ChatGPT (OpenAI) vs Claude (Anthropic): Technical comparison

As of February 2026, OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude represent the two dominant platforms in the conversational AI market. While both services employ large language models (LLMs) for dialogue-based AI assistance, significant differences exist in technical approach, feature sets, and pricing structures.

This analysis compares both services across coding assistance, long-document analysis, API pricing, and enterprise functionality.

Core specifications

ChatGPT (OpenAI)

• Launch date: November 2022
• Latest model: GPT-4 Turbo (April 2024)
• Context window: 128,000 tokens (~96,000 words)
• Free tier: Unlimited GPT-3.5 access (rate-limited)
• Paid tiers: ChatGPT Plus $20/month, ChatGPT Team $25/user/month
• Weekly active users: ~100 million (January 2026)

Claude (Anthropic)

• Launch date: March 2023
• Latest model: Claude Opus 4.6 (February 5, 2026)
• Context window: 1,000,000 tokens (~750,000 words, beta)
• Free tier: Daily message limits (~30-50 messages)
• Paid tier: Claude Pro $20/month
• Estimated user base: Undisclosed (industry estimates: 10-20 million)

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Technical feature comparison

Context window analysis

Claude Opus 4.6: 1,000,000 tokens (~750,000 words, beta)
ChatGPT (GPT-4 Turbo): 128,000 tokens (~96,000 words)

The context window defines the maximum text length an AI can process simultaneously. Claude Opus 4.6’s approximately 7.8× larger context window provides overwhelming advantages for:

• Long-document analysis (entire technical books ~750,000 words)
• Entire codebase comprehension
• Multi-file code reviews
• Comprehensive documentation processing

According to Anthropic’s February 5, 2026 announcement, Claude Opus 4.6 provides a 1,000,000 token context window (beta), equivalent to approximately 750,000 words or 1,500 pages of documentation, enabling full technical book analysis, large codebase reviews, and cross-document analysis in a single query.

Note: Prompts exceeding 200,000 tokens incur premium pricing ($10 input / $37.50 output per million tokens).

Benchmark performance comparison

As of January 2026, major benchmark results:

HumanEval (coding):

• Claude 3.5 Sonnet: 92.0%
• GPT-4 Turbo: 90.2%

MMLU (multidisciplinary knowledge):

• GPT-4 Turbo: 86.4%
• Claude 3.5 Sonnet: 88.7%

Math (mathematical reasoning):

• Claude 3.5 Sonnet: 71.1%
• GPT-4 Turbo: 69.8%

While benchmarks show Claude with marginal advantages, practical performance differences are often task-dependent and subtle.

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Feature differentiation

ChatGPT-exclusive capabilities

DALL-E 3 integration (paid tier only):
ChatGPT Plus subscribers can generate images within conversations. Natural language prompts like “Create a Van Gogh-style painting of a cat” produce 1024x1024 pixel images.

Web browsing (paid tier only):
Bing Search API integration enables real-time web information retrieval. Useful for queries requiring current data: stock prices, news, weather.

Code Interpreter (paid tier only):
Executes Python code for data analysis, visualization, and file transformations. Users can upload CSV files and request “Create sales data visualization.”

Plugins (being phased out):
Transitioning to GPTs (custom GPT instances) as of late 2024; traditional plugin functionality is being deprecated.

Claude-exclusive capabilities

Constitutional AI:
Proprietary training methodology designed to reduce harmful outputs. Stanford HELM evaluation (December 2025) reported approximately 30% lower hallucination rates compared to GPT-4.

Artifacts:
Generated code, documents, and diagrams display in separate panes with real-time preview capabilities for executable code.

Projects:
Groups related conversations, documents, and code into unified project contexts, enabling project-level context management for development workflows.

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Use-case analysis

Coding assistance

Conclusion: Claude shows marginal advantages

Empirical testing revealed the following patterns:

• Error handling: Claude implements more robust error management
• Code structure: Claude tends toward better function decomposition and documentation
• Large-scale refactoring: Claude’s wider context window provides advantages
• Quick snippets: ChatGPT generally exhibits faster response times

November 2025 GitHub survey of AI coding tool user satisfaction:

• GitHub Copilot: 4.2/5.0
• Claude for coding: 4.1/5.0
• ChatGPT for coding: 3.9/5.0

Long-document analysis

Conclusion: Claude demonstrates clear advantages

For documents exceeding 10,000 words, Claude excels due to:

• Single-pass processing of entire documents (200K token limit)
• Detailed methodology critique and data source analysis
• Cross-document comparison capabilities

Practical example: For a 70,000-word technical book PDF with the query “List all security concerns,” Claude can analyze the complete text in one operation, while ChatGPT requires segmentation.

Creative writing

Conclusion: ChatGPT shows advantages for creative content

For storytelling, advertising copy, and social media content, ChatGPT tends to generate more conversational and creative outputs. Claude’s cautious, logic-focused approach makes it better suited for technical documentation than marketing copy.

