AI basics for your business
Free or paid AI plan: what to look out for
What happens to your conversations on free, personal and business plans, and which settings to change right away. Status November 2026.
6 min read
Many employees use AI through a free or personal account. It's convenient, but it affects what happens to your data. The real difference isn't between free and paid, but between personal and business.
Status November 2026. AI providers change their terms regularly. Check them before you decide.
Personal plans: training is on by default
On the personal versions of ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, your conversations may be used by default to train future models. That applies to the free versions and to paid personal plans too. Paying for a personal plan gets you more features, not automatically more privacy.
You can switch this off in the settings:
- ChatGPT: in the data controls, turn off improving the model for everyone.
- Claude: in the privacy settings, turn off helping to improve Claude.
- Gemini: through the activity settings of your Google account.
Note: even with training switched off, the provider still keeps conversations for a period.
Business plans: no training by default
On business versions, such as ChatGPT Business or Enterprise, Claude Team or Enterprise, Gemini in a business Google Workspace plan and Copilot with your Microsoft 365 work account, your data isn't used to train models by default. You usually also get:
- Account management: you create the accounts and close them when someone leaves.
- Data processing terms: important under the GDPR if you handle personal data.
- Shared workspaces: projects and instructions the whole team can use.
What this means for your business
- Do you handle customer data, employee data or confidential documents? Choose a business plan.
- Are your staff using their own accounts today? At the very least, ask them to switch off training and agree what must never go in.
- Not sure? Start with a small business plan for the people who use AI most, then expand once the value is clear.
A short rule for your team
"For work, we only use the company's business accounts. Anyone who still uses a personal account switches off training and never enters data about customers, colleagues or contracts."
Test yourself
You pay for a personal plan on an AI tool yourself. Are your conversations then automatically excluded from model training?
Prompt to copy
We're a small business with [number] employees using [tool] via [personal accounts / a business plan]. We handle [type of data]. List five questions I need to answer to decide whether we need a business plan. Remind me to check the provider's current terms.
