ChatGPT vs Claude (2025): The Ultimate Comparison of AI Assistants
- Graziano Stefanelli
- 7 hours ago
- 4 min read
Companies: OpenAI rolls out new features quickly, while Anthropic moves slowly and puts safety first.
Models: ChatGPT ranges from the free 3.5 up to GPT-4.1, which can read a million-token document; Claude runs from the speedy Haiku to the top-tier Opus, all handling about 200 K tokens.
Benchmarks: GPT-4.1 scores highest on general knowledge tests; Claude Opus is best at step-by-step coding tasks.
User Experience: ChatGPT comes with plug-ins, built-in tools, memory, and Microsoft 365 links; Claude answers faster and can keep very long conversations in one go.
Pricing: Both charge $20 for a pro subscription, but ChatGPT’s API is much cheaper—around $2 in / $8 out per million tokens versus Opus’s $15 / $75.
Pros & Cons: ChatGPT is feature-rich and affordable but can slip on tricky math; Claude is clearer and safer but costs more and offers fewer add-ons.
Best Fit: Choose ChatGPT for big, mixed-media projects and tight budgets; choose Claude when you need careful code reviews or policy-sensitive writing.
Here we provide a detailed, side-by-side look at ChatGPT and Claude—covering their philosophies, model tiers, performance, user experience, pricing, and ideal use cases.
Table of Contents
Companies & Philosophies
Model Line‑ups
Capabilities & Benchmarks
User Experience
Pricing & Availability
Strengths & Weaknesses
Who Should Use Which?
Companies & Philosophies
OpenAI / ChatGPT
Mission — “Ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.”
Safety approach — Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) + Model evaluations + Continuous red‑team audits.
Product cadence — Rapid: major refreshes every ~6–8 months (GPT‑4o → GPT‑4.1) with phased rollouts in ChatGPT, API, and Microsoft products.
Notable 2025 upgrade — A revamped Memory system that lets ChatGPT recall preferences and past projects across sessions, while giving users granular controls over what’s stored.
Anthropic / Claude
Mission — “Build reliable, interpretable, steerable AI through a safety‑first lens.”
Safety approach — Constitutional AI (rule‑based alignment), adversarial training, and a protections‑by‑default policy.
Product cadence — Fewer but bigger jumps (Claude 3 → 3.5). Emphasis on long context and transparent reasoning.
Notable 2025 upgrade — Tool use & Agents: Claude can now call external APIs and built‑in tools, making it competitive with ChatGPT’s plug‑ins and Code Interpreter.
Model Line‑ups
Vendor · Model (2025) | Release | Context Window | Input $/1M tok | Output $/1M tok | Best Use‑Cases |
ChatGPT 3.5 (Free) | 2020‑05 | 16 K | Free | n/a | Casual Q&A, short content |
ChatGPT GPT‑4o (Plus/Team) | 2024‑11 | 128 K | $2.50 | $10.00 | Multimodal, everyday pro work |
ChatGPT GPT‑4.1 (Pro/Enterprise) | 2025‑04 | 1 M | $2.00 | $8.00 | Massive docs & codebases |
Claude 3.5 Haiku | 2024‑09 | 200 K | $0.80 | $4.00 | Rapid draft & chat |
Claude 3.7 Sonnet | 2024‑06 | 200 K | $3.00 | $15.00 | Balanced coding & reasoning |
Claude 3 Opus | 2024‑03 | 200 K (1 M* select) | $15.00 | $75.00 | Highest accuracy, deep analysis |
*Context >200 K available to select enterprise customers.
Capabilities & Benchmarks
Language & Reasoning
MMLU (knowledge + reasoning) • GPT‑4.1: 90.2 % • Claude 3 Opus: 88.2 %
GPQA (graduate‑level questions) • GPT‑4.1: 50.3 % (few‑shot) • Claude 3 Opus: 48 % (Anthropic data)
Coding & Agents
HumanEval • Claude 3 Opus: 84.9 % • GPT‑4o: 75 % • GPT‑4.1 (Mini): ?85+ % (OpenAI internal)
Agentic Coding Challenge (open‑source bug‑fix) • Claude 3.5 Sonnet: 64 % vs Claude 3 Opus 38 %
Multimodal & Tools
ChatGPT: Image & voice in all paid tiers; Code Interpreter, File Search, Web Search, DALL·E 3.
