You can start using AI for nothing, and equip your whole team for serious daily use at roughly US$17–25 per person per month. A five-person business should budget about US$100–125 a month for a good AI assistant on every desk — and in Singapore, the Productivity Solutions Grant can co-fund up to 50% of pre-approved solutions. The subscription, though, is the smallest number in the equation: the real costs are choosing well, setting up properly, and getting your team to actually use the thing.
Here is what the main tools cost as of July 2026, what people forget to budget for, and a simple way to work out whether it pays back.
What the main AI assistants cost (July 2026)
Four products cover most small-business needs. All prices below are taken from vendor pricing pages as of July 2026 and exclude GST; most vendors charge in US dollars, while Google Workspace bills Singapore customers in Singapore dollars.
| Tool | Individual plan | Team/business plan |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT (OpenAI) | Plus: US$20/month (budget Go tier: US$8/month) | Business: US$25/user/month, or US$20 billed annually (minimum 2 users) |
| Claude (Anthropic) | Pro: US$20/month, or US$17/month billed annually | Team: US$25/user/month, or US$20 billed annually (standard seat) |
| Gemini (Google Workspace) | Included in Workspace plans from S$9.40/user/month | Business Standard at S$18.80/user/month includes Gemini in Gmail, Docs and Meet |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot | — | Add-on at US$21/user/month with annual commitment (promotional US$18 until 30 September 2026), on top of a Microsoft 365 Business plan |
Source: vendor pricing pages (Anthropic, Google, Microsoft) and CloudZero’s ChatGPT pricing guide, checked July 2026. OpenAI’s prices are shown as published there because OpenAI’s own pricing page blocks automated verification.
Notice the pattern: whichever brand you prefer, a serious per-person price lands around US$20–25 a month. The choice between them is less about price and more about fit — we compare them properly in ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini for business.
Free tiers get you further than you’d expect
ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini all offer free versions that handle drafting, summarising, translation and general questions perfectly well. For a sole trader, or a business that hasn’t yet proven AI saves it any time, free is the right starting price.
The free tiers have tighter usage limits and slower access to the best models, so you’ll feel the ceiling once AI becomes part of your daily routine. That’s the signal to pay — not before. If you’re still working out which tasks to point AI at first, start with our list of AI tasks that actually save small businesses time.
Realistic monthly budgets
- Testing the water — S$0. Free tiers of two or three assistants, one real task, two weeks of honest trial.
- Sole trader, daily use — US$17–20/month for one paid assistant.
- Five-person team — US$100–125/month for a business plan seat each, which adds central billing and admin controls over a pile of personal accounts.
- Already on Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace — add Copilot at US$21/user/month, or step up a Workspace tier to get Gemini across Gmail and Docs; the AI works inside the email and documents you already use.
- Specialist tools on top — meeting notetakers, support chatbots and automation platforms typically add their own per-seat or usage-based subscriptions, often in a similar US$10–30 range. Add them one at a time, only after the first tool has proven itself.
The costs nobody puts in the brochure
The subscription is the easy part. In our experience the real spend, in time or money, sits here:
- Setup and integration — connecting the tool to your email, documents and existing systems so it fits how you actually work. Done badly, you get a chatbot nobody opens; done well, it disappears into the workflow.
- Training and adoption — the few hours it takes each person to learn what the tool is good at, and the follow-up that stops them quietly going back to old habits. This is where most AI spend dies; our guide to getting your team to actually use AI covers how to avoid it.
- Data housekeeping — deciding what customer information may and may not go into which tool. Under Singapore’s PDPA that isn’t optional; see our plain-English guide to AI and data privacy under the PDPA.
- The wrong choice — paying for a tool that demoed well but doesn’t fit, then paying again in wasted months before you admit it. Our roundup of the best AI tools for Singapore small businesses exists to shortcut exactly this.
Is it worth it? Do the arithmetic
The honest test is hours, not features. Take a US$25-per-month seat. If it saves one person two hours a week, that’s roughly eight to nine hours a month — the tool pays for itself as long as an hour of that person’s time is worth more than about US$3. For any employee, or for your own evenings, it isn’t close.
Which means the subscription price is almost never the real question. The real question is whether the hours are genuinely saved — so pick one task, measure the before and after for a fortnight, and only scale what clearly pays back. Our full guide to AI for small businesses in Singapore walks through that process step by step.
The evidence from Singapore is encouraging: SMEs that adopted AI-enabled solutions under the Productivity Solutions Grant reported average cost savings of 52% in 2024, according to IMDA’s Singapore Digital Economy report — the same year SME adoption of AI tripled, from 4.2% to 14.5%.
The Singapore discount: PSG
If you’re a local SME, the Productivity Solutions Grant co-funds up to 50% of eligible costs for pre-approved solutions, capped at S$30,000 per company per financial year (as of July 2026).
One important nuance: PSG applies to packaged solutions pre-approved by EnterpriseSG and its partner agencies — including AI-enabled ones — listed on the GoBusiness portal. It doesn’t simply halve a ChatGPT subscription. Where PSG shines is the bigger-ticket items: AI-enabled accounting, inventory, HR or customer-management systems, where 50% co-funding meaningfully changes the maths.
Common questions
Can I really start for free?
Yes. The free tiers of ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini are enough to test your first use case properly, and for many sole traders they stay enough. Pay only once you’re hitting the usage limits on work that clearly saves you time.
Are team plans cheaper than everyone paying individually?
Per seat they cost about the same — US$20–25 per user per month as of July 2026, with a discount for annual billing — but you gain central billing, admin controls and the ability to add or remove staff cleanly, which matters more than the few dollars either way.
Does the PSG cover ChatGPT or Claude subscriptions?
Not directly. PSG co-funds solutions pre-approved by EnterpriseSG and listed on GoBusiness — typically packaged business systems, including AI-enabled ones — rather than general-purpose AI subscriptions you buy off the shelf.
Want a clear, no-nonsense number for what AI would cost your business — and an honest view on whether it’s worth it? Talk to us. We don’t sell you anything you don’t need.