group. If nearly everyone is Daily, price the "with Copilot" bundle too, and ask whether you can mix it with plain licenses.
- You're on Microsoft 365, but the daily work is mostly writing, research, proposals and thinking through problems. Copilot Chat is already free for everyone. Compare the Copilot add-on with Claude Team and ChatGPT Business for the Daily group. All three cost about the same per seat.
- You're on neither. Choose between Claude Team and ChatGPT Business for your Daily people. Both need at least 2 seats.
If two options are still close, don't read more reviews. Test them on your work.
Pick three real tasks your Daily people do every week. A customer email that needs a careful reply. A messy page of notes that should become a job summary. A proposal or estimate write-up. Remove customer names and anything private first.
Have two or three of your Daily people try the same three tasks in each finalist. Use a monthly plan, or the AI already included in your office plan, so you're not locked in. Then ask them one question: "Which one would you rather use every day?"
The one your people will actually open is worth more than any feature on a pricing page.
Northgate did this. The estimators liked Claude for proposal write-ups. Lee and Pat spent their day in Outlook and liked having Copilot right there. In the end, Pat chose Copilot Business for all 5 Daily users, because Northgate's work lives in Outlook and Excel, and the first-year promo made it the lowest cost of the three. The estimators' preference went on the 60-day review list.
Open the One-Page Plan Decision template. Fill in:
- The choice: vendor, plan name, seat type, billing (yearly or monthly)
- Who gets a seat: names, from your Daily group
- Who uses the included AI: your Sometimes and Rarely groups
- The real monthly cost, and the first-year cost, from Lesson 3
- Prices checked on: the date you checked the vendor page, and the link
- Usage limits: for any feature billed by use, the monthly limit you'll set before anyone starts. On Microsoft that's Copilot Credits; on Claude Team it's extra usage credits, which stay off until an owner turns them on.
- The one company account rule, and the personal subscriptions you'll cancel
- The owner: one person who manages seats and the bill
- The 60-day review date
Keep it to one page. If it doesn't fit, you're deciding too many things at once.
Then share it with your bookkeeper and whoever manages your IT, and buy the plan.
Sixty days is long enough for habits to form and short enough that you haven't wasted much on seats nobody uses.
Book 30 minutes now. At the review, answer five questions:
- Who used their seat at least weekly? Check your admin console for a usage or activity report if your plan has one. If not, ask each person.
- Who didn't? Move them to the included AI, or free up the seat for someone in the Sometimes group who asked for one.
- Did anyone hit their usage limits often? That's the only good reason to look at a premium seat.
- Did any usage billing show up? Compare it with the limit you set.
- Is everyone on the company account? Have the personal subscriptions been cancelled?
Then decide: keep, adjust, or switch. If the seats are earning their keep, consider moving them from monthly to yearly billing and take the savings. Write the next review date on the same page. After the first review, every six months is enough.
Tick every box:
- [ ] Your Seat-Count Calculator has your office plan, your included AI, your three groups, and a real monthly and first-year cost for each realistic option.
- [ ] Your One-Page Plan Decision names one plan, the seats, the real monthly cost, the person who owns it, and the date you checked the prices.
- [ ] Any feature billed by use has a monthly limit written down, to set before anyone starts.
- [ ] The "one company account" rule is shared with your team.
- [ ] The 60-day review is on your calendar, with the five questions attached.
You started with a vague question and a lot of logos. You finish with a one-page plan decision and a real monthly number for your headcount. You paid for AI only where it will be used every day, and everyone else is using the AI you already had.
Next steps, when you're ready to set up the plan you chose:
- [Claude for Your Team](/courses/claude-for-your-team) if you chose Claude Team.
- [ChatGPT for Your Team](/courses/chatgpt-for-your-team) if you chose ChatGPT Business.
- [Copilot for Your Staff](/courses/copilot-for-your-staff) if you chose Copilot, or you're starting with the free Copilot Chat.
- [Gemini in Google Workspace](/courses/gemini-in-google-workspace) if you're on Google Workspace.
- The [Already-Paid-For Finder](/tools/ai-finder) at your 60-day review, to check what's newly included in the other software you pay for.
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