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OpenClaw, ChatGPT, or Copilot: choose by operating model
Short answer
Choose ChatGPT for conversation, analysis and material a person judges. Copilot suits work in an editor, an office suite or a CRM. OpenClaw makes sense when the system goes through several steps on files and tools in a restricted environment. ChatGPT Business costs $20 per person with annual billing. OpenClaw has a €0 licence, but needs a server, a model and care.
- net for implementation for a team of up to 10 people, paid once
- from €1,150
- from start to work of the entire team
- 2 weeks
- after this time, we measure the effect on the same tasks
- 30 days
- conversation with an engineer and a written plan within 2 business days
- €0
We belong to the OpenAI and Anthropic partner programmes and learn through their official courses. What this means ↓
Author: Syntalith · 3 min read
Statistics
AI tools at work: statistics 2026
$20
per person a month for ChatGPT Business with annual billing. OpenClaw: a €0 licence, but the server, the model and the care are on your side.
15.1%
According to Eurostat (2025), 15.1% of people aged 16 to 74 in the EU used generative AI tools for work.
392,716
According to GitHub (2026), the OpenClaw repository has 392,716 stars, and the project was created on 24 November 2025.
49%
According to the European Commission (2026), 49% of EU SMEs and mid-caps name legal uncertainty as a barrier to AI.
Source: European Commission, Flash Eurobarometer on AI (2026) ↗
32.7%
According to Eurostat (2025), 32.7% of people aged 16 to 74 in the EU used generative AI tools in the previous 3 months.
Figures checked: 22 October 2026
The comparison in one table
| Need | Usually enough | Who leads the work | Main risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Writing, analysis, summaries | ChatGPT or Claude | A person | Pasting the wrong data, using answers without judgement |
| Help in the app you use | Copilot in that app | A person | Too wide access to context and documents |
| A fixed process with set steps | Automation | The system, by rules | An error in a rule or in exception handling |
| An open task with files and tools | OpenClaw in an isolated environment | An agent within set limits | Credentials that are too wide, no history of actions |
One tool can combine several ways of working. ChatGPT calls tools, and Copilot takes actions. Judge the real scope of action, whatever the product is called.
An example: moving fields from a form into the CRM is a plain automation. Analysing a set of documents, finding gaps and preparing a pack for a decision can justify an agent. In both cases writing to a system should be controlled according to the consequences of an error.
What it costs
ChatGPT Business
$20
Per person a month with annual billing, $25 with monthly billing. The vendor runs the service.
Copilot
by plan
The price depends on the market, the base plan and billing. You check it in the company tenant on the day you buy.
OpenClaw
€0 licence
A server from €5.49, the model by usage and care time. 2 hours a week is about €302 a month.
Compare the cost over the same horizon and for the same work: licences, rollout, people's time, upkeep and the risk of error. OpenClaw costs are covered in detail in the article is OpenClaw free. For Copilot, also count the base Microsoft 365 plan the licence sits on, as the article on the full Copilot budget does.
ChatGPT: a person leads the work
ChatGPT suits work that ends with a text, an analysis or a recommendation. The employee describes the task, checks the answer and decides on the next step. That is often enough. The company then needs rules for working with data, a list of approved tools and the skill to judge the result.
Copilot: help in the app you use
Copilot works closer to the task. It uses the context of the editor, the document, the mailbox or the repository, depending on the product and the configuration. The employee usually stays the operator: opens the case, asks for help, judges the result and approves the action. We describe a Microsoft 365 rollout on the team training page.
OpenClaw: an agent on your server
OpenClaw is an open assistant under the MIT licence. It works on files, in the terminal, the browser and connected tools, so it suits tasks where the next step depends on what it found earlier. An example: it checks for gaps in a document pack, compares versions and prepares a dossier. A person approves sending, a data change or a commitment.
More autonomy needs stronger safeguards: a separate account, minimal credentials, limited access to files and a record of operations. The scope of a rollout is described in the guide OpenClaw for business.
Five questions before you choose
- 01What result should come out?A draft, a recommendation, an entry in a system or a series of actions.
- 02Who leads the task?An employee, a process rule or an agent choosing the next action.
- 03What data is needed?Public sources, company documents, customer data or a transactional system.
- 04Which consequence needs approval?Sending a message, changing data, publishing or a payment.
- 05What history must remain?Sources, tools used, the person's decision and the cost of the operation.
The decision for a company
A person needs an analysis or a first draft of material
ChatGPT or Claude for the team
from €1,150
Help has to appear in the app you use
Copilot
by plan
The process steps are fixed
automation
from €3,000
The task has several steps and the path depends on the content
an agent, for example OpenClaw
from €3,000
In the free process review we check whether an agent adds value, or whether a simpler solution is enough.
„I already use AI.”
Your people too. Just no rules.
From our conversations with companies
5 na 10 employees paste sensitive data into private AI accounts: contracts, invoices, customer data.
In ESET survey (2026)
1 na 10 admits this in the survey.
Customer data pasted into a private AI account without an data processing agreement is a violation of the GDPR.
Don't worry, we won't tell anyone :)
What do we see in companies that "already use"
- Only ChatGPT or Claude accounts, without plugins, skills, integrations and MCP servers with company tools.
- Company programs are not connected to AI. People still click through systems and Excel, and enter chat data manually.
- Lack of company standards: everyone writes instructions in their own way, no one shares what works.
