The short answer
Gemini Enterprise, Glean and Microsoft 365 Copilot solve overlapping problems from three different starting points, and the right pick usually follows your existing stack rather than a feature matrix. Gemini Enterprise is a Google Cloud agent platform with strong search inside it, from $21 per seat per month annually plus consumption overages. Microsoft 365 Copilot is $30 per user per month as an add-on to a qualifying Microsoft plan and is strongest inside Microsoft content. Glean is the independent, connector-first specialist and publishes no pricing. If you are neutral on cloud and want the cited cross-app answer without a platform to run, a focused tool is usually cheaper and faster to stand up than all three.
Last updated: July 2026. Prices verified against vendor documentation this month.
Most enterprise AI search shortlists in 2026 come down to these three, and the comparison is harder than it looks because they are not really the same kind of product. One is a cloud platform, one is a productivity suite add-on, one is an independent specialist. Comparing them feature by feature produces a matrix that hides the actual decision.
The actual decision is about gravity. Where does your content live, who owns the admin surface, and are you buying a search answer or a platform strategy? Work through those and the shortlist usually collapses to two options fast.
How the three actually differ
| Dimension | Gemini Enterprise | Microsoft 365 Copilot | Glean |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Google Cloud agentic platform with enterprise search inside | AI assistant layered across Microsoft 365 apps | Independent cross-app enterprise search and work assistant |
| Published price | From $21 per seat per month annual (Business), $30 Standard, plus consumption overages | $30 per user per month annual add-on, requires a qualifying base plan | None published. Sales-quoted only |
| Strongest inside | Google Cloud and Workspace content, plus broad third-party connectors | SharePoint, OneDrive, Outlook, Teams. Deep Graph integration | Cloud-neutral. Connector breadth is the product |
| Admin burden | GCP project, billing account, IAM roles, data stores, connector auth | Microsoft 365 admin center. Lowest if you already run M365 | Vendor-guided deployment, typically a structured rollout |
| Scope beyond search | Prebuilt agents, no-code agent builder, multimodal assistant | In-app drafting, summarizing, meeting recap, Copilot Studio agents | Assistant and agents on top of the search index |
| Buy it when | You are a Google Cloud shop with an agent roadmap | Your content and your workday both live in Microsoft | You are cloud-neutral and want the specialist |
Gemini Enterprise: the platform play
Google launched Gemini Enterprise on October 9, 2025, built on the product previously called Agentspace. Google's documentation describes it as "an intranet search, AI assistant, and agentic platform" with "permissions-aware access to enterprise information." The connector list is genuinely broad, covering SharePoint Online, OneDrive, Outlook, Teams, Jira, Confluence, ServiceNow, Salesforce, Slack, Notion, Box, Dropbox, Zendesk and dozens more alongside the native Google apps.
The security posture is a real strength and worth conceding clearly. Gemini Enterprise integrates with VPC Service Controls, supports Customer Managed Encryption Keys with external key manager and HSM options, and Google documents that it deletes user-requested data within 60 days. For a regulated buyer already standardized on Google Cloud, that checklist is hard to beat.
The cost you have to model carefully is not the seat. It is that Gemini Enterprise is a Google Cloud product, so it needs a project, a billing account, IAM roles, data store configuration and connector credentials with scheduled identity syncs. Google is explicit that billing runs on "a subscription-seat basis, including potential consumption-based charges for usage that exceeds your subscription limits," which means two SKU families on the invoice. We break the tiers down on the Gemini Enterprise pricing page.
Microsoft 365 Copilot: the incumbency play
Copilot is $30 per user per month on an annual commitment, sold as an add-on that requires a qualifying Microsoft 365 base plan. That framing matters: the sticker is not the total, because the base plan sits underneath it. Microsoft also complicated the picture in 2026 with M365 E7, generally available May 1, 2026, which bundles Copilot inside a $99 per user per month plan. And Copilot Chat is included free with eligible subscriptions, while Copilot Business runs roughly $18 to $21 per user per month for smaller organizations.
Copilot's advantage is gravity. If your documents are in SharePoint, your conversations are in Teams and your mail is in Outlook, Copilot already has permissioned access to all of it through the Microsoft Graph, with no connector project at all. Nothing else on this list starts from that position inside Microsoft content.
Its limitation is the mirror image. The further your knowledge sits from Microsoft, the more work it takes to reach. If half your institutional memory is in Notion, Confluence, Slack and Salesforce, you are extending Copilot to get there rather than getting it for free. Our Microsoft Copilot alternative page goes deeper on where that boundary bites.
