ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot all have free plans that can draft client programmes, exercise swaps and check-in messages, so start with the one you already use. A $20-a-month plan pays once limits cost you more time than the fee, about 40 minutes a month at $30 an hour. Keep client health details out of every free plan.
Free plans are consumer products, so the useful question for a coach is not which one is cleverest but which job, with what data. Drafting a four-week block from a generic profile suits any of them. Pasting in a client's injury history suits none, and paying for a personal plan doesn't change that. Workout apps that build a plan for one person's own training solve a different problem from yours: you write for several clients, under your name, with their data in your hands.
What the four free plans include for a coach
Vendors publish few numbers for free tiers, so the table records what each page said when I read it in October 2026. Free limits change often. Treat this as a snapshot and re-read the pages before you decide.
| Free plan | What the vendor's page lists | Saved set-up for your house style | What the vendor says about your chats |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Unlimited text chats (subject to abuse guardrails), with limited uploads, image creation and deep research, and limited memory | Projects listed as available on Free | The comparison table has a row 'Content is used to train our models' that reads 'Opt-out available' on Free, Go and Plus |
| Claude | Web search, creating files, running code and connecting apps; limits reset on a rolling five-hour window, with no fixed message count | Up to five Projects; confirm that project instructions are included on Free before relying on them | Chats are used to improve Claude only if you allow it in the Model Improvement setting, plus a few cases such as safety flags |
| Gemini | Image generation and editing, Deep Research, Gemini Live, Canvas and Gemini Notebook on a lighter model; no daily figures given | Gems (becoming a skill from November 2026) | With Keep Activity on, chats can be used to train Google's models and a sample is read by human reviewers |
| Copilot, personal Microsoft account | Microsoft publishes no free-tier usage figures | Not listed on the pages I read | Privacy FAQ: conversation activity can be used for model training unless you opt out, and is stored for 18 months by default |
The word 'limited' hides the number a coach cares about: how many drafts fit in one programming session. Claude's page says only that limits reset on a rolling five-hour window. Google's says AI Plus gives twice the usage of Free and AI Pro four times, which tells you free is the smallest allowance without saying how big it is. You have to measure it yourself, and the limit test further down shows how.
The step up is smaller than many trainers assume. Google AI Plus is $4.99 a month and ChatGPT Go is $8 (its page says it may include ads). The standard individual plans cost about $20: ChatGPT Plus $20, Google AI Pro $19.99, Claude Pro $20 monthly or $17 a month on annual billing, and Microsoft 365 Premium $19.99, which replaced Copilot Pro as Microsoft's consumer plan. All are USD list prices from the pages above.
Which to try first depends on where your working files already live. If your client list and invoices sit in a Google account, Gemini is closest to hand. If you pay for a Microsoft 365 business plan, Copilot Chat comes with the licence and sits behind your work login. Claude's free plan can create files and run code, so it can hand back a spreadsheet or a document. ChatGPT's page lists Projects on the free plan, and a Project holds your saved instructions so you don't retype your house style each session. I couldn't find a published test that ranks the four for exercise programming, and I'd distrust any ranking that doesn't say how the programmes were judged.
Where free plans stop being safe for a coach
A client's injuries, conditions, medication, pregnancy or postnatal status, surgery history, blood pressure, body weight and body measurements are the details that make a chat transcript risky. They are also what a good programme normally starts from. Health information gets extra protection under data-protection law such as the GDPR, and the vendors' own pages show why a free plan is the wrong place for it.
- ChatGPT. The pricing table lists training on your content with an opt-out on Free, Go and Plus alike, so a personal plan starts from 'used unless you switch it off'. ChatGPT's Temporary Chat is kept for up to 30 days.
- Claude. Anthropic's privacy pages say chats are used to improve Claude only if you allow it, and in a few other cases such as conversations flagged for safety review. If you allow it, de-identified data can be kept for up to five years in training pipelines. Deleted chats leave back-end storage within 30 days, and Incognito chats are not used to improve Claude.
- Gemini. Google's privacy hub says that with Keep Activity on, chats are used to improve its services, including training generative AI models, and human reviewers can read a subset, kept for up to three years. Its advice is not to enter data that is confidential or that you wouldn't want a reviewer to see. With the setting off, chats are still held for 72 hours.
