Plans, Privacy, and Choosing the Right Level¶
Plans overview¶
ChatGPT is available as a free product, with paid individual tiers and workspace plans for teams and institutions. OpenAI currently distinguishes between Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and higher-education (Edu) offerings, though names and feature bundles do change over time. Business is the self-serve team workspace; Enterprise is the larger managed offering; Edu is the institutional higher-education version.
For humanities researchers, the practical distinction is often less about "which model is best?" than "what kind of data and governance situation am I in?" Individual consumer ChatGPT is appropriate for public, low-risk, or personal exploratory work. If you are handling institutional data, student data, internal documents, or sensitive unpublished material, the better question is whether your university should be looking at Edu, Business, or Enterprise-style arrangements instead. OpenAI says business and institutional offerings include shared workspaces, admin controls, stronger governance features, and business privacy commitments.
Feature availability by plan¶
| Feature | Free | Go | Plus | Pro | Business | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chat | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Web search | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| File uploads | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Projects | — | limited | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Deep research | — | limited | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Agent mode | — | limited | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom GPTs | — | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Codex | limited | limited | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Canvas | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Image generation | limited | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Feature availability by plan. Exact limits change frequently; see OpenAI's pricing page for current details. As of March 2026.
Privacy and data handling¶
Privacy needs clear handling. For consumer services such as ordinary ChatGPT, OpenAI says it may use your content to train models unless you opt out through Data Controls or the privacy portal. Temporary Chat gives you a blank slate, and you can also turn off model training for your chats. By contrast, OpenAI says business products such as ChatGPT Business, Enterprise, Edu, and the API do not train on your data by default.
For a fuller discussion of data governance across platforms, see Data Governance.
Essential
Know your data tier. If you are working with sensitive, personal, or institutional data, consumer ChatGPT is not the right tool. Talk to your institution about Edu, Business, or Enterprise arrangements. If you are using consumer ChatGPT for exploratory or public-domain work, opt out of training via Data Controls and consider using Temporary Chat for sensitive conversations.
Advertising¶
OpenAI has announced plans to introduce advertising in the free tier and ChatGPT Go. Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise plans will remain ad-free.
API vs ChatGPT¶
One last practical point: ChatGPT subscriptions and API usage are separate. Paying for ChatGPT does not give you API credits, and API use is billed separately. That matters if you move from ordinary use into scripted or automated workflows.