This is the comparison people find uncomfortable, so it is worth being precise about what is and is not being compared.
An AI subscription buys you a model. OYA does not sell you a model — it is **software you run on a model you choose**, and the model's bill, if it has one, stays yours. So the honest reading of the table below is not "this replaces that". It is: *here is what the subscription costs over five years, and here is what the software costs once.*
What the vendors publish
Claude Pro (Anthropic) — read 2026-08-21 and again 2026-10-12: $200 a year billed up front (the page prints it as *"$17 Per month with annual subscription discount"*), or $20 a month billed monthly. A free tier exists; Team standard seats are $20 per seat/month billed annually, $25 monthly.
Claude Max — read 2026-08-21 and again 2026-10-12: from $100/month for the 5× usage tier; the 20× tier costs more.
Microsoft 365 Copilot — read 2026-08-19 and again 2026-10-12: Business Standard with Copilot $23.50 per user/month paid yearly; Business Premium with Copilot $32.00 per user/month paid yearly.
The arithmetic, labeled as arithmetic
Published figure × 60 months, one seat, at the cheapest published billing.
| monthly | five years | |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Max (5× tier) | $100 | $6,000 |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot (Business Standard) | $23.50 | $1,410 |
| Claude Pro, billed yearly ($200 a year) | $16.67 | $1,000 |
| OYA | — | $249, once |
What OYA is
Software that answers to you. You run it on a machine you control and point it at a model you choose — local, or an API key you hold. It counts every outside connection, so "does this thing phone home" is a question with an answer on screen rather than a promise in a policy. And it connects to every other Ownware tool you own.
Who should stay where they are
Stay on a subscription if the model is what you are buying. Claude Pro and Claude Max are access to Anthropic's models, and OYA is not a model and cannot be one. If you want the frontier model with nothing to run and nothing to maintain, pay for the subscription — that is a fair trade and this guide will not argue with it.
Stay with Microsoft 365 Copilot if the value is Copilot sitting inside Word, Excel and Teams on accounts you already pay for.
OYA is for the case where you want the software to be yours, on hardware you hold, with the model as a choice you can change.
The two links this guide owes you
OYA is $249, once, with the source. Open the demo and watch the connection counter while you use it.
Try the Own Your AI (OYA) demo ↗Live, on sample data, no sign-up.