Comparison

ChatGPT vs Claude

A side-by-side look at ChatGPT and Claude, using the details in each tool profile.

Quick take

Choose ChatGPT — best for: broad daily knowledge work where one assistant must cover writing, analysis and code. Choose Claude — best for: long-document analysis, careful professional writing, and agentic coding across a whole codebase.

ChatGPT vs Claude at a glance

Criteria	ChatGPT	Claude
Category	AI Chatbots	AI Chatbots
Best for	Broad daily knowledge work where one assistant must cover writing, analysis and code.	Long-document analysis, careful professional writing, and agentic coding across a whole codebase.
Pricing model	Freemium	Freemium
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Free trial	No	No
API available	Yes	Yes
Platforms	Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android Chrome/Edge extensions Atlas browser	Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android Claude Code (terminal, VS Code, JetBrains) Chrome extension Excel/PowerPoint add-ins Slack
Key features	Multimodal input (text, image, file, voice) Deep Research Advanced Voice Mode Canvas collaborative editor Custom GPTs and GPT Store Projects and memory	Very long context windows (200K up to 1M tokens) Artifacts (live documents, code and apps in-chat) Projects with shared knowledge Research mode Claude Code CLI and IDE agent Cowork agentic desktop app
Advantages	Largest feature surface of any consumer assistant strongest third-party ecosystem excellent multimodal handling agentic Codex and Operator tooling	Best-in-class long context very strong instruction following and writing quality Artifacts and file creation produce usable deliverables, not just text Team/Enterprise exclude training at contract level
Limitations	Pricing tiers are confusing (two plans both badged 'Pro') free and Go tiers now carry ads consumer plans train on your data by default unless you opt out message caps interrupt heavy sessions on Plus	Session and weekly caps can bite hard during agentic coding image generation is not native smaller plugin ecosystem than ChatGPT Anthropic's own pages have at times been inconsistent about annual Max pricing.

Pricing notes

ChatGPT

Free $0 (ad-supported since the 2026 ad rollout). Go $8/mo. Plus $20/mo. Pro sold as two usage tiers: $100/mo (5x Plus usage) and $200/mo (20x Plus usage, priority compute, ~250 Deep Research tasks). Business $20/seat/mo annual or $25/seat/mo monthly (2-seat minimum; cut from $25/$30 in April 2026); a Premium seat runs roughly $100-125. Enterprise custom, annual contract. API billed per token, separate bill.

Claude

Free $0. Pro $20/mo or $200/yr (~$17/mo effective). Max in two tiers: $100/mo (5x Pro) and $200/mo (20x Pro). Team from $25/seat/mo (about $20/seat annual) for standard seats, with a higher premium seat tier. Enterprise custom. Education plans for institutions. API separate: Fable 5.1 $10/$50 per 1M in/out tokens, Opus 5 $5/$25, Sonnet 5 $2/$10, Haiku 4.5 $1/$5.

Prices change often. Confirm on the official pricing pages: ChatGPT ↗ · Claude ↗

Frequently asked questions

What is the main difference between ChatGPT and Claude?

ChatGPT: General-purpose conversational assistant built on OpenAI's GPT model family. Claude: Conversational assistant from Anthropic focused on long-context reasoning, careful writing, document analysis and agentic coding.

When should I choose ChatGPT over Claude?

ChatGPT is listed as best for: broad daily knowledge work where one assistant must cover writing, analysis and code. Claude is listed as best for: long-document analysis, careful professional writing, and agentic coding across a whole codebase.

Do ChatGPT and Claude have a free plan?

ChatGPT: Yes. Claude: Yes. Check each official pricing page, as plans change.

Read the full profiles

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