ChatGPT Business and Enterprise for Accountants

ChatGPT Business gives your practice a managed workspace with business data terms and central billing. Choose Enterprise when you need stronger administration or negotiated requirements.

ChatGPT Business vs Plus and Pro

ChatGPT Business suits a practice that wants staff working under one subscription and shared administration. Plus and Pro are personal plans. Buying Pro for every staff member does not create a practice workspace.

ChatGPT Team is the previous name for Business. The rename does not require a new workspace or another subscription.

What Changes for the Practice

Decision	Plus and Pro	Business
Model training	Personal-workspace data sharing is on by default. The user can turn it off.	Business data is excluded from training by default.
Administration	Each person manages their personal subscription.	Owners manage workspace members, paid seats and billing.
Sign-in	Personal account settings apply.	Domain verification and single sign-on are included.
Chat visibility	Chats stay in the person’s personal workspace unless shared.	Members have separate histories and choose which conversations to share.
Practice continuity	Work stays in separately managed personal workspaces.	Work created in Business belongs in the practice’s workspace, subject to its access and subscription status.

OpenAI’s data settings guide explains the personal-plan training switch. Its Business sharing guide explains why joining one workspace does not expose every colleague’s private chats.

Workspace administration and access to every conversation are different. Business owners and admins do not automatically see all private member chats. Staff must retain approved work in the practice’s records where colleagues need it.

OpenAI’s business agreement says the customer retains ownership of inputs and owns outputs as between the customer and OpenAI. That contractual ownership does not turn private chats into a shared client file.

For a small practice, Business is worth considering when central membership and billing solve an actual problem. Its default exclusion from training also removes reliance on every staff member choosing the right personal setting.

A sole practitioner using ChatGPT only for public information might need fewer administrative features. The decision changes when staff enter client material or the practice needs to manage departures. Assess permitted information separately under ChatGPT data handling.

ChatGPT Enterprise for Larger Practices

ChatGPT Enterprise adds administration and contractual options for practices whose requirements exceed the self-service Business plan. Headcount is one reason to consider it. A required retention policy or access-management feature can decide the choice sooner.

Enterprise includes automated user provisioning through SCIM, more detailed role permissions and compliance logs. SCIM synchronises staff access with the practice’s identity provider, which helps when people join or leave.

Business already includes single sign-on. Enterprise’s additional provisioning and permissions matter when IT needs more detailed management across teams.

Enterprise can also disable shared links across a workspace. Business members can remove their own links, but Business lacks that workspace-wide setting. This matters when the practice must prevent conversation sharing.

OpenAI lists custom retention policies for Enterprise. Its business privacy commitments also describe administrator-managed retention for Business. Match the actual workspace settings and contracted policy to the practice’s required deletion schedule.

Storage and Processing Location

Enterprise supports regional storage for eligible customer content, including Australia. Storage at rest and model processing are separate choices. A regional storage setting does not promise that every operation happens in that region.

OpenAI’s residency guide defines the covered content and processing options. Confirm the required region and feature coverage in the Enterprise agreement before treating location requirements as satisfied.

Business also has a regional-storage option rolling out to eligible customers. OpenAI says safety and abuse-monitoring copies remain in the United States. Its Business storage explanation distinguishes this arrangement from Enterprise.

For example, a practice needing automatic staff removal and a contractual deletion schedule has reasons to assess Enterprise. A practice needing central billing and work-account sign-in can start its assessment with Business.

How the Plans Are Billed

Plus and Pro are subscriptions for individual users, billed monthly. Business charges for paid seats on a monthly or annual schedule. Enterprise uses a sales agreement with negotiated billing and commitments.

Plan	Billing unit	Billing schedule	Seat commitment
Plus	Individual subscription	Monthly	One person’s account
Pro	Individual subscription at the selected Pro tier	Monthly	One person’s account
Business	Paid Standard and Premium seats	Monthly or annually	Usually two paid seats. Eligible new workspaces can start with one when checkout permits it.
Enterprise	Contracted seats and any agreed usage charges	Set in the agreement	Set in the agreement

Business can mix Standard and Premium seats under the same billing schedule. Premium includes a higher usage allowance. Workspace credits can extend included usage, so review both paid seats and any enabled additional spending.