- Copilot. Microsoft's privacy FAQ for Copilot says signed-in users can opt out of their conversation activity being used for model training, and that opting out covers future conversations. Conversation activity is stored for 18 months by default. The FAQ also notes that an updated Copilot app has been available since 18 August 2026, so check that the settings it describes match the app you use.
Paying $20 for a personal plan changes the limits, not this position. ChatGPT's table gives Plus the same opt-out wording, and Anthropic's page describes one setting for its consumer plans. What changes the position is a contract plus a setting you control, not a higher price on the same product. The options are ChatGPT Business or Claude Team (list prices of $20 to $25 a seat a month, two seats minimum, so $40 to $50 a month for a one-person business, and neither trains on business content by default), a Microsoft 365 business plan, or coaching software with its own data terms.
Of the chat options, the Microsoft route costs least. Business Basic is $7 a user a month on annual billing and includes Copilot Chat. Microsoft says Copilot Chat used under a work account is covered by its data protection addendum and that prompts and responses aren't used to train its foundation models. Its web-search queries are handled separately, so keep names out of anything you ask it to look up.
A contract is one requirement, not permission. You also need your clients' agreement to how their information is used, and your own adviser's view on the rest. The GDPR checklist for personal trainers lists the questions to settle, and the tutorial on whether ChatGPT trains on client data compares business and free plans in more detail.
The working rule is easy to apply if you decide before you type. Here are three requests a trainer might be tempted to paste, and what to type instead.
| What you might paste | Verdict | What to type instead |
|---|---|---|
| '[first name], 34, knee surgery in March, on blood pressure tablets, wants to lose 8 kg' | Keep out of every free plan | 'Beginner, three days a week, 45 minutes, dumbbells and a bench, goal: general fitness' |
| A spreadsheet of one named client's last 12 weeks of loads and body weight | Keep out: named, personal and partly health data | A blank template with columns for exercise, sets, reps, load and effort from 1 to 10 |
| A voice note from a client describing a painful shoulder | Keep out, and don't run it through a free transcription tool either | 'Cue wording for a landmine press, eight words or fewer' |
A brief the free plans can safely see
Use a profile card: six fields that describe a type of client rather than a person. The goal as a category (general strength, fitness, muscle, a sport), training age in months, days and minutes available, equipment as a closed list, dislikes as movements, and the structure rules you want. Everything else about the client stays in your own records. The prompt below is a compact version; the longer programme template has its own tutorial.
You are helping a personal trainer draft a template for a four-week strength block. Do not give medical advice.
Client profile (a type of client, not a person):
- Goal category: general strength and fitness
- Training age: about 6 months of regular lifting
- Availability: 3 sessions a week, 50 minutes each
- Equipment (use only this): full commercial gym
- Dislikes: burpees, running intervals
Rules:
- Two full-body sessions, A and B, alternating A/B/A then B/A/B
- 5 or 6 exercises a session, 2 to 4 sets, rep ranges not single numbers
- Progression: add load when every set reaches the top of the range, otherwise repeat the weight
- Week 4 is lighter: about 70% of week 3 volume
- For every exercise give two swaps: one machine option and one bodyweight or dumbbell option
- Write a cue of at most eight words for each exercise
- Mark anything that needs a coach's judgement as [COACH CHECK]
Output a table for Session A, week 1: Exercise | Sets x reps | Rest | Cue | Swap 1 | Swap 2Here is a draft in the shape the prompt asks for. It is illustrative, written to show what to check rather than copied from any one tool.
| Exercise | Sets x reps | Rest | Cue | Swap 1 | Swap 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goblet squat | 3 x 8-10 | 90 s | Chest tall, knees over toes | Leg press | Box squat to bench |
| Dumbbell bench press | 3 x 8-10 | 90 s | Wrists stacked over elbows | Machine chest press | Raised-hand push-up |
| One-arm dumbbell row | 3 x 10-12 a side | 60 s | Pull the elbow to the hip | Seated cable row | Band row |
| Romanian deadlift | 3 x 8-10 | 90 s | Hips back, flat back | Back extension | Kettlebell hip hinge |
| Dumbbell shoulder press | 2 x 10-12 | 60 s | Ribs down, press up | Machine shoulder press | Landmine press |
| Plank | 3 x 30 s | 45 s | Squeeze glutes, breathe | Dead bug | Incline plank |
This is the part that takes your judgement, and where the 15 minutes of editing go.