Glean: the specialist play
Glean defined this category and remains the reference implementation of connector-first, cloud-neutral enterprise search with an assistant on top. If you have a genuinely mixed stack, Google Workspace and Slack and Jira and Salesforce and SharePoint all at once, being neutral is an architectural advantage rather than a marketing line.
The honest friction is commercial. Glean publishes no pricing. Reported figures put it in the tens of dollars per user per month with seat minimums in the 50 to 100 range, but you cannot verify that from the vendor, and we will not state a Glean price as fact. Every evaluation therefore starts with a sales conversation and a structured deployment. That is fine for a 2,000-person company with a procurement team, and it is a lot of process for a 150-person one. The Glean alternative comparison covers that trade.
Which one should you actually pick?
Four questions get you most of the way there.
Where does 70% of your content live? If the honest answer is SharePoint and Teams, start with Copilot and measure whether the remaining 30% actually matters to daily work. If the answer is genuinely spread across five vendors, the Microsoft-native option is structurally disadvantaged and a neutral tool wins.
Who owns cloud operations? Gemini Enterprise assumes someone owns a Google Cloud project. If that person does not exist, you are not buying a $21 seat, you are buying a $21 seat plus a hiring decision or a reallocation.
Are you buying agents or answers? Both Google and Microsoft are selling an agent story, and both agent builders are capable. But agents introduce their own governance surface, and once tools can act rather than only read, you need controls against prompt injection and over-broad tool access that most teams have not yet designed. If your near-term problem is that people cannot find things, buying the agent platform first is solving the second problem before the first.
How fast do you need it working? Platform rollouts run in quarters. A focused search tool runs in days. That gap is often worth more than any line in a feature matrix, because the value only starts when people actually use it.
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemini Enterprise better than Microsoft 365 Copilot?
Neither is universally better, they are optimized for different content gravity. Copilot is stronger inside Microsoft 365 because it reaches SharePoint, OneDrive, Outlook and Teams through the Graph with no connector work. Gemini Enterprise is stronger if you are on Google Cloud or need its broader third-party connector list and its agent builder. Pick on where your content lives.
How much does Microsoft 365 Copilot cost compared to Gemini Enterprise?
Copilot is $30 per user per month on an annual commitment and requires a qualifying Microsoft 365 base plan underneath it. Gemini Enterprise starts at $21 per seat per month annually for the Business edition and $30 for Standard, with separate consumption overage SKUs for usage past your quota. Compare totals, not stickers: Copilot needs a base plan, Gemini Enterprise needs cloud operations.
Does Glean publish pricing?
No. Glean does not publish pricing on its site, and every quote comes through sales. Public reporting suggests tens of dollars per user per month with seat minimums around 50 to 100 users, but that is unverified secondhand information. Treat any specific Glean price you see online as unconfirmed until it comes from Glean directly.
Do all three respect document permissions?
All three claim permission-aware behavior and all three implement it, but the mechanisms differ and the difference is operational. Copilot rides Microsoft Graph permissions natively. Gemini Enterprise runs scheduled identity syncs, configurable from every 30 minutes to every 7 days, which defines how quickly a revoked permission stops affecting results. Ask every vendor how fast a revocation propagates, not just whether ACLs are honored.
What is a simpler alternative to all three?
A focused enterprise search tool that does one job completely. InSearch searches Drive, Slack, Notion, Confluence, Gmail, Jira and Salesforce in a single query, returns a written answer with inline citations to the exact source documents, and enforces item-level permissions at query time. One transparent per-seat price, no base plan requirement, no cloud project, no consumption overage line.
Can I run more than one of these?
Companies do, usually by accident rather than design, and it is expensive. Paying for Copilot and a cross-app search tool can be rational if Copilot handles in-app drafting while the search tool handles finding things across every system. Paying for two platforms with overlapping agent builders rarely is. Decide which layer each product owns before you sign the second contract.
The shortest path to a decision
Run a real query test before you read another comparison table. Take ten questions your team genuinely asked last month, the ones that ended in someone tapping a colleague on the shoulder, and put them through each candidate against your own content. Score two things: did it find the right source, and can you click through and verify the citation. Feature matrices do not survive contact with your actual corpus, and this test takes an afternoon.
InSearch is built to win that specific test. One search across every app your team uses, a written answer with inline citations you can open and check, and item-level permissions inherited from each source and enforced at query time so a company-wide rollout stays safe. One per-seat price, no base plan, no cloud project, no overage SKU. Type one of your ten questions into the box above and see whether the answer holds up.