Claude vs ChatGPT vs Copilot for trade businesses

For most trade businesses there's no clear winner: ChatGPT, Claude and Copilot all write quotes, chasers and method statement drafts well, and cost about the same for one person. Pick Copilot if your firm runs on Outlook and Excel, ChatGPT if you want the widest set of features including voice in CarPlay, and Claude if you write long documents like tenders.

How do the three compare on price?

All prices are from each maker's own page as of October 2026. OpenAI and Anthropic list US dollars, with local pricing varying by country; Microsoft lists UK prices in pounds excluding VAT.

Microsoft's Business Standard with Copilot includes Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams, business email and 1 TB of storage per user, so if you'd pay for Microsoft 365 anyway, the Copilot part costs less than the headline.

What does each cost a two-person firm for a year?

Take an owner and one office or site manager, both on a business plan with annual billing.

Worked example

Owner plus one, business plans billed annually

Prices as listed in October 2026; dollar prices before currency conversion and VAT.

ChatGPT Business2 users × 20 US dollars × 12 months	480 US dollars
Claude Team, standard seats2 seats × 20 US dollars × 12 months	480 US dollars
Microsoft 365 Business Standard with Copilot2 users × £18.10 × 12 months	£434.40
What decides it	Not price: all a few hundred a year

At this size price doesn't decide it. What decides it is where your work lives.

What is each one good at for a trade firm?

These are the differences that matter in a trade business, from each maker's own feature pages.

ChatGPT has the widest set of features: voice conversations, image and file uploads, image generation and deep research on Plus. OpenAI says ChatGPT runs in Apple CarPlay as a voice chat on all plans with iOS 26.4 or later, though it can't send messages or use other apps from there. Business plans connect to Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. Suits an owner who wants one tool for everything and uses it from the phone.

Claude is often chosen for long writing and long documents: Anthropic lists a 200k context window on Team plans, and connectors for Google Drive, Gmail, Google Calendar and Microsoft 365. Suits someone writing tender answers, method statements or reading long specifications. A builder doing hard landscaping and brickwork told us he uses Claude most, for RAMS and construction phase plans that were taking him "a couple of hours... for every job".

Copilot sits inside Outlook, Word, Excel and Teams. It can draft a reply in the email you're reading or work on the spreadsheet you've got open. Suits a firm already on Microsoft 365 with an office person who lives in Outlook.

Which should you pick?

Quick check: Which AI assistant fits your firm?

Does your firm already pay for Microsoft 365 and work mostly in Outlook and Excel?

YesNo

Do you mostly write long documents: tenders, method statements, specs?

YesNo

Do you want to talk to it by voice in the van, through CarPlay?

YesNo

Try Copilot first

It works in the apps you already use. Check whether your plan includes Copilot Chat before buying the add-on.

Start again

Try Claude first

Strong on long documents. Run the five-task test against ChatGPT before committing.

Start again

Try ChatGPT first

It runs as a voice chat in CarPlay on all plans. Stay hands-free: see hands-free AI in the van.

Start again

Any of the three will do

Run the five-task test and keep the one whose drafts need the least fixing.

Start again

How do you test them on your own work?

Don't trust anyone's ranking, including ours. Spend an evening running the same five tasks through the free versions and see whose drafts you'd send with the fewest changes.

1. Write up a real quote.

   Paste the notes from your last job with your price. Check: did it keep your figures exactly?

2. Write a chaser.

   An invoice 21 days overdue. Check: is the tone right for your customers?

3. Answer a tender question.

   Paste one from a real tender with your facts. Check: did it add claims you didn't give it?

4. Draft a method statement.

   For a task you do every week. Check: is it generic, and did it cite anything you can't verify?

5. Ask a regs question you know the answer to.

   Check: was it right, and did it say where it got it from? See can AI check building regs.

Score each answer out of three: send as is, small fixes, start again. Whichever wins on your work is the right one for you. The prompts in ChatGPT prompts for tradespeople work in all three.

Where do all three fall short for a trade firm?

None of them sends the quote, files it to the job, chases it, or posts the supplier bill to Xero. You copy the answer, paste it into your template, send it and remember to chase. The tool helps, but the admin still runs through you.

That's the gap between an AI assistant and an AI back office. For a sole trader with light admin, an assistant is enough. For an owner doing quotes and bills every evening, see what AI costs against what it replaces.

N

Where Nexley fits

Nexley is the AI back office for UK trade firms: five AI assistants run your tenders, quotes, buying, scheduling and invoicing. It connects to the tools you already work in, you run it all from WhatsApp, and you approve everything. £799 a month.

Nexley uses AI to do the admin itself rather than chat about it. It keeps your rates, exclusions and supplier prices, drafts quotes from WhatsApp voice notes, files supplier bills against the job, and chases quotes and invoices. You approve everything before it goes out. Many owners keep their ChatGPT or Claude subscription alongside it for general questions.

Start 7 days freeNexley vs generic AI

Common questions

Sources

1. OpenAI: ChatGPT Business pricing
2. OpenAI Help: What is ChatGPT Plus?
3. OpenAI Help: ChatGPT in CarPlay
4. Claude: Plans and pricing
5. Claude Help: What is the Team plan?
6. Anthropic Privacy Center: Is our data used for model training?
7. Microsoft: Copilot plans and pricing for business (UK)

Every rule, rate and date above was checked against these sources on the date shown at the top.