- The session-length sum. That is 17 working sets. At about 2.5 minutes a set including rest (my rule of thumb; use your own rest times), that is 42.5 minutes, plus an 8-minute warm-up: 50.5 minutes in a 50-minute slot. Drop one set of rows and you land near 48.
- The swaps. A leg press and a cable row exist only if that gym has them. A closed equipment list in the brief stops the draft assuming kit.
- The cues. 'Flat back' on a deadlift can be misread by a beginner. Replace the draft's wording with the words you actually use; your cues are part of your voice.
- The progression line. It was flagged [COACH CHECK], which is the right behaviour. Decide it yourself and state it once.
- Any 'why'. If the draft adds a reason such as 'builds resilience', delete it unless you can defend it to the client.
Keep the personal layer in your own records
The AI draft is a skeleton. The adjustments for a real client go in your own file afterwards, in a notes app or in coaching software whose data terms you've read. A line in your record might read: 'Block 3: squat swap 1, shoulder press replaced by landmine press, reasons in intake record.' The reason lives in the intake record and the chat tool never saw it.
That is why the brief asks for two swaps per exercise rather than telling the tool about injuries. A swap list lets you substitute in thirty seconds when a client's situation changes. If you ever need to share more than a profile card, stripping identifying details first is a separate skill with its own limits, and I'd still keep health details out. Tell clients how you use AI tools in your privacy notice or intake form, and keep that wording consistent with what you do.
Three ways a free draft misleads a coach
Kit the client doesn't own. A draft for a home client arrived with a cable row and a leg press because the brief said only 'gym'. The fix is a closed list. Before: 'Equipment: gym'. After: 'Use only: adjustable dumbbells (2 to 24 kg), a flat bench, one resistance band and a pull-up bar. No machines, no barbell.'
Volume creep. Left alone, drafts stack seven or eight exercises into a session. The session-length sum above catches it in ten seconds: sets times 2.5 minutes, plus warm-up, against the slot you sell.
Confident reasons. Drafts explain themselves in an authoritative tone, and a client may repeat what you forward. Keep rationales to what you can defend, and keep nutrition and supplement advice out of programme drafts, since that has limits of its own.
Eight clients on a free plan: where the month's hours go
Take a solo trainer with eight clients, each on a new four-week block every month (an illustration; use your own counts). Writing a block from scratch, or copying and editing the last one, takes about 40 minutes. With a free plan it takes about 25: three minutes to fill in the profile card and paste the prompt, two for the draft, fifteen to edit it and run the session-length sum, and five to add the personal layer in your own records. Weekly check-in texts drop from about three minutes to about one and a half when the draft carries the shape and you add the detail.
| Monthly job | How many | Before AI | With a free plan | Saved |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New four-week blocks | 8 | 40 min each: 320 min | 25 min each: 200 min | 120 min |
| Weekly check-in drafts | 32 | 3 min each: 96 min | 1.5 min each: 48 min | 48 min |
| Total | 416 min | 248 min | 168 min (2.8 hours) |
At $30 an hour that is $84 a month, and the free plan collects all of it. A paid plan has to earn its $20 on top of that, from time the free plan would otherwise cost you. So the question is never what the paid plan can do in general but what free fails to do in your month. If you want to see what your own hour is worth, modelling session packs gives the figure your prices imply.
Count the prompts as well. Eight blocks at three prompts each (draft, swaps, a client-friendly version) is 24 prompts in one sitting, plus about 32 more for check-ins across the month. If your free plan stops you at 15 in a sitting, that is the cost to measure.
