Choosing ChatGPT Team: From AI-Confidant to Trusted Colleague

Migrating to ChatGPT Team reshaped my digital workflow—less friend, more colleague. Here’s what I learned from shifting accounts, data, and mindset.

Rob Hoeijmakers

09 May 2025 • 3 min read

How to go from multiple ChatGPT Plus accounts to a consolidated ChatGPT Team account.

Recently, my business partner and I migrated from our individual ChatGPT Plus accounts to a consolidated ChatGPT Team workspace. Our motivations were straightforward: improved collaboration, streamlined billing, and—critically—enhanced data privacy assurances.

The process, however, provided valuable insights into what such migrations entail, particularly regarding contractual clarity and data management.

Why We Decided to Migrate

Initially, the appeal of better cooperation and the simplicity of a single, annual billing cycle were major factors. Yet, privacy was perhaps the most significant driver. With personal ChatGPT Plus accounts, data privacy assurances are minimal, as user conversations could potentially be used to train OpenAI's models.

Migrating to a business-oriented ChatGPT Team account provided a distinct advantage: clear contractual guarantees from OpenAI that our data would not be used for model training. Additionally, having a formal business contract through a dedicated corporate entity added confidence and professional legitimacy to our interactions.

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ChatGPT Plus is designed for individual use, with the contract held personally and data potentially used to train models unless this is disabled in settings. It offers no admin controls or team-level data oversight, making it ideal for personal productivity and experimentation. ChatGPT Team, on the other hand, is intended for professional or organisational use, with the contract held by the business. It includes team seat management, admin roles, and most importantly, data is not used to train models by default. It offers enhanced privacy, collaboration tools, and priority support—making it the appropriate choice when working with sensitive or proprietary information, or when compliance and team governance are required.

Expectations vs. Reality

We assumed our personal data, custom instructions, and chat histories from ChatGPT Plus would smoothly integrate into the Team workspace. Instead, we encountered a reality check: the Team environment started completely fresh, requiring manual migration of essential content.

Another unexpected discovery was the billing structure: the personal workspace and the professional workspace remain distinct, each billed separately. While logical in hindsight, it initially felt counterintuitive and increased our anticipated expenses.

You need to cancel the Plus account yourself, I advise to use a grace period.

Practical Considerations in Migration

The migration required manually transferring our most valuable memories and custom instructions, emphasizing the importance of dedicating sufficient time and planning for the transition.

One practical recommendation for anyone considering such a migration is to implement a grace period where the personal and team accounts overlap. This dual subscription, while seemingly expensive, safeguards against losing essential data and allows time for a careful transition.

Importantly, this overlap period mitigates a privacy risk: once your ChatGPT Plus subscription reverts to a free tier, there's a possibility that historical conversations might become available for AI training—something explicitly prevented by the business-oriented Team account.

Psychological Shifts: From Intimate Companion to Professional Colleague

An unexpected yet insightful outcome was the psychological transition. Over time, I'd inadvertently formed a more personal, even intimate connection with ChatGPT, perceiving it as a trusted confidant. Shifting to a clearly delineated business workspace helped recalibrate my perception: ChatGPT evolved into a reliable, professional colleague, distinct from personal engagement.

This transition proved healthy, clarifying boundaries between personal and professional roles, reinforcing the value of separating private reflections from professional interactions, and ensuring both privacy and purpose were respected.

Looking Ahead: Privacy as a Priority

While ChatGPT Team addressed our immediate business needs, I still hold out hope for AI solutions offering deeper privacy guarantees—tools where I can comfortably share more personal reflections.

Recognizing that OpenAI’s primary focus with its business offerings is collaborative productivity rather than personal intimacy helps manage expectations effectively.

Key Lessons Learned

From this migration experience, several key lessons emerged:

Privacy Assurance: Business-oriented ChatGPT Team accounts offer explicit privacy guarantees, critical for sensitive business interactions.
Manual Migration: Prepare to invest time and resources into manually transferring crucial data.
Billing Clarity: Understand and anticipate separate billing for personal and professional workspaces.
Grace Period: Consider overlapping subscriptions temporarily to protect your data integrity and privacy.
Psychological Adjustment: Be aware of emotional attachments and actively embrace the professional shift.

Sharing these insights, I hope to guide others through their own digital migrations—emphasizing privacy, cooperation, and clarity.

Update, two days after new ChatGPT subscription I got to see a wizard on the web version offering to transfer the chat history and GPT's: