Free or paid AI: what do you actually get?

Three kinds of plan

Most AI assistants are sold in three tiers: a free plan, a paid personal plan, and a business or team plan. The names change from one provider to the next, but the split is much the same. For a small business, the differences that matter are who owns the account and what the provider may do with what you type.

What a free plan gives you

Free plans usually have usage limits, so the tool slows down or stops after a certain amount of use. Some give you a smaller model or leave out features such as file uploads or connections to your documents. They are also normally covered by consumer terms, which may allow the provider to use your conversations to improve its models unless you opt out.

That makes a free plan a fair place to learn, with nothing private typed in. Check the current terms and the privacy settings on your own account, because they differ between providers and change over time.

What a paid personal plan adds

You get more use and usually more features. What you do not get is a company account. It is one person's login, often paid for on a personal card. The history belongs to that person, nobody else in the business can see it or switch it off, and when they leave, the account and everything in it leaves with them. Check the training setting here too, since consumer terms often still apply.

What a business plan adds

A business or team plan is owned by the company. An administrator can add people, remove a leaver on their last day, and set controls such as sharing and how long history is kept. The terms by default do not use your data for training, and the team can share reference files and instructions. The price is per person per month, so pay for the people who will use it weekly, not for everyone. Confirm the details in the plan's contract, since terms differ by provider.

What to do this week

Ask your team, without blame, which AI tools they already use for work and on whose account. Set one rule: anything with customer or company information goes into a business plan, and free or personal accounts are for learning with nothing private in them. Move the regular users onto a business plan, turn off training wherever the setting exists, and write the rule down in one line.