OpenAI went and rolled out a group chat feature for ChatGPT. This is a pretty big move, turning the tool from a one-on-one assistant into a shared space where teams can collaborate. But, of course, the moment the news dropped, the first question on just about everyone's mind was, "Okay, but what's this going to cost me?"
It’s a totally fair question, especially for teams wanting to use this for actual work. The thing is, the answer isn’t a simple new price tag. The cost is all tangled up in ChatGPT's existing subscription plans, individual message limits, and even who in the chat is the one asking the questions.
Let’s untangle this mess. In this guide, we'll walk through the ChatGPT group chat pricing setup, explain how it works with the Free, Plus, Pro, and Team plans, and help you decide if it’s really the right collaboration tool for your team.
What is ChatGPT group chat?
At its heart, ChatGPT group chat is exactly what it sounds like: it lets a bunch of people hop into the same conversation with ChatGPT. You can brainstorm ideas, plan out projects, or tackle problems together. It's a neat concept that basically turns the AI into another participant in your meeting instead of just a tool you use on your own.
According to OpenAI's pilot announcement, the feature has a few interesting quirks:
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It runs on GPT-5.1 Auto, a model that’s smart enough to automatically choose the best AI version for any given response.
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It has what OpenAI calls "social behaviors." This means the AI can now use emojis, follow the conversational flow, and figure out when to jump in or stay quiet unless someone mentions it directly.
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Group chats are kept totally separate from your private conversations. Your personal ChatGPT memory isn't shared with the group, which is good for privacy. But it also means you can't build up a shared knowledge base for your team, which is a big miss for business use.
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The feature is currently in a pilot phase, starting out in Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, and Taiwan, with a wider release expected later.
A breakdown of ChatGPT’s main plans and their impact on ChatGPT group chat pricing
To really get how group chat pricing works, you first need to understand ChatGPT's regular subscription tiers. The "cost" of the new group chat feature is tied directly to the limits and perks of each person's individual plan.
| Plan | Cost | Key Features | Best For | | :--- | : :--- | :--- | :--- | | Free | $0/month | GPT-5 model access, web browsing, file uploads, GPT Store. | Casual users and those new to ChatGPT. | | Plus | $20/user/month | Higher message limits, faster responses, priority access. | Individuals and freelancers needing reliability. | | Pro | $200/user/month | Unlimited messages, top performance, beta access. | Developers and power users pushing AI limits. | | Team | $25-30/user/month | Private workspace, admin controls, data privacy. | Small to medium-sized businesses. | | Enterprise | Custom | Enterprise-grade security, SAML SSO, unlimited use. | Large organizations with strict security needs. |
The free plan
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Cost: $0/month
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Features: This gets you access to OpenAI's powerful GPT-5 model, but the message limits are, well, pretty tight. The latest reports suggest you get something like 10 messages every 5 hours. You can still browse the web, upload files, and poke around the GPT Store.
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Limitations: The biggest roadblock here is the low message cap. During busy times, you'll also get slower responses, which makes it tough to rely on for anything urgent.
The plus plan ($20/month)
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Cost: $20 per user, per month
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Features: This plan gives you a lot more breathing room. You get much higher message limits (around 160 messages every 3 hours with GPT-5), faster responses, and priority access when everyone else is trying to use it. You also get a first look at new features.
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Best for: Individuals, freelancers, or anyone who needs ChatGPT to just work without hitting a paywall after a handful of questions.
The pro plan ($200/month)
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Cost: $200 per user, per month
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Features: This is basically the all-access pass. You get unlimited messages and top-tier performance from all of OpenAI's models, including the most advanced "Pro reasoning" modes. Pro users are also at the front of the line for beta features.
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Best for: Developers, researchers, and other pros who are constantly pushing the AI to its limits and can't afford to be slowed down.
The team plan ($25-30 per user/month)
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Cost: It's $30 per user for monthly billing or $25 if you pay annually. You need at least two users to sign up.
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Features: This plan creates a private, dedicated workspace for your team and gives you some basic admin controls. Most importantly, OpenAI promises that your business data won't be used to train their public models.
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Best for: Small to medium-sized businesses that need a shared AI space with some foundational security and privacy built-in.
The enterprise plan (Custom pricing)
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Cost: You have to chat with their sales team for a quote, but word on the street is it's around $60 per user each month.
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Features: This tier gives you everything in the Team plan plus serious enterprise-level security like SAML SSO, a detailed admin console with usage stats, unlimited use, and dedicated support.
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Best for: Large companies that need to roll out AI across the organization and have strict security, compliance, and management needs.
How does ChatGPT group chat pricing actually work?
Alright, here’s the most important thing you need to know: there is no separate fee or subscription for group chat. You don't pay extra just to use it. The "cost" is counted in messages, and those messages get subtracted from each person's individual plan limits.
Here’s how it plays out: when ChatGPT replies to a specific person in the group, that single reply counts against that person's message cap. So, if you're on the Free plan and the AI replies to you 10 times, you're benched for the next few hours. At the same time, your coworker on the Plus plan can keep the conversation moving right along.
