Claude vs GPT
Anthropic's Claude vs OpenAI's GPT — pricing per million tokens, context window, coding ability and where each one wins. Updated for 2026.
| Spec | Claude | GPT |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Anthropic | OpenAI |
| Flagship model | Claude Opus / Sonnet 4 | GPT-5 / o-series |
| Context window | 200,000 tokens | 400,000 tokens |
| Input price (flagship) | ~$3 / Mtok (Sonnet) | ~$1.25 / Mtok (GPT-5) |
| Output price (flagship) | ~$15 / Mtok (Sonnet) | ~$10 / Mtok (GPT-5) |
| Free tier | Yes — Claude.ai | Yes — ChatGPT |
| Modalities | Text, image | Text, image, audio (Realtime) |
| Best for | Coding, agentic workflows, safe long writing | Reasoning, multimodal, broad ecosystem |
| API access | Anthropic API, Bedrock, Vertex | OpenAI API, Azure OpenAI |
When to pick Claude
- You're building a coding agent or IDE assistant.
- You need reliable multi-step tool use.
- You want safer, less-hallucinatory long-form writing.
When to pick GPT
- You need realtime voice or image generation in the same API.
- You want the broadest plugin/Assistants ecosystem.
- You're optimizing for cost at the flagship tier.
FAQ
Is Claude better than GPT for coding?
Claude Sonnet and Opus lead most coding benchmarks (SWE-bench Verified, Aider) and are the default models in agents like Cursor, Cline and Claude Code. GPT-5 is competitive, especially on algorithmic reasoning.
Is GPT cheaper than Claude?
At the flagship tier, yes — GPT-5 is roughly $1.25 in / $10 out per million tokens vs Claude Sonnet's $3 in / $15 out. Claude Haiku is the cheapest option overall for small jobs.
Which has the longer context window?
GPT-5 offers up to 400k tokens vs Claude's 200k. Both are enough for full repositories and long documents.
Which model should I pick for agents?
Claude is the current developer favourite for tool-use and multi-step plans. GPT shines when you need realtime voice, image generation in the same API, or the broader OpenAI ecosystem (Assistants, file search, code interpreter).