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SubVerdict Reviews
Buying guide · Checked September 2026

Can you share a ChatGPT or Claude subscription?

Not the login. OpenAI's and Anthropic's own terms both say a personal account is for the person who opened it. What both companies sell instead is a team workspace, ChatGPT Business or Claude Team, in which every person gets a seat and a login of their own. Family plans are a different story: Google lets a family group use its AI benefits, while Microsoft 365 Family shares the subscription but keeps Copilot for the owner. No prices here: they vary by country.

By the SubVerdict desk Published 27 September 2026 Last verified 27 September 2026 ~8 min read
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How we checked this one. On 27 September 2026 we read the English versions of the vendor pages listed under Sources. Prices are left out because they vary by country, and seat minimums and headcount limits because, as OpenAI's own help page warns, "later pricing and seat options can still change over time."

One account, several people: what the terms say

Both versions of OpenAI's Terms of Use for individuals, one for the EEA, Switzerland and the UK and one for everywhere else, carry the same clause: "You may not share your account credentials or make your account available to anyone else and are responsible for all activities that occur under your account." A help-centre article on account sharing spells it out: "If someone else needs to use OpenAI’s products, they should sign up for their own account."

Anthropic's Consumer Terms, which cover Claude.ai and Claude Pro, say: "You may not share your Account login information, Anthropic API key, or Account credentials with anyone else. You also may not make your Account available to anyone else." Microsoft's Services Agreement has "You cannot transfer your Microsoft account credentials to another user or entity." Perplexity's help centre says sharing an account "violates our Terms of Use, risking account suspension or termination", wording we did not find in the four sections of its Terms of Service we read.

The terms say what the company may do, not how it would find out. OpenAI may "suspend or terminate your access to our Services or delete your account" if it determines you breached its terms. Anthropic adds that if it terminates your access for a violation "and you have a Subscription, you will not be entitled to any refund."

Your own devices are fine

Using one account on your own devices is a different matter. OpenAI says "You are welcome to use your OpenAI account on multiple devices," though usage limits may apply. Anthropic says Settings > Account on Claude's web version signs you out of every device, "particularly useful if you've forgotten to log out on a shared device or suspect unauthorized access to your account."

The version the terms allow: a seat per person

What people usually want from a shared password is one bill for several people. Both companies sell that, as long as each person has their own login. OpenAI's version is ChatGPT Business; its help centre says ChatGPT Team "was renamed to ChatGPT Business on August 29, 2025". Anthropic's is Claude Team. OpenAI puts the idea in one line: "A seat is paid capacity in a workspace, separate from the member who uses it."

Read from the vendors' help centres and Anthropic's pricing page on 27 September 2026. Seat prices, minimums and caps are on those pages; check them for your country before you pay.

How ChatGPT Business and Claude Team seats work, September 2026
RuleChatGPT BusinessClaude Team
Minimum sizeA minimum number of paid seats, stated in the help centreA minimum number of members; "not intended for individual use"
Billing cycleMonthly or annualMonthly or annual
Who can buy seatsWorkspace owners onlyOwners and Primary Owners only
Adding a seatProrated charge straight awayProrated charge straight away
Cutting seatsFrom the next billing cycleFrom the next renewal; no prorated refund
Removing a personDoesn't reduce the billable seat countNo immediate credit or refund; the seat can go to someone else
PaymentCredit and debit cards; no invoice, bank transfer or ACH on self-serveCredit, debit or prepaid cards; no ACH
Training on your content"OpenAI won’t train on your workspace’s data.""No model training on your content by default"

A few details the table can't hold. On Claude Team, "Usage limits on Team plans are per-member, rather than applied to the team as a whole". On ChatGPT Business, "it is not possible to restrict members from adding additional members if the workspace has available seats." Anthropic describes Claude Team as "currently available in certain supported locations"; check its page for yours. If paying by card from outside the US is the sticking point, see our guide to paying for AI tools from abroad.

Team plan or separate plans: do the sum yourself

Which is cheaper depends on where you live. Anthropic says its Team prices "are for US customers and exclude applicable taxes", and OpenAI says Business "pricing may vary depending on your country and currency type". Work it out with your own checkout open:

  1. Per-seat price for your country × the minimum seat count, or × your headcount if larger.
  2. Personal plan's local price × your headcount.
  3. Yearly billing. OpenAI's help centre says: "Currently, we do not support annual billing or the option to pay for multiple months in advance for ChatGPT Plus subscriptions." Anthropic lists Claude Pro as monthly and annual, Max as monthly only, Team as both. See annual vs monthly AI plans.
  4. Add local tax to both.

The sum misses what you get besides the seats. Anthropic's plan table marks "Project sharing and collaboration" and "Central billing and administration" as No for Pro and Max and Yes for Team. If two of you want to work in the same projects, that's the case for Team. If you only want to split the cost of two people's private chats, we'd buy two personal plans and skip having an owner who controls the billing and, as the next section shows, can reach some of your data. And two people with only personal Gmail addresses can't start a Claude Team: Anthropic says "The account creator must use a business email address", and public domains like @gmail.com "aren't allowed".

