An SMB's AI seat costs ₹0 to US$21 a month; the enterprise list is US$30
What Microsoft, Google and Zoho charged for the AI layer inside software a small Indian firm already buys, September 2026, and where the large firm still wins.
The original version of this piece listed nine AI tools and argued that AI is not only for big companies. In 2023 that was an argument. By September 2026 it is a price list, and the question a 20-person Indian company asks is concrete: if we switch on AI in the software we already pay for, do we pay more or less per seat than a bank does? We read three vendors’ price pages to answer it.
01The price list now favours the small buyer
Microsoft launched Microsoft 365 Copilot Business on 1 December 2025 at US$21 a user a month for organisations with a Microsoft 365 Business plan and fewer than 300 users, with the same capabilities as the US$30 Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on sold above that size.1 Google puts Gemini in Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Meet and Drive inside Workspace Business Standard at ₹1,080 a user a month on an annual plan; Business Starter at ₹270 has Gemini in Gmail and the Gemini app, with limited in-app AI.3 4 Zoho says Zia Agents in its CRM are free, need no extra CRM licences, and include up to 30 million tokens a month on Zoho-hosted models.5
The AI layer costs a small firm nothing on Zoho or Google, and US$9 a seat less than an enterprise pays on Microsoft
Extra US$ list price per user per month for the AI layer, on top of the base licence, September 2026
Source: Microsoft Tech Community; Google Workspace India pricing; Zoho Zia Agents pricing FAQ; TechBag Microsoft Copilot intel page · as of 30 September 2026 · base licences differ and are not included; Microsoft prices are annual-commitment list
02Where the big firm still wins
The assistant drafts from what it can read: the mailbox, the shared drive, the CRM record. A large firm has years of structured records and an IT team to connect them; a small firm often has a sales pipeline in a spreadsheet and contracts in someone’s inbox. The licence is now cheaper for the small buyer, so the gap is the data and the hours to organise it. The original’s survey figures on leads and revenue from AI could not be traced to a current source and are dropped.
03Buying it in India
TechBag’s Microsoft Copilot page lists the US$30 add-on at about ₹2,500 a user a month.2 At the same ratio, Copilot Business is about ₹1,750, so ten seats cost about ₹17,500 a month before 18% GST, ₹20,650 with it: TechBag arithmetic, not a quote. Software billed from abroad to a GST-registered business is taxed at 18% under reverse charge.7 Prompts that carry customers’ names and orders are personal data under the DPDP Act; the Rules were notified on 13 November 2025 and the security-safeguard duty applies from 13 May 2027.8 Ask each vendor where prompts are processed: Zoho runs its own models in data centres that include India.6
Sources
- Microsoft Tech Community, Introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot Business (US$21 a user a month; fewer than 300 users; available 1 December 2025) — November 2025
- TechBag, Microsoft Copilot intel page (Microsoft 365 Copilot US$30, about ₹2,500 a user a month, M365 licence required) — version of 30 September 2026
- Google Workspace India pricing (Business Starter ₹270, Business Standard ₹1,080 a user a month, annual plan; Gemini features by plan) — undated page
- TechBag, Google Workspace intel page (Business Starter ₹270, Business Standard ₹1,080) — version of 30 September 2026
- Zoho, Zia Agents in Zoho CRM (agents free; up to 30 million tokens a month on Zoho-hosted LLMs; no separate CRM licences) — undated page
- Zoho press release: Zia LLM, prebuilt agents and Agent Studio; data centres in the US, India and Europe (Bengaluru) — 17 July 2025
- India Briefing, Digital services in India: OIDAR, GST applicability and reverse charge — updated 29 September 2023
- Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025: notification and phased commencement — notified 13 November 2025
Disclosure. TechBag is a software reseller: it earns a margin when a reader buys through it, including from vendors named here. The analysis is TechBag’s own; no vendor paid for or saw this piece before publication. Facts are labelled reported, TechBag count or our view.
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