- No rules for personal data, GDPR and company secrets.
- No limits and no visibility: no one knows who uses AI, how much and for what.
62% Polish employees use AI at work · 27% companies have written rules for working with AI.
Source: ESET and DAGMA, Cyberportrait of Polish business 2026 (March 2026, 1,026 people) ↗
ChatGPT or Claude space review
Accounts, permissions, rules for working with data and 5 tasks set for the team. 1 day.
€450 net
Company accounts, rules of working with data and team training in 2 weeks, from €1,150 net.View implementation for the team →
„Is my data safe?”
Yes. You choose where they go: from your company account to the model on your server.
00Employee's private account
Customer and company data ends up in an account that the company cannot see or control. There is no data processing agreement, so it is a violation of the GDPR. When an employee leaves, the chat history goes with them.
01ChatGPT or Claude corporate account
The provider does not use your data to train models. A copy of the queries remains in his logs for up to 30 days.
02API with zero retention (ZDR)
The provider processes the request and does not save anything. It requires his consent, we prepare the application together.
03Processing in the EU
Queries are counted and stored in Europe: OpenAI in the EU region, Claude via clouds with the EU region.
04Model at your place
The open model runs on your server or in your cloud in the EU. The data does not go outside the company.
What we do with every implementation
- Confidentiality agreement and data processing agreement before we receive any data.
- You choose the cases for the prototype and we anonymize them upon request.
- The data stays in the EU and we delete it after the test.
- Corporate accounts with an administrator on your side.
When data cannot leave the company
The open model runs on your server or in your cloud in the EU. To choose from:
- White-tailed eagle
- Polish model, SpeakLeash and ACK Cyfronet AGH
- PLLUM
- Polish model, HIVE consortium commissioned by the Ministry of Digitization
- Qwen
- Alibaba
- GLM
- Zhipu AI
- DeepSeek
- DeepSeek
We select a model for the task and check it on your cases. We run it, tune it and maintain it.
Source: Bielik and PLLuM, ACK Cyfronet AGH ↗ · PLLuM, Ministry of Digitization ↗
Do you have a lot of your own data? We will fine-tune the small model.
- 1 Your examples
- 2 tuning
- 3 test on new cases
- 4 model at your place
When you have thousands of similar emails, documents or reports, we teach a small open model based on your examples. It works for you, responds quickly and costs less to maintain than a large model. We measure quality on issues that the model has not seen while learning.
Przemysław and Piotr did it in large programming and consulting companies. Artem did it before and does it today at Syntalith. It's about models on your own infrastructure, tuning and quality measurement.
You choose the protection level during the interview. We sign the data processing agreement before we see any data.Schedule a free analysis →
Price
Three packages. You know the price right away.
Team of up to 10 people
from €1,150
net, paid once · 2 weeks
Company, from 11 to 40 people
from €2,300
net, paid once · 3–4 weeks
Organization, over 40 people
from €4,600
net, paid once · 6–8 weeks
- The same packages once you have licenses. To start, an inspection of the space in 1 day is enough: €450 net.
- You buy ChatGPT Business licenses directly from OpenAI, without our margin: USD 20 per person per month for an annual payment or USD 25 for a monthly payment for 2 people.
From conversation to measurement
01 · 30 min
Free process review€0
An engineer picks 3 to 5 of your team's tasks with you. Written plan within 2 working days.
02 · 2 weeks
Rolloutfrom €1,150
Accounts and roles, rules for working with data, training on your team's tasks. You buy licences directly from the provider.
03 · after 30 days
Measurementincluded
We compare task times before and after. We name in writing the tasks worth handing to a system.
or call+48 888 78 48 78WhatsAppMon–Fri 9:00–17:00 CET
Worked example · Scenario
How we count the payback: board meeting notes
We run the same count for your team's tasks: how many there are, how long they take, what the licences cost.
€1,309
a month for writing notes after 50 meetings
Payback: 1.4 mo.
Our assumptions are 45 minutes for the note from a board meeting and the update of the task list, and checking in 25% of the old time. €34.90 an hour is the EU average hourly labour cost for 2025 according to Eurostat, for companies with 10 or more employees. Licence: ChatGPT Business or Claude Team at 20 USD per person a month on annual billing, about €17.85 at the ECB rate of 1.1205 USD per euro on 22 October 2026. We count the whole licence against notes here, although the team also uses it for other work. Rollout: from €1,150 for up to 10 people, from €2,300 for 11 to 40 people.
See the full calculation →Questions
How does OpenClaw differ from ChatGPT?
In ChatGPT a person leads the work and judges the result. OpenClaw runs on your server, uses files, the terminal and the browser, and chooses its next steps by itself within set limits. More autonomy needs a separate account, minimal permissions and a history of actions.
Which is cheaper: OpenClaw or ChatGPT?
The OpenClaw licence costs €0, ChatGPT Business $20 per person with annual billing. OpenClaw needs a server, a model and care, though, and 2 hours of care a week is about €302 a month. Compare the same period and the same work.
When should we choose Copilot?
When help has to appear in the app the employee already works in: Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams or an IDE. Check the context sources, the scope of permissions and data retention in the company tenant.
Where should a company start?
With the smallest solution that gives the result you need. A ChatGPT or Claude rollout for a team of up to 10 people costs from €1,150 net at Syntalith, and an agent for one process from €3,000 net.
