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AI models & agents for your business.

Compare cloud assistants, locally hosted models and agent builders for a small business. Examine cost, data handling and the work needed to run them.

10 researched options · Source checked 2026-10-10 · Assistants, local models and agent builders; different roles and cost bases.

Free help choosing. No paid rankings, invented scores or hands-on testing claims. Alphabetical within each type; filtered fit is not a quality verdict.

Prices use different billing units and currencies; they are not a cheapest-first ranking. Taxes, hardware, maintenance, API usage and connected services can add cost.

Local hosting is only as private as the complete setup. Cloud models and external tools can still receive data. Model size is not a RAM requirement or a quality score.

10 options match your filters

Ready-to-use assistants

Provider cloud

ChatGPT Business

Account setup; no model server
Reference cost

USD 20 / user / month, billed annually

Consider when

A team wants a general assistant for drafting, research and working with files without maintaining a model server.

Why consider it? Evidence & limits

Trade-offs to check

Minimum two users. Monthly billing is USD 25/user. Usage limits and additional credits can apply; an API integration has separate billing. Model and tool availability varies by workspace.

Data & operation

Business content is not used to train models by default. This is cloud processing: review retention, connectors and the applicable data-processing terms.

Official source 1 · learn.chatgpt.com ↗
Market suitabilityAvailability not verified

Local checks still required

Why this result?

Availability not verified

Country-specific sign-up, app-store access, local language support and billing are not verified. A translated website is not evidence of availability.

Choose the country where your business is registered. Coverage is researched for the six pilot markets; other countries remain unverified.

These are checks to complete, not a legal or tax clearance. Product compliance remains unverified until the exact edition and your circumstances are confirmed.

Official source ↗Source checked:
Provider cloud

Claude Team · Standard

Account setup; no model server
Reference cost

USD 20 / seat / month, billed annually

Consider when

A team wants document work, research and access to Claude Code in a managed subscription.

Why consider it? Evidence & limits

Trade-offs to check

Two to 150 members; monthly billing is USD 25/seat. Standard seats have usage limits. Do not infer unlimited agent or coding work, or included API usage.

Data & operation

Commercial data is not used for model training by default. Connected services, retention and access permissions still need review.

Official source 1 · claude.com ↗Official source 2 · claude.com ↗
Market suitabilityAvailability not verified

Local checks still required

Why this result?

Availability not verified

Country-specific sign-up, app-store access, local language support and billing are not verified. A translated website is not evidence of availability.

Choose the country where your business is registered. Coverage is researched for the six pilot markets; other countries remain unverified.

These are checks to complete, not a legal or tax clearance. Product compliance remains unverified until the exact edition and your circumstances are confirmed.

Official source ↗Source checked:
Provider cloud

Google Workspace Business Standard · Gemini

Account setup; no model server
Reference cost

USD 14 / user / month, one-year commitment

Consider when

A business already works in Gmail, Docs and Meet and wants AI within that suite.

Why consider it? Evidence & limits

Trade-offs to check

Reference base price excludes temporary promotions. This is a suite subscription, not a standalone model API. Check feature limits, supported languages and country checkout.

Data & operation

Google says covered Workspace data is not used for generative AI training outside your domain without permission. Check which account and service employees use; personal accounts and integrations can have different terms.

Official source 1 · workspace.google.com ↗Official source 2 · workspace.google.com ↗
Market suitabilityAvailability not verified

Local checks still required

Why this result?

Availability not verified

Country-specific sign-up, app-store access, local language support and billing are not verified. A translated website is not evidence of availability.

Choose the country where your business is registered. Coverage is researched for the six pilot markets; other countries remain unverified.

These are checks to complete, not a legal or tax clearance. Product compliance remains unverified until the exact edition and your circumstances are confirmed.

Official source ↗Source checked:
Provider cloud

Microsoft 365 Copilot Business

Account setup; no model server
Reference cost

USD 21 / user / month, paid yearly · add-on

Consider when

A business uses Microsoft 365 and wants assistance connected to its documents, email and meetings.

Why consider it? Evidence & limits

Trade-offs to check

A qualifying Microsoft 365 licence costs extra; up to 300 users. Uses ordinary annual list price, excluding the first-year offer. Check tenant, market, app and agent entitlements.

Data & operation

Microsoft states covered prompts, responses and Microsoft Graph data are not used to train foundation models. Existing file permissions matter; review oversharing before enabling access.

Official source 1 · microsoft.com ↗Official source 2 · learn.microsoft.com ↗
Market suitabilityAvailability not verified

Local checks still required

Why this result?

Availability not verified

Country-specific sign-up, app-store access, local language support and billing are not verified. A translated website is not evidence of availability.

