Comparison
Belowdecks and ChatGPT compared point by point
ChatGPT is OpenAI’s assistant, which can also start tasks on a schedule or when a Gmail message arrives. With Belowdecks, our team installs AI agents for you and monitors their work. This page compares the two for a small business.
Two ways to hand work to AI
ChatGPT Business is OpenAI’s shared workspace for teams of 2 to 200 people. You chat with the assistant, hand it long tasks with Work and create agents shared by the team. ChatGPT can also work without anyone writing to it: scheduled tasks, tasks started by a new Gmail message, a Slack message or GitHub activity, and agents that run on a schedule or through an API call. Someone on the team builds, tests and monitors these tasks.
With Belowdecks, our team installs AI agents in your business that do the repetitive work, then monitors their work and adjusts them every month. An agent does a piece of work from start to finish, such as answering a quote request received by email. Before an important action, the agent waits for your go-ahead, and it asks your team when information is missing.
ChatGPT therefore suits the work your employees do with AI every day, and tasks that someone on the team sets up and monitors. Belowdecks suits a business that wants to hand a complete piece of work to agents built and monitored by a team.
ChatGPT and Belowdecks, line by line
The facts about ChatGPT come from OpenAI’s public pages and help center, checked on October 6, 2026. They concern ChatGPT Business unless stated otherwise.
What you get
- ChatGPT
- An assistant and agents for your team
- Belowdecks
- Agents installed and monitored by a team
Who builds and maintains it
- ChatGPT
- Your employees, task by task
- Belowdecks
- The Belowdecks team, from diagnostic to follow-up
What starts the work
- ChatGPT
- A message, a schedule, Gmail, Slack, GitHub, API
- Belowdecks
- An email, a schedule, another app, a new row in a list
Your go-ahead before an important action
- ChatGPT
- Permission per app, including “Always ask”
- Belowdecks
- Set up at installation to wait for your approval
Where approval happens
- ChatGPT
- In ChatGPT; the task may pause
- Belowdecks
- In your Belowdecks workspace, or from an email
When information is missing
- ChatGPT
- It asks the person in ChatGPT
- Belowdecks
- The agent asks your team and waits
Assistant for your customers
- ChatGPT
- Through the API only, billed separately
- Belowdecks
- Assistant on your site; the customer confirms the request
Where data is hosted
- ChatGPT
- Storage in Canada: new Enterprise customers
- Belowdecks
- Your Belowdecks workspace; region agreed at the diagnostic
AI bill
- ChatGPT
- Included in the seat; credits for agents
- Belowdecks
- Billed in your name by the AI provider
Monitoring the work
- ChatGPT
- Run history, agent analytics; audit on Enterprise
- Belowdecks
- A result for each task, a monthly report
Help and support
- ChatGPT
- Help center; interface available in French
- Belowdecks
- The Belowdecks team
Pricing structure
- ChatGPT
- Subscription per seat, two seats minimum
- Belowdecks
- From $449 a month, setup quoted separately
Choosing
The situation where each one fits best
Both options meet real needs, and many uses of ChatGPT have nothing to do with work to hand to agents.
ChatGPT fits better if
Your employees want to write, summarize, analyze and research with AI every day. The work stays internal, happens in Gmail or Slack, and someone on the team can set up and monitor a few scheduled or triggered tasks.
Belowdecks fits better if
You want to hand over a complete piece of work, from the request received by email or on your site to the finished work. Important actions must wait for your go-ahead, and our team monitors the agents’ work every month.
Common questions about Belowdecks and ChatGPT
We already have ChatGPT. Why add Belowdecks?
ChatGPT helps your employees with their work: writing, summarizing, analyzing, and running a few automatic tasks that someone on the team sets up and monitors, within the limits of their plan. With Belowdecks, a request comes in, the agent reads it, prepares what needs preparing and waits for your go-ahead before an important action. Our team sets up these agents and monitors their work every month.
You can keep both: your employees keep using ChatGPT, and the Belowdecks agents do the work you hand them.
Can ChatGPT handle incoming emails on its own?
Partly. On ChatGPT Business, a task can start when a new Gmail message arrives, filtered by sender or subject, with a cap of 30 runs per hour and 720 per day across all such tasks. Outlook is not among the documented triggers. An action that requires approval may pause the task, and a team member can have at most 10 active scheduled tasks.
With Belowdecks, an email arriving in a mailbox connected at installation, such as a shared mailbox, can start an agent. We set up the agent to prepare the work and ask your team for their go-ahead before an important action.
Can we offer ChatGPT to the customers on our website?
No ChatGPT plan offers a documented public assistant for website visitors, and OpenAI’s Services Agreement prohibits using ChatGPT to power services offered to third parties. Public GPTs are used inside ChatGPT, and custom GPTs will be retired on December 11, 2026. The path OpenAI provides is its API, billed separately: ChatKit provides the chat window, and the agent that answers is built with the Agents SDK.
With Belowdecks, the assistant is added to your site. The customer sees only their own conversation, confirms the summary of their request themselves and reads the privacy notice you write below the conversation.
Where is the data kept in each case?
On ChatGPT Business and Enterprise, OpenAI does not train its models on business data by default. Data storage in Canada is offered to new Enterprise customers, without model processing in Canada, and the pricing page states that Business does not offer data residency. With Belowdecks, your data is hosted in a region agreed at the diagnostic, which may be outside Quebec.
In both cases, the text read by the AI goes through its provider, which may process it outside Quebec. Your privacy impact assessment must take this into account.
Sources
The information about ChatGPT comes from OpenAI’s public pages and help center, checked on October 6, 2026: Business and Enterprise plans, scheduled and triggered tasks, workspace agents, data residency, Business models and limits, retirement of custom GPTs and ChatKit. ChatGPT’s features and prices change often, so check them before you decide.
ChatGPT and OpenAI are trademarks of OpenAI. Belowdecks is not affiliated with OpenAI.
First call
Find out whether some of your work suits agents
A free 20-minute call to describe the work that takes up your time. We will tell you whether Belowdecks fits, or whether ChatGPT is enough.