A paid seat is capacity you buy, separate from the person assigned to it. Removing a staff member alone does not necessarily reduce the paid seat count. Schedule the reduction as well.

Added Business seats are charged proportionately for the remaining period. Reductions take effect at the next billing cycle. On an annual plan, that means the next annual term.

Committed unused seats are generally non-refundable, subject to applicable rights and approved exceptions.

OpenAI’s seat and billing guide gives the rules. Its single-seat guidance explains the limited exception to the usual minimum.

Use OpenAI’s current plan pricing for Business figures and the Enterprise sales route. For a purchase, compare the checkout total, selected currency and tax treatment. Annual per-month figures represent an annual commitment.

Setting Up a Practice Workspace

Set up the practice workspace before inviting everyone to use client information. You need a workspace owner, access to the practice’s identity provider and someone authorised to add its domain-verification DNS record.

1. Create the Business workspace or complete Enterprise provisioning. Name a primary owner and a second person responsible for recovery and departures.
2. Verify the practice’s email domain. For a standalone Business workspace, open Workspace settings, then Identity & access and Identity & provisioning. Add the exact verification record OpenAI supplies and confirm verification.
3. Configure single sign-on with the identity provider. Test a staff account before applying sign-in requirements across the practice. If settings direct you to Admin Console, have the global admin manage the existing connection there.
4. Invite staff using the email addresses used by the identity provider. Confirm the member list, roles and paid seat assignments.
5. Disable unapproved apps and connectors. Owners and admins can do this through workspace settings or the selected workspace’s Plugins area in Admin Console. Many Business apps start enabled.
6. Set the available retention options to the practice’s documented schedule. Record what the setting covers. If a required schedule is unavailable, resolve it through the contracted plan before entering information that depends on it.
7. Test the arrangement with invented client information. Confirm the staff member enters the work workspace, an unapproved app is unavailable and any intended shared chat reaches only the intended colleagues.

Follow OpenAI’s Business sign-in setup and domain verification instructions. Domain verification confirms control of the domain. Domain claiming is a separate, restricted request.

If verification reports that another organisation already uses the domain, ask IT or OpenAI to resolve that ownership. Creating a second workspace does not repair the existing sign-in arrangement.

OpenAI’s connected-app guidance explains workspace app access. Record the approved apps and permitted information in the practice’s AI policy template.

Staff can keep their personal workspace separate. Merging personal history into Business changes where that information belongs and has no simple undo option. Decide what must move before accepting a merge prompt.

Cancelling a Business Subscription

A workspace owner can cancel ChatGPT Business through its billing settings. Plan the records handover before the subscription ends because cancellation can lead to workspace deactivation and loss of member access.

1. Sign in as an owner and select the Business workspace being cancelled.
2. Open Workspace settings, then Billing.
3. Select Manage plan, then Cancel subscription.
4. Complete the cancellation and confirm the subscription is no longer set to renew.
5. Record the end of the paid period and finish the practice’s handover before access ends.

OpenAI’s cancellation instructions explain the owner-only route. Cancel at least 24 hours before the next billing date to avoid the next renewal charge.

Deactivation itself leaves Business workspace data intact, but members cannot access it. Owners can use the available reactivation settings. Cancelling payment therefore does not erase the chats or satisfy a deletion requirement.

Business members cannot export their own workspace data through personal Data controls. Ask the owner to use the member export option where available. Otherwise, retain permitted work records through the practice’s approved methods before access ends.

Remove information the practice must delete as a separate action. A personal workspace remains separate, and a previous personal-to-Business merge cannot simply be reversed.

If Billing shows only a payment or reactivation screen, contact OpenAI Support from the owner account with the workspace name or ID. Ask to stop future renewals and retain the cancellation confirmation with the practice’s subscription records.