Research and fact-checking

Conclusion: ChatGPT (with browsing) holds advantages for real-time information

When current information is required, ChatGPT Plus’s browsing capability provides utility. However, Claude excels at static document analysis.

For specialized research needs, Perplexity AI should also be considered.

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API pricing comparison

ChatGPT API (GPT-4 Turbo)

• Input: $10 per million tokens
• Output: $30 per million tokens
• Context caching: Not available

Claude API (Claude 3.5 Sonnet)

• Input: $3 per million tokens
• Output: $15 per million tokens
• Context caching: $0.30 per million tokens (cache read)

Cost analysis:

For 1,000 executions of identical tasks (10,000 input tokens, 2,000 output tokens):

• ChatGPT API: (10,000 × 1,000 × $10 / 1,000,000) + (2,000 × 1,000 × $30 / 1,000,000) = $100 + $60 = $160
• Claude API: (10,000 × 1,000 × $3 / 1,000,000) + (2,000 × 1,000 × $15 / 1,000,000) = $30 + $30 = $60

Claude API delivers approximately 62.5% cost reduction for equivalent processing.

Additionally, Claude’s context caching can reduce costs by 90% for repeatedly referenced large documents (system prompts, manuals, etc.).

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Enterprise feature comparison

ChatGPT Enterprise (pricing varies by organization size)

• Dedicated capacity: No rate limits
• Data privacy: Not used for training
• SSO: SAML 2.0 support
• Admin dashboard: User management, usage analytics
• Extended context: Up to 128K tokens
• Priority support: SLA-backed

Claude for Enterprise (pricing undisclosed, contact-based)

• Dedicated capacity: Relaxed rate limits
• Data privacy: Not used for training
• SSO: SAML 2.0, OAuth support
• Projects: Team-shared workspaces
• Extended context: Up to 200K tokens
• Custom models: Fine-tuning options (inquiry required)

Enterprise security

Both services provide:

• SOC 2 Type II certification
• GDPR compliance
• HIPAA compliance options (application required)
• Data residency (regional data storage)

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Free tier comparison

ChatGPT free tier

• Model: GPT-3.5 Turbo
• Usage limits: Rate-limited (delays during peak periods)
• Feature restrictions: No DALL-E, browsing, or Code Interpreter
• Advantages: Completely free, requires account registration only

Claude free tier

• Model: Claude 3.5 Sonnet (latest model)
• Usage limits: ~30-50 messages daily (variable)
• Feature restrictions: No API access
• Advantages: Access to latest model at no cost

Free tier recommendation:

• Heavy users: ChatGPT (unlimited, though GPT-3.5)
• Quality-focused: Claude (latest model, message-limited)

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User feedback (third-party surveys)

Stack Overflow Developer Survey, December 2025 (10,000 respondents):

“Most frequently used AI assistant”:

• ChatGPT: 62%
• GitHub Copilot: 51%
• Claude: 28%
• Gemini: 19%
• Other: 12%

“Most useful AI for coding”:

• GitHub Copilot: 54%
• Claude: 31%
• ChatGPT: 27%

“Most useful AI for long-document analysis”:

• Claude: 58%
• ChatGPT: 32%
• Perplexity: 18%

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Use-case recommendations

Recommended for ChatGPT

• General question-answering, learning assistance
• Creative writing (stories, advertising copy)
• Image generation requirements (DALL-E integration)
• Real-time web information needs (browsing capability)
• Maximum ecosystem and third-party integration utilization

Recommended for Claude

• Software development, code review
• Long-document analysis (contracts, technical books, research papers)
• Data analysis, complex reasoning tasks
• API cost optimization (62.5% reduction vs ChatGPT)
• Safety and ethics prioritization

Dual-platform approach

Many professional users employ task-specific selection:

• Daily queries: ChatGPT (faster response)
• Coding: Claude (higher code quality)
• Research: ChatGPT (browsing) + Claude (document analysis)
• Writing: ChatGPT for drafts, Claude for editing

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Future outlook

OpenAI reportedly plans GPT-5 release in Q2 2026 (unconfirmed), while Anthropic is believed to be developing Claude 4. Competition is expected to intensify across:

1. Context window expansion: Extension beyond 1 million tokens
2. Multimodal enhancement: Native video and audio processing
3. Agent functionality: Autonomous task execution, tool integration
4. Enterprise features: Enhanced security, management, customization
5. Price competition: API cost reduction

Currently, neither service represents a complete superset of the other’s capabilities. Task-based selection remains the most efficient approach.

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Reference links

• OpenAI ChatGPT
• Anthropic Claude
• OpenAI API Pricing
• Anthropic API Pricing
• Stanford HELM Benchmark
• HumanEval Benchmark

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Information in this article is current as of February 13, 2026. Features and pricing are subject to change. Consult official sources for the latest details.