Comparison

ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot for business, and where Forge fits

The business versions of ChatGPT, Claude and Microsoft 365 Copilot are all capable assistants, and all three companies say they do not train their models on your business data by default. Choose between them by where your work lives: Copilot if it lives in Microsoft 365, ChatGPT or Claude for a general assistant across your work. Many organisations try two on their own documents and let people's results decide.

Forge, by GradTensor, is a different kind of tool. It is not a better assistant. It is a governed workspace for confidential documents and for document work that repeats, where the organisation sets the rules. It uses OpenAI's and Anthropic's models underneath, and many organisations will want an assistant and Forge.

What the three have in common

On the questions buyers ask first, the business plans give similar answers:

Training: OpenAI says it does not train on data from ChatGPT Business, Enterprise or Edu by default. Anthropic says it does not train on inputs or outputs from its commercial products, such as Claude for Work, by default. Microsoft says prompts, responses and data reached through Microsoft Graph are not used to train foundation models.
Administration: each offers an organisation-level workspace with administrator controls, which personal plans do not.

Where each one fits

Microsoft 365 Copilot works inside Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams, and answers from the documents, mail and chats a person can already open. Microsoft says it surfaces only organisational data the user has at least view permission for. It suits organisations whose work already lives in Microsoft 365.
ChatGPT Business and Enterprise are general assistants for writing, analysis and questions across a person's work, with workspace administration on top.
Claude for Work, on the Team and Enterprise plans, is likewise a general assistant, with projects that hold the documents for a piece of work and connectors to other tools.

Where Forge differs

The differences are in who sets the rules and what happens before a model is called, not in how clever the answers are:

The organisation sets the privacy rules, and members cannot weaken them. Masking of personal details can be made an organisation rule that no one can switch off for a quick question.
Personal details such as email addresses, phone numbers, card numbers and ID numbers are masked before a prompt leaves, and restored in the answer.
Access is granted per project. Being in the organisation opens nothing on its own, so a client's documents are seen only by the people working for that client.
The organisation chooses the provider, Anthropic or OpenAI, and can use its own key.
Work that repeats becomes a workflow, where code does the parts that must be exact: checking a supplier's PAN against its GSTIN, or a bank statement's running balance.
Every access and AI call is recorded without its content, so an administrator can read the record without reading anyone's work.

When you do not need Forge

If your people need a good assistant for drafting and questions, your documents already live in Microsoft 365 with sound permissions, and nothing you handle needs rules beyond the vendor's own, a business plan from Microsoft, OpenAI or Anthropic may be all you need.

Forge earns its place when the material is confidential to someone else, such as clients, patients or employees, when the organisation must set and prove the rules rather than trust each person's settings, or when the same document work comes back every week.

A firm that uses both

1A fifty-person advisory firm runs Microsoft 365 and gives everyone Copilot for email, meetings and first drafts.
2Client documents go into Forge instead, one project per client, with masking set as a firm-wide rule and the firm's own model key.
3Finance onboards suppliers in Forge's vendor workflow, where PAN, GSTIN and bank details are checked against each other before anyone is paid.
4When a client asks how its documents were handled, the firm shows who had access to the project, which model was used, and that masking applied, without exposing the content.

What Forge is not

It is not an assistant inside Word, Outlook or Teams, and it does not read your Microsoft 365 mail or SharePoint. Connections to mail and calendars are being built.
It is not a replacement for a general assistant for everything a person does in a day.
Its models come from OpenAI and Anthropic, so the quality of an answer depends on theirs.
Masking covers structured identifiers. It does not detect names or street addresses.

Sources, checked 12 October 2026

Questions

Copilot or ChatGPT for business: which should we choose?

If your documents, mail and meetings live in Microsoft 365, Copilot works where they are and within the permissions you already have. If your people need a general assistant across tools that are not all Microsoft's, ChatGPT Business or Enterprise is the more usual choice. Trial both on real work before deciding.

Is Claude safe for business data?

Anthropic says that by default it does not train on inputs or outputs from its commercial products, such as the Team and Enterprise plans. It may use a conversation if someone sends it as feedback, and an administrator can switch rating off. The personal plans follow different rules.

ChatGPT Enterprise or Claude Enterprise?

Both say they do not train on your data by default and both give administrators control of the workspace. The choice usually comes down to which model your people get better results from on their own work, and which tools each connects to. Test both on the same documents.

Is ChatGPT or Copilot better for privacy?

On their business plans both say they do not train on your data. The bigger privacy risk is usually people using personal accounts for work, outside either company's business terms.

What is shadow AI? →

Does Forge replace ChatGPT or Copilot?

No. Use an assistant for everyday drafting and questions, and Forge for confidential documents and repeated document work under the organisation's rules. Forge uses OpenAI's and Anthropic's models underneath.

Private AI for business →