The Problem with Per-Seat AI Pricing
Why per-user pricing models lock out half your team and how flat-rate pricing changes the equation.
The Per-Seat Tax
Microsoft 365 Copilot costs €21–30 per user per month. ChatGPT Enterprise is roughly €185 per user per month. At a 50-person consulting firm, that's €1,050–1,500/month for Copilot or €9,250/month for ChatGPT — just for the AI layer.
The result? Most organisations buy seats for a handful of people. The rest of the team gets nothing. Knowledge access becomes a privilege, not a standard.
Why This Matters
In knowledge-intensive organisations — law firms, accounting practices, consulting firms — the people who need to search documents aren't just the partners. It's the junior associates preparing for client meetings. It's the operations team tracking compliance. It's the new hire trying to find how something was done before.
Per-seat pricing forces you to choose who gets AI access. That's the opposite of how knowledge management should work.
The Flat-Rate Alternative
AiSU uses per-organisation pricing based on company size:
- 1–9 employees: €149/month
- 10–49 employees: €299/month
- 50–249 employees: €699/month
- 250+ employees: €1,500/month
Everyone in the organisation gets full access. No seat management. No internal negotiations about who "deserves" an AI license.
The Numbers
For a 50-person consulting firm:
- Microsoft Copilot (all seats): €1,050–1,500/month
- AiSU: €699/month
That's a 53–73% cost reduction — and AiSU searches across Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 simultaneously, which Copilot can't do.
For a 10-person law firm:
- ChatGPT Enterprise (all seats): ~€1,850/month
- AiSU: €299/month
The Real Question
The question isn't "can we afford AI?" — it's "can we afford to give AI access to only some of our team?"
When knowledge access is universal, your entire organisation gets smarter. When it's rationed by seat licenses, you're paying a premium for a fraction of the value.