You can probably already see how this creates some major headaches for any team trying to get real work done:
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It’s a recipe for bottlenecks. If your team is a mix of Free and paid users, the free users are going to hit their limits constantly. This stalls the entire collaboration and pretty much leaves them out of the loop.
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Usage is all over the place. You can't budget for it or predict it. One person's heavy use can't be offset by someone else's light use, which makes it almost impossible to rely on for day-to-day tasks.
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It feels designed for casual chats, not professional work. The whole system seems set up for informal, social brainstorming rather than structured business workflows where everyone needs the same level of consistent access.
A better alternative: eesel AI Internal Chat
If you're a business trying to get your team collaborating better with AI, you really need a tool that was built for that exact purpose. ChatGPT group chat is a cool idea, but it's a consumer tool that’s been tweaked for a business setting. For a truly professional setup, we recommend eesel AI Internal Chat. It's designed from day one to be a secure, smart, and reliable AI assistant for your whole team.
Go live in minutes, not months
Forget the headache of managing dozens of individual ChatGPT accounts and their confusing limits. eesel AI is completely self-serve and made to be simple. You can connect it to the tools you already use with one-click integrations for platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams. There's no need to force your team to learn yet another app; the AI just works where they already are.
Unify your actual company knowledge
ChatGPT group chats are just isolated conversations that don't know a thing about your business. On the other hand, eesel AI connects right to your company's real sources of knowledge. It learns from your Confluence spaces, Google Docs, Notion pages, and internal wikis. This turns your internal chat from a simple Q&A bot into a genuine source of truth that gives accurate, consistent answers based on your own approved documents.
Maintain total control and security
eesel AI was built with business needs at the forefront. You get fine-grained control to scope the AI's knowledge to specific sources, making sure it only answers questions it's supposed to. Your data is never used to train general models, and eesel AI provides the kind of security and privacy controls you need to work with peace of mind.
Get transparent and predictable pricing
Tired of worrying about per-user message limits? So are we. eesel AI's pricing is straightforward and based on the overall capacity your team needs. There are no weird per-resolution fees or confusing caps that lead to surprise bills. This lets you scale up your AI usage as your team grows without getting penalized for being productive.
Other alternatives
While we think a purpose-built tool is your best bet, the most direct alternative is to just go all-in on OpenAI's own business plans.
1. ChatGPT Team or Enterprise
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What it is: These are OpenAI's official plans for businesses. Putting everyone on a Team or Enterprise plan makes sure every user has high (or unlimited) message caps, which solves the bottleneck problem.
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Pros: It keeps your whole team in a single, familiar system. You also get that shared workspace, admin controls, and the crucial promise that your data won't be used for public model training.
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Cons: This option can get pricey, fast, especially if you have a larger team. More importantly, you're still using a general-purpose AI. It doesn't have the deep, one-click integrations with your company's knowledge bases or the specific workflow features that a specialized tool like eesel AI gives you from the get-go. You're paying for a powerful engine, but you still have to build the car around it.
This video breaks down the different ChatGPT pricing plans to help you decide which one is right for you.
Final thoughts on the ChatGPT group chat pricing model
The new ChatGPT group chat feature is an exciting look at where collaborative AI might be headed. But, the way its pricing is set up, by tying usage to individual and uneven plan limits, makes it a pretty tricky tool for any kind of consistent business use. Its current form feels much better for a casual brainstorm or a personal project than for the kind of collaboration your team relies on every day.
For businesses that need a secure, reliable, and deeply knowledgeable AI assistant, a dedicated solution is the way to go. A tool like eesel AI is built from the ground up to solve the internal knowledge-sharing problem, offering smooth integrations, solid security, and predictable pricing that a business can actually count on.
Ready to build an AI assistant that actually knows your business?
Create an AI that works right inside your Slack or Teams environment and gives your team the right answers, every single time. Try eesel AI for free.
Frequently asked questions
There isn't a separate fee for group chat. The "cost" is counted in messages, which are deducted from each individual user's existing ChatGPT plan limits (Free, Plus, Pro, Team, Enterprise).
The primary limitation is that message limits are individual, not shared. This means if a user hits their cap, they are benched, which can bottleneck collaboration for the entire team and lead to unpredictable usage.
Yes, this creates significant issues. Free users will constantly hit their low message caps, stalling the entire group conversation and making consistent collaboration nearly impossible for the team.
You don't pay per message directly for the group chat feature itself. Instead, the messages generated by ChatGPT in the group count against the individual message limits of the person ChatGPT is responding to, based on their existing subscription plan.
Team and Enterprise plans offer much higher or unlimited message caps per user, along with a shared workspace and admin controls, which alleviates the bottleneck issues of individual Free/Plus plans. However, these plans are typically more expensive per user.
Yes, it is highly unpredictable. Because usage is tied to individual message caps which vary by plan and user activity, it's impossible to budget for or guarantee consistent access, making it unsuitable for reliable business operations.
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Article by
Kenneth Pangan
Writer and marketer for over ten years, Kenneth Pangan splits his time between history, politics, and art with plenty of interruptions from his dogs demanding attention.