The check-in editing is where your own voice goes back in. The prompt: 'Draft a three-sentence check-in text for a client who completed 2 of 3 planned sessions this week. Warm, direct, no guilt. Ask one question about next week. Use [first name] and [your name] as placeholders.' An illustrative draft comes back as: 'Hi [first name], great effort getting two sessions in this week! Don't worry about missing the third, life happens and consistency matters more than perfection. What does next week look like for you, and which three days could we lock in? [your name]'. I'd cut it to one question, replace 'life happens', which reads as dismissive to some clients, with a specific compliment, and add the real detail myself. The placeholders mean the draft never held a name or a health detail.
A limit test and a two-week log before you pay
On a quiet afternoon, run the same sequence of prompts in each free tool: the draft, the swap list, a client-friendly version, then three realistic edits. Carry on until you finish your usual batch or a tool says stop, and write down what happened. The log below uses invented numbers (Tool A, B and C) to show how to fill it in.
| Tool | Prompts before a limit message | Wait until usable | Kept your table format? | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tool A | 24, batch finished | None | Yes | Stay free |
| Tool B | 14 | About five hours | Yes | Finish batches in Tool A |
| Tool C | 20 | About two hours | Lost the table after edit three | Tighten the prompt, retest |
Then keep a four-column log for two weeks: minutes saved on each programme, times a limit blocked you, edits needed per draft, and any health detail you typed by mistake. The last column should stay at zero. Repeat the limit test after a month, because vendors change limits quietly and your result will age.
Four tests that justify $20 a month
The minutes test. Divide the fee by the value of your hour. The result is how many minutes a month the plan must save beyond what free already does.
| What an hour of your time is worth | Minutes a month a $20 plan must save |
|---|---|
| $20 | 60 |
| $30 | 40 |
| $40 | 30 |
| $60 | 20 |
| $80 | 15 |
Count only time free really costs you: waiting for a limit to reset, moving a half-finished draft between tools, re-explaining your house style because it was forgotten. If those add up to fewer minutes than your row, stay free.
The one-sitting test. Can the longest batch you actually do, say every client's next block, finish in one go on the free plan? Two limit messages in a sitting, or a wait of hours, breaks the habit that makes AI worth using. A cheaper step may be enough: at $4.99 a month, Google AI Plus pays back in about ten minutes at $30 an hour.
The files test. If you want the tool to read your own reference material, such as a 40-page exercise library or your standard progressions, check the upload allowance. ChatGPT's page lists 'limited messages with uploads' on Free. Upload your own documents, never client records.
The data test. If a job needs client health detail, no personal plan passes, free or paid. The choice is then a business plan with a data agreement, a Microsoft 365 seat at $7, or coaching software with its own terms, plus your clients' agreement. If you can't justify those, the job stays manual.
When trainer software beats a chat window
An AI chat plan drafts; it does not deliver. A coaching platform holds the programme, shows it to the client in an app, records their logs, carries the messages and takes payment. Which of the two you need depends mostly on how many clients you serve remotely. Prices below come from each vendor's page in October 2026.
| Platform | Free way in | Paid prices listed | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Everfit | Starter is free forever for up to 5 clients, with a workout builder and a library of 1,000+ exercises | Pro on monthly billing: $19 for 5 clients, $29 for 10, $49 for 20, $75 for 35, $95 for 50; annual billing saves 16% | 'AI-powered Smart Response' is a messaging feature on Pro and Studio, not a programme builder |
| TrueCoach | 14-day free trial with no card; clients use it free | Starter $26.34 a month (up to 5 active clients), Standard $57.99 (up to 20), Pro $136.99 (up to 50), all billed annually | The page shows annual prices only |
| Trainerize | Basic plan is free, for one client; 30-day trial | First paid tier about $9 to $10 a month, with an 'AI Workout Builder' listed on it | The page shows two sets of figures for several tiers, so confirm at sign-up |
Everfit's page works out at $3.80 a client at five clients and $1.90 at fifty. TrueCoach's top-of-band prices come to $5.27, $2.90 and $2.74 a client. Say you value an hour at $30. Everfit's 20-client tier at $49 pays for itself if the platform saves 98 minutes a month across the whole list, about five minutes a client. Time one week of your manual routine (sending programmes, collecting logs, chasing check-ins) before buying. If it comes to more than five minutes per client per month, software will probably pay, and for a remote list of more than five clients I'd buy the platform before the premium AI plan.