On a team plan, your chats are not only yours

OpenAI's help pages disagree on this, so we quote both. The ChatGPT Business FAQ says "By default, admins and owners cannot see all private member chats", and the same FAQ says "Self-service data export is not available in ChatGPT Business workspaces." But OpenAI's page on managed accounts, which names Business among the plans it covers, says: "That means your administrator may be able to access, export, audit, retain, delete, and opt-in to share data tied to this account with OpenAI to improve OpenAI’s models." The data it lists includes "Conversation history and shared workspace content", "where enabled by your organization’s configuration and applicable law". If it matters, ask the workspace owner how theirs is set up.

Anthropic's team-data page says the Primary Owner can "request access to your user data through data exports, which may contain your conversations with Claude, uploaded files, and usage patterns", and a removed member's data "will still be included in any data exports run by your organization’s Primary Owner." We did not find a statement either way on whether owners or admins can read member chats directly inside Claude.

Family plans: Google shares the AI, Microsoft doesn't

Google's AI plans page lists family sharing on Plus, Pro and Ultra, and its FAQ says "Family plan members on a Google AI Pro plan can enjoy AI benefits and features at no extra cost." Google One's help page puts "Access to AI benefits such as Gemini App, Google Antigravity, Gemini Notebook, and other AI features" on its list of benefits everyone in the family group can use. Both pages give the group size limit.

The conditions are specific. The family manager has to meet an age requirement. "The people you invite need to live in the same country as you." Members need a personal account, since "You can't join a family with a Google Account from your work, school, or other organization", and can't have been in another family group recently. For some products "usage limits are shared by the entire family group rather than each member having their own separate limit"; Google names Flow and Antigravity. Only the plan manager can buy extra AI credits or change the plan.

Microsoft goes the other way. Microsoft 365 Family and Premium can be shared (the comparison page gives the headcount), but the same page says: "AI features included in Microsoft 365 Family and Microsoft 365 Premium plans are only available to the subscription owner and cannot be shared with others." The family gets the rest of the subscription; Copilot stays with the owner.

In the article listings of the OpenAI, Anthropic and Perplexity help centres we did not find a family or household plan. That is our reading of the listings; we did not see any of the three state that no such plan exists.

If you already pay for a personal plan

Upgrade Claude Pro or Max to Team in place and, Anthropic says, "Your individual Pro or Max subscription is cancelled automatically and a prorated refund is issued for the unused portion of your billing period", unless you tick "Keep your personal account separate" first. In that case "Data isn't shared between separate accounts."

OpenAI does the reverse: "Joining Business does not automatically migrate your content or cancel your personal subscription." If you merge, "you cannot choose individual chats, projects, or files", and "There is no undo option". The personal plan keeps running until you cancel it; the steps are in how to cancel AI subscriptions, and refunds are covered in getting a refund on an AI subscription.

What we could not confirm

Each gap has its own reason:

  • Local prices outside the US. We could not open OpenAI's ChatGPT pricing page, and we did not check Anthropic's per-location page at claude.ai/upgrade.
  • Perplexity's enterprise seat price and minimum. We could not open its enterprise pricing page.
  • Gemini inside a Google family group. We read nothing in Google One's family-sharing page on whether each member gets a separate Gemini app limit or can see others' Gemini chats; we did not look for a Gemini-specific page.
  • Where Microsoft 365 Family members have to live. The Microsoft pages we read said nothing either way, and we did not find its support article on sharing.

FAQ

Can two people use one ChatGPT Plus account?

Not under OpenAI's terms, which say you “may not share your account credentials or make your account available to anyone else”. Its help centre says anyone else “should sign up for their own account.” Using one account on several of your own devices is allowed.

Can the owner of a Claude Team read my chats?

Anthropic says the Primary Owner can request data exports, which “may contain your conversations with Claude, uploaded files, and usage patterns.” We did not find a statement either way on whether owners or admins can read member chats directly inside Claude.

Does Google AI Pro family sharing include Gemini?

Google's family-sharing help page lists access to AI benefits such as the Gemini app among the benefits the whole family group can use. We did not check whether each member gets a separate Gemini app usage limit.

Is Copilot shared on Microsoft 365 Family?

No. Microsoft's plan comparison page says AI features in Microsoft 365 Family and Premium “are only available to the subscription owner and cannot be shared with others.” The rest of the subscription can be shared.

Sources

All read on 27 September 2026, English versions.

Also read, in the same help centres: OpenAI's "Managing billing and seats in ChatGPT Business" and "Managing members, seat types, and roles in ChatGPT Business"; Anthropic's "Purchase and manage seats on Team plans", "How is my Team plan bill calculated?", "What happens to a user's data when they are removed from a Team or Enterprise organization?" and "How do I log out of all active sessions?".

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