Choose the country where your business is registered. Coverage is researched for the six pilot markets; other countries remain unverified.

These are checks to complete, not a legal or tax clearance. Product compliance remains unverified until the exact edition and your circumstances are confirmed.

Official source ↗Source checked:

Models to run locally

Your hardware / server

Gemma 3 4B · Ollama

Technical maintainer required
Reference cost

No model licence fee · hardware and support extra

Consider when

A technical owner wants to test a smaller local text-and-image model before investing in a larger machine.

Why consider it? Evidence & limits

Trade-offs to check

Exact model: gemma3:4b. Current Ollama package is about 3.4 GB; working memory and context need more room. Smaller download is not evidence of better answers or suitability for complex decisions.

Data & operation

Open weights under Gemma Terms, not Apache 2.0. Check permitted use and downstream obligations. A local runtime alone does not make external tools or cloud services private.

Official source 1 · ai.google.dev ↗Official source 2 · ollama.com ↗Official source 3 · ai.google.dev ↗Official source 4 · docs.ollama.com ↗
Market suitabilityAvailability not verified

Local checks still required

Why this result?

Availability not verified

Country-specific sign-up, app-store access, local language support and billing are not verified. A translated website is not evidence of availability.

Choose the country where your business is registered. Coverage is researched for the six pilot markets; other countries remain unverified.

These are checks to complete, not a legal or tax clearance. Product compliance remains unverified until the exact edition and your circumstances are confirmed.

Official source ↗Source checked:
Your hardware / server

Qwen3.5-9B · Ollama

Technical maintainer required
Reference cost

No model licence fee · hardware and support extra

Consider when

A technical owner wants to trial local text and image tasks with downloadable model weights.

Why consider it? Evidence & limits

Trade-offs to check

Exact model: qwen3.5:9b. Ollama lists different runtime builds (about 6.6–7.6 GB at review). Download size is not required RAM. Test memory, latency and local-language accuracy on your actual tasks.

Data & operation

Apache 2.0 model licence. Local inference can keep prompts on your hardware, but cloud models, web tools, remote embeddings and integrations can send data elsewhere.

Official source 1 · huggingface.co ↗Official source 2 · ollama.com ↗Official source 3 · docs.ollama.com ↗
Market suitabilityAvailability not verified

Local checks still required

Why this result?

Availability not verified

Country-specific sign-up, app-store access, local language support and billing are not verified. A translated website is not evidence of availability.

Choose the country where your business is registered. Coverage is researched for the six pilot markets; other countries remain unverified.

These are checks to complete, not a legal or tax clearance. Product compliance remains unverified until the exact edition and your circumstances are confirmed.

Official source ↗Source checked:

Agent & workflow builders

Provider cloud

Dify Cloud · Professional

Workflow design required
Reference cost

USD 590 / workspace / year

Consider when

A team wants to build a knowledge assistant or AI application using a visual workflow and hosted service.

Why consider it? Evidence & limits

Trade-offs to check

Three team members and 5,000 monthly model message credits at the reviewed tier. Model choice changes credit consumption; bringing your own API key creates separate model costs. Taxes excluded.

Data & operation

Your documents and workflow data use hosted infrastructure and selected model providers. Check retention, deployment region and document access controls before uploading business material.

Official source 1 · dify.ai ↗Official source 2 · github.com ↗
Market suitabilityAvailability not verified

Local checks still required

Why this result?

Availability not verified

Country-specific sign-up, app-store access, local language support and billing are not verified. A translated website is not evidence of availability.

Choose the country where your business is registered. Coverage is researched for the six pilot markets; other countries remain unverified.

These are checks to complete, not a legal or tax clearance. Product compliance remains unverified until the exact edition and your circumstances are confirmed.

Official source ↗Source checked:
Your hardware / server

Dify Community · self-hosted

Technical maintainer required
Reference cost

No Community licence fee · operations and models extra

Consider when

A technical owner wants to operate a knowledge assistant or AI workflow on controlled infrastructure.

Why consider it? Evidence & limits

Trade-offs to check

Dify licence adds conditions to Apache 2.0, including multi-tenant and frontend branding restrictions. Server minimums exclude local model inference; model quality and infrastructure sizing need separate tests.

Data & operation

Self-hosting gives deployment control, not automatic offline operation. Verify models, embeddings, plugins, logs and integrations. A cloud model still processes the data you send to it.

Official source 1 · github.com ↗Official source 2 · github.com ↗Official source 3 · docs.dify.ai ↗
Market suitabilityAvailability not verified

Local checks still required

Why this result?

Availability not verified

Country-specific sign-up, app-store access, local language support and billing are not verified. A translated website is not evidence of availability.