Claude: Image inputs in all tiers; built‑in Tool Use (API) lets apps wire Claude into calculators, DBs, etc.
Takeaway: GPT‑4.1 leads on knowledge breadth and extreme context; Claude still edges ahead in step‑by‑step coding and constitutional transparency.
User Experience
Aspect | ChatGPT (Plus → Pro) | Claude (Pro → Max) |
Interface | Web, iOS/Android, macOS, Windows; deep Microsoft 365 integration | Web, iOS, Android; Slack add‑in; API via Bedrock & Vertex AI |
Memory | Global cross‑chat memory with opt‑out controls (2025‑04) | Session‑based + manual “Memory Pins” for Pro users |
Customization | Custom GPTs, system prompts, plug‑ins | Personas, system prompts, Tool call chains |
Latency | GPT‑4.1 Mini ~0.9 s token latency | Haiku fastest (~0.4 s) |
Privacy | Enterprise tier: no training, SOC 2, ISO 27001 | Enterprise tier: no training, SOC 2, ISO 27001 |
Pricing & Availability
Subscription Tiers
Tier | Monthly Price | Included Models | Notes |
ChatGPT Free | $0 | GPT‑3.5 | Limited capacity |
ChatGPT Plus | $20 | GPT‑4o | Priority, faster, multimodal |
ChatGPT Team | $25–$30 / user | GPT‑4o | Shared workspaces |
ChatGPT Pro | $200 | GPT‑4.1 & research tools | Unlimited usage, deep‑research features |
Claude Free | $0 | Haiku | 20 messages / day |
Claude Pro | $20 | Sonnet | 5× usage vs free |
Claude Team | $30 / user | Sonnet 3.7 | Min 5 seats |
Claude Max | $200 | Opus, Sonnet & Haiku | 20× Pro quota, priority model access |
(Enterprise pricing for both vendors is custom.)
API Snapshot (April 2025)
Model | Input $/1M | Output $/1M |
GPT‑4.1 | $2.00 | $8.00 |
GPT‑4o | $2.50 | $10.00 |
GPT‑4.1 Mini | $0.40 | $1.60 |
Claude 3 Opus | $15.00 | $75.00 |
Claude 3.7 Sonnet | $3.00 | $15.00 |
Claude 3.5 Haiku | $0.80 | $4.00 |
Strengths & Weaknesses
ChatGPT (GPT‑4.1) | Claude 3 Opus | |
Strengths | Largest public context window (1 M); best breadth of tools; Microsoft ecosystem; cheaper API; cross‑chat memory | Transparent reasoning; higher step‑by‑step coding accuracy; 200 K context out‑of‑the‑box; strong safety track record |
Weaknesses | Occasional hallucinations on domain‑specific math; fewer built‑in constitutional safeguards; Pro is expensive | Pricey API; slower than Haiku; limited memory features; smaller plug‑in ecosystem |
Who Should Use Which?
Developers: If you need agentic coding or enormous codebases, go ChatGPT (GPT‑4.1). For iterative bug‑fixes and explanation depth, Claude Sonnet or Opus shines.
Business Analysts / Finance: ChatGPT’s Code Interpreter + File Search makes modeling easier. Claude’s longer context helps parse gnarly PDFs without chunking.
Creative Writers & Educators: Claude’s chattier, less terse style may feel more natural. ChatGPT’s DALL·E 3 and voice modes add extra storytelling power.
Enterprise buyers: Evaluate security posture, hosting region, and token cost at scale. GPT‑4.1’s lower token pricing can outweigh Claude’s higher reasoning accuracy.