Under five clients, Everfit's free tier already covers the workout builder and the exercise library, while the chat plan keeps drafting. The tutorial on AI software for scheduling, check-ins and billing compares what each of those jobs needs. One caution: platforms that store intake forms and health notes are a data decision too. Read their data terms before loading anything sensitive.
Three coaching set-ups, three answers
A solo trainer with eight in-person clients. This is the example above. The free chat plan saves 2.8 hours a month and a spreadsheet holds the logs. Spend nothing until the limit test shows a paid plan would save you more than 40 minutes. If admin rather than drafting is the problem, the first purchase belongs to software, not to a bigger AI plan.
An online coach with 25 clients. Writing 25 blocks a month at 15 minutes saved each is 375 minutes, or 6.25 hours, worth $187.50 at $30 an hour. If free holds, it collects that. But 75 prompts in a batch may meet a free limit, so run the limit test with 75, not 24; if free stops short, the $20 plan earns its fee many times over. The platform comes first: Everfit's 35-client tier is $75, so tools cost $95 a month. If each client pays, say, $150 a month, that is $3,750 of revenue and tools at about 2.5% of it. The health forms live in the platform and the chat plan sees only profile cards.
A small-group coach running 12-person classes. Class plans, scaling options and social posts need no personal data at all. Three class plans a week at 45 minutes each, cut to 20 with a draft, saves 75 minutes a week, about 325 minutes a month. The free plan is enough, and any money goes on booking software rather than AI, with health questionnaires staying in that software.
Questions trainers ask before upgrading from free
Is the free ChatGPT plan enough to write client programmes?
For a handful of clients, usually yes. The pricing page lists unlimited text chats and Projects on Free, with uploads, image creation and deep research limited. Plain-text drafting is rarely what runs out first. Run one real programming session before deciding, and keep client health details out whichever plan you use.
Can I type a client's injury or medical condition into a free AI plan?
No. Free plans are consumer products: ChatGPT's table lists training on your content with an opt-out, Gemini's Keep Activity setting allows human review of a sample of chats, and Microsoft's privacy FAQ says Copilot data is used unless you opt out. Describe a generic profile instead and add the personal changes yourself afterwards.
Does paying $20 a month make client health data safe to share?
No. A personal paid plan changes limits, not the data position: ChatGPT's table gives Plus the same opt-out wording as Free. What changes it is a business plan or coaching software with a data agreement, plus your client's agreement and your adviser's view. A contract is one requirement, not permission.
Which free AI is best for exercise programmes?
I couldn't find a published test that ranks the four for programming, so choose by workflow and test one real brief in each. Claude's free plan can create files, ChatGPT's lists Projects, Gemini's lists Gems, and Copilot Chat comes with Microsoft 365 business plans. The best one is whichever survives your own limit test.
Do I still need trainer software if I use AI?
Probably, once you coach more than a few clients remotely. AI drafts; a coaching platform delivers the programme, records logs, carries messages and takes payment. Everfit's free Starter plan covers up to five clients. Beyond that, compare the monthly fee with the admin minutes it saves, using the sums above.
Further reads
- How to Anonymise Client Data Before You Paste It Into AI — How to strip identifying details before any text goes into a chat tool.
- Personal Trainer Intake Forms: Build One With AI, Protect Health Data — Build an intake form that collects what you need and protects it.
- AI Prompts for Personal Trainers: Session Recaps and Renewal Texts — Session recap and renewal prompts that carry no health detail.
- AI for Fitness Trainers: Client Check-Ins Without Medical Advice — Check-in messages that stop short of medical advice.
- AI Nutrition Advice at a Gym: What Is Safe to Offer Members? — How far nutrition guidance can safely go.
- AI Agent for Personal Trainers: Check-Ins and Where It Must Stop — How a personal trainer can run AI check-ins between sessions: cadence, replies that escalate, the hard stops and the weekly review.
- AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.
Sources: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Microsoft Copilot plan pages; Anthropic privacy centre; Google's Gemini Apps privacy hub; Microsoft's Copilot privacy FAQ and enterprise data protection page; Microsoft 365 business plans page; Everfit, TrueCoach and Trainerize pricing pages. All read in October 2026.