Choose the country where your business is registered. Coverage is researched for the six pilot markets; other countries remain unverified.

These are checks to complete, not a legal or tax clearance. Product compliance remains unverified until the exact edition and your circumstances are confirmed.

Official source ↗Source checked:
Provider cloud

n8n Cloud · Starter

Workflow design required
Reference cost

EUR 20 / month, billed annually

Consider when

Someone can design workflows connecting business apps and wants hosted infrastructure.

Why consider it? Evidence & limits

Trade-offs to check

2,500 workflow executions per month at this tier. Execution counts are not model tokens. Check AI allowances, connected service charges, retries and human approvals before unattended use.

Data & operation

Workflows are hosted by n8n; the chosen model and connected apps introduce additional processors. Review logs, credentials and hosting region.

Official source 1 · n8n.io ↗
Market suitabilityAvailability not verified

Local checks still required

Why this result?

Availability not verified

Country-specific sign-up, app-store access, local language support and billing are not verified. A translated website is not evidence of availability.

Choose the country where your business is registered. Coverage is researched for the six pilot markets; other countries remain unverified.

These are checks to complete, not a legal or tax clearance. Product compliance remains unverified until the exact edition and your circumstances are confirmed.

Official source ↗Source checked:
Your hardware / server

n8n Community · self-hosted

Technical maintainer required
Reference cost

No Community licence fee · operations and models extra

Consider when

An internal technical owner wants workflow control and the option to connect a local model through Ollama.

Why consider it? Evidence & limits

Trade-offs to check

Source-available Sustainable Use Licence permits internal business use with conditions; resale is a separate question. Paid features are not included. The AI starter kit needs production hardening.

Data & operation

You run the server. Configure every model, database and tool deliberately; a self-hosted workflow can still send data to cloud APIs. Budget for patching, backups, monitoring and access control.

Official source 1 · n8n.io ↗Official source 2 · raw.githubusercontent.com ↗Official source 3 · github.com ↗
Market suitabilityAvailability not verified

Local checks still required

Why this result?

Availability not verified

Country-specific sign-up, app-store access, local language support and billing are not verified. A translated website is not evidence of availability.

Choose the country where your business is registered. Coverage is researched for the six pilot markets; other countries remain unverified.

These are checks to complete, not a legal or tax clearance. Product compliance remains unverified until the exact edition and your circumstances are confirmed.

Official source ↗Source checked:
Compare the operating trade-offs
Compare the operating trade-offs
OptionWhere will it run?Setup responsibilityReference cost
ChatGPT BusinessProvider cloudAccount setup; no model serverUSD 20 / user / month, billed annually
Claude Team · StandardProvider cloudAccount setup; no model serverUSD 20 / seat / month, billed annually
Dify Cloud · ProfessionalProvider cloudWorkflow design requiredUSD 590 / workspace / year
Dify Community · self-hostedYour hardware / serverTechnical maintainer requiredNo Community licence fee · operations and models extra
Gemma 3 4B · OllamaYour hardware / serverTechnical maintainer requiredNo model licence fee · hardware and support extra
Google Workspace Business Standard · GeminiProvider cloudAccount setup; no model serverUSD 14 / user / month, one-year commitment
Microsoft 365 Copilot BusinessProvider cloudAccount setup; no model serverUSD 21 / user / month, paid yearly · add-on
n8n Cloud · StarterProvider cloudWorkflow design requiredEUR 20 / month, billed annually
n8n Community · self-hostedYour hardware / serverTechnical maintainer requiredNo Community licence fee · operations and models extra
Qwen3.5-9B · OllamaYour hardware / serverTechnical maintainer requiredNo model licence fee · hardware and support extra

How to choose ai models & agents

Start with one repeatable task and five realistic examples. Compare answer accuracy, correction time and total cost before committing. A simple rules-based workflow may be enough.

Keep a person in control of consequential actions such as sending messages, changing customer records or making payments. Test permissions, logs, failure recovery and approval steps.

Local hosting requires hardware, updates and maintenance. Verify where the model, embeddings, tools and logs run; a local interface connected to a cloud model still sends data off-device.

Are these hands-on rankings?

No. This is a selective, source-based comparison. Options are grouped by role and sorted alphabetically. Fit statements are editorial starting points, not benchmark results, security certification or paid rankings.

Will these work in my country and language?

Country-specific signup, app-store availability, billing, data residency and local-language quality have not been verified for this initial selection. Country selection exposes local checks; it does not approve any provider. Confirm current terms and test your own business language.

Does free software mean free AI?

No. Hardware, electricity, hosting, maintenance, model usage and connected service charges may dominate the licence cost. Our comparison is free; provider products may cost money.

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