Difference between ChatGPT and Claude

If you are wondering Should I use ChatGPT or Claude? in your workflow, this comparison may be helpful. Here it is Similarities and differences between ChatGPT and Claude.

If you’re ready to dive into the world of AI chatbots, ChatGPT and Claude are two of the best options to get started. While both are impressive in their own right, they are more different than you might think. For example, ChatGPT can generate images and videos, while Claude is especially effective at protecting user privacy. But that’s not all of their unique features.

Main features of ChatGPT and Claude

What’s the difference between ChatGPT and Claude?

Price

Both ChatGPT and Claude have free and paid versions. The free version limits access to features, models, and usage time, while the paid version starts at $17 per month (billed annually) for Claude Pro and $20 per month for ChatGPT Plus.

ChatGPT offers more features in free mode, such as access to in-depth research. Additionally, both its free and paid versions have features that Claude doesn’t support, such as image and video creation. However, Claude has an app creation feature and can integrate with Google Workspace apps, things that ChatGPT cannot do.

ChatGPT and Claude’s higher-end plans mainly increase usage limits. ChatGPT locks some features behind these plans, such as access to its o3-pro model, but these features are often not important to users.

Claude is similar. The Max plan promises “early access to advanced Claude features”, but these aren’t always available and are probably not suitable for casual users. However, Claude splits the Max plan into two versions: 5x the usage of the Pro plan for $100 per month (billed annually) and 20x the usage for $200 per month (billed annually).

Foundation

Both ChatGPT and Claude are accessible on the web, as well as through desktop and mobile apps (Android, iOS, and iPadOS). Google Chrome has an official extension for ChatGPT, but Claude does not.

You can access models of both chatbots elsewhere, such as ChatGPT in Siri or Claude in Perplexity. However, you will get the most features through their official apps and website.

ChatGPT and Claude have similar interfaces that are consistent and easy to use across platforms. Neither of them overwhelms you with long lists of settings or toggles. However, Claude’s user experience stands out thanks to its pleasing aesthetics and innovative features, such as easy access to generated content, such as applications, creative articles and reports, or in-depth research statistics.

AI model

ChatGPT has two main model families: stream 4 (general-purpose conversation stream) and o-series (complex inference stream). Claude also has a similar structure to the Sonnets (conversations) and Opus (complex inferences).

Claude’s newest models are the Opus 4 and Sonnet 4, while ChatGPT’s newest model is the o3-pro. However, as mentioned, you can hardly use o3-pro because it requires the ChatGPT Pro package which is quite expensive. Most of the time, you’ll use the 4th and Sonnet lines, switching to the o or Opus lines when you need to handle more complex tasks.

Search the web

Both ChatGPT and Claude had no trouble finding up-to-date information on the web. ChatGPT generally handles complex queries better and is a little faster than average, but the biggest difference lies in the source of the information. ChatGPT highlights relevant sections in search results when you hover over the source, making it easy to connect claims to evidence, and the source icon displays the name of the source. Claude doesn’t highlight sections in search results, and its source icon shows only the name of the source article, which is less useful at a glance to determine credibility.

Claude also cannot display images with web search results, which ChatGPT does automatically. ChatGPT also has a shopping feature that allows you to request purchasing advice and displays clickable boxes with links to retailers and other related information. You can ask Claude for help shopping, but it won’t provide anything of the sort.

In-depth research

Both ChatGPT and Claude can create research reports with a wide variety of sources on almost any topic. The actual depth of research is what sets these two tools apart. Although Claude tends to do more searches, its final reports usually don’t go into much detail and are much shorter than ChatGPT. On the other hand, Claude can research faster than ChatGPT.

Both chatbots ask additional questions before starting their research and handle sources well with in-text citations. They also show useful statistics, such as total research time, total searches, and total sources, but Claude goes a step further with the ability to conveniently visualize searches by site. Of course, this also highlights Claude’s tendency to perform more searches than it cites. While Claude puts his reports in a panel on the side of the screen, ChatGPT presents them more directly in the main chat window.

Claude and ChatGPT also had different tones in their reports. ChatGPT is more informal, and its reports resemble well-crafted forum posts. Claude is more direct and somewhat more rigid, making its responses feel like essays. Considering how concise Claude’s report was, its tone seemed a bit inconsistent. Of course, you may prefer one style over the other.

Is ChatGPT or Claude right for you?

If you want an AI tool to help you with your creative projects—writing, programming, or brainstorming—Claude is the best choice. Its more natural writing style, powerful Artifacts feature for real-time source code visualization, and thoughtful analysis method make it ideal for developers, writers, and analysts who need the ability to handle complex text and source code. Claude excels at complex tasks that require sophisticated understanding and detailed output, and the Styles feature makes it easy to maintain consistency across different types of content.

If you are looking for a versatile tool, ChatGPT is a better choice. Creating text is just the beginning: you can also create images, search the web, set up recurring tasks, or connect to custom GPTs trained for specialized purposes like academic research. ChatGPT’s broader feature set and lower API price make it perfect for teams and individual users looking to explore the full capabilities of AI.

If you have multiple reasons to use AI in your work, consider using both, especially since there are different rate limits and pricing tiers for each scenario. For example, you can use Claude for intensive writing and programming projects, while using ChatGPT for quick searches, image creation, and other tasks.