ChatGPT vs Claude for New Zealand businesses.

How do ChatGPT and Claude compare in October 2026?

Both products changed a lot this year. Since 7 October 2026 every ChatGPT user, free and paid, runs on OpenAI’s GPT-6 family. Claude’s current models are Fable 5.1, Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5 and Haiku 5.5, all with a one-million-token context window. The table compares the team plans most New Zealand businesses actually buy.

Where is each one stronger?

ChatGPT is the broader all-rounder. Business seats include ChatGPT Work (OpenAI’s agentic product for longer tasks) and Codex, and its apps connect to SharePoint, Teams, Outlook, Google Drive, Slack and more. In Business those apps are on by default, with admins controlling availability for the whole workspace. For trades and field-service firms, ServiceM8’s approved plugin can search jobs, create jobs from templates and add notes. See our ChatGPT guide.

Claude suits work built around long documents: tender packs, contracts, policies and board papers, where every current model reads up to a million tokens. Xero’s Claude connector answers from live Xero data with links back to the source, and Xero says it is read-only. Developers get Claude Code in the same subscription, sharing the plan’s usage pool. See our Claude guide and Claude Code guide.

How do you test ChatGPT and Claude on the same work?

Give both the same three tasks from your own business, in business workspaces, with personal details removed. Score each output the same way: correct or not, minutes to make it usable, and whether the tool flagged what it was unsure of.

1. Tender obligations. Upload the same 80 to 150 page tender pack, such as one from GETS, and ask for every mandatory requirement with its section and page. Check against a list you made by hand: count missed requirements and wrong page references.
2. Overdue invoices. In Claude, use the Xero connector. In ChatGPT, upload an aged receivables export from Xero. Ask for every invoice more than 30 days overdue with a next step under your credit policy. Totals must reconcile to Xero to the cent, and no invoice may be invented or dropped.
3. Customer replies in house style. Give both your one-page house brief and price list, then ten real enquiries. Look for prices with the right GST treatment, New Zealand English, and how long each draft takes to fix. A wrong price is a failed draft.

Record the results in our AI pilot scorecard, and use testing a business AI assistant for a fuller method.

What do ChatGPT and Claude cost over a year?

Seat licences dominate. Worked example for an eight-person team on Standard seats with annual billing, at prices shown on 19 October 2026:

• ChatGPT Business: 8 × NZ$33 = NZ$264 a month, or NZ$3,168 a year. If that price excludes GST, add 15%: NZ$3,643.20 a year.
• Claude Team: 8 × $40 = $320 a month, or $3,840 a year, stated as GST-inclusive.

At face value the gap is NZ$672 a year. With GST added to ChatGPT it shrinks to about NZ$197. Confirm both on your first invoice.

Other costs appear later:

• Heavy users. On both, a Premium seat costs five times a Standard seat. Give Premium only to the people who hit limits.
• Idle seats. OpenAI charges for every purchased seat each cycle, assigned or not.
• Your own builds. ChatGPT Business does not include API usage. Claude Team includes up to $500 a month in pooled API credits.
• Switching. Chats, Projects and custom GPTs do not move between vendors. Keep prompts and test cases in a library you own, using our prompt library template.
• Model changes. OpenAI retired GPT-4o and four other models from ChatGPT on 13 February 2026, and Anthropic retires Claude Sonnet 4.5 from its API on 30 November 2026. Rerun your three tests after each change.

Which should you choose?

Choose ChatGPT if

• Your team does a broad mix of drafting, research and spreadsheet analysis and wants one assistant.
• You run ServiceM8, or want SharePoint, Teams, Outlook and Google Drive apps switched on for everyone.
• You want to start with two seats and mix Standard and Premium.
• You may later need Enterprise data residency at rest in Australia.

Choose Claude if

• Most of the value is in long documents you read, compare and rewrite.
• You use Xero and want live answers with links back to the source, without write access.
• Developers on the team will use Claude Code from the same subscription.
• You prefer prices shown GST-inclusive, after confirming the currency on your invoice.

Where do both fall short?

• New Zealand rules from memory. Both will state GST, employment or tenancy rules confidently and sometimes wrongly. Give them the source document.
• Offshore processing. Neither processes prompts in New Zealand. ChatGPT Enterprise can store data at rest in Australia, but processing stays offshore. Developers who need Claude inference kept in Australia and New Zealand can use Amazon Bedrock; see data residency for AI systems.
• Personal accounts. Under section 11 of the Privacy Act 2020, a provider that processes data only on your behalf is treated as part of your organisation. The Privacy Commissioner gives AI training as an example of a provider using data for its own purposes, which can make sharing a disclosure under IPP 11, with IPP 12 applying offshore. Business plans avoid that; staff on personal accounts may not.
• Connected apps. Both surface whatever a user’s permissions allow. Fix SharePoint and Drive sharing before connecting, and see understanding AI tool permissions.
• Shifting plans. New ChatGPT Pro 200 subscribers got a smaller usage allowance in late September 2026, and Claude’s merged Cowork features reached Pro and Max before Team. Re-check what your plan includes at renewal.

If you want help running the comparison on your own documents, that is part of our AI model selection work.

Written by the Levy Street team in Wellington. Last updated 19 October 2026.