Toskar vs. ChatGPT for business: a private alternative

Most offices that use AI today pay for a ChatGPT business plan: a monthly fee for each person, with the work done in OpenAI's data centers. Toskar takes the other approach: AI that runs on computers you own, in your office. Neither is right for everyone. Here's how to decide.

This comparison reflects both as of October 2026. Check OpenAI's pricing page for current plans.

The short version

• Choose ChatGPT for business if you need the most capable models available and don't mind your work being processed in the cloud.
• Choose Toskar if customer details, contracts, or health or legal information must stay in your office, or you'd rather buy hardware once than pay per person forever.

Side by side

	ChatGPT business plans	Toskar
Where your data goes	Processed in OpenAI's cloud; business plans say they don't train on your data by default	Stays on your computers; anything that leaves, like a web search, is listed
How you pay	A monthly fee for each person	The hardware, once; the software is free
Models	OpenAI's newest, most capable models	Open models that run on your hardware
Works offline	No	Yes, except for web look-ups
Your documents	Upload files and connect some apps	Connect folders, PDFs, spreadsheets, and databases on your network
Apps and tools	Many built-in integrations	MCP tool sources, an OpenAI-compatible API, and an MCP server for Claude Desktop, Cursor, and VS Code
Sign-in for each person	Yes, including single sign-on	One shared assistant today, with a key for each person or app; separate accounts are planned
Setup	Sign up and go	Install on one computer, or have someone set it up for you

The honest trade-off: capability

The biggest models in the cloud are smarter than what fits on an office computer, especially for hard reasoning and long, complex writing. Open models have closed much of that gap for everyday work: drafting emails, summarizing documents, answering questions about your own files, and looking things up. For an office's routine work, a model on a well-equipped computer is often good enough, and it's yours.

If your team depends on the very best model for difficult analysis, a cloud plan will serve them better today.

The cost over time

A per-person plan grows with your team, every month, forever. Local AI is the opposite: you pay for capable hardware once, and adding the tenth person costs the same as adding the first. Our why local AI page has a calculator that compares the two for your team size.

Privacy you can check

A cloud provider's privacy promise is a policy you have to trust. With Toskar, the models run on machines in your building, and Toskar shows everything that did leave them, so the answer to "where did our customer data go?" is something you can look up.

That's why offices that handle sensitive information, such as law, accounting, healthcare, and real estate, look at local AI first.

Which should you choose?

If you need the strongest models and you're comfortable with the cloud, a ChatGPT business plan is a fine choice. If privacy, predictable cost, or keeping working offline matters more, Toskar is built for you.

See Toskar for small business, or install it on one computer and try it with your own documents.