ChatGPT vs Claude: which one to use?

Welcome to FIVE-minutes-AI. I'm Luca. Today we tackle the question everyone asks me: "Are ChatGPT and Claude the same thing? Which one should I use?" Spoiler: they're different, and the choice depends on what you need to do.

ChatGPT is made by OpenAI, Claude is made by Anthropic. Two different companies, two different philosophies, two different products. Both are Large Language Models — we covered what that means yesterday — but they have different personalities and strengths.

Let's start with ChatGPT. It's the most famous one, the one that made AI explode in 2022. OpenAI designed it to be versatile: it does a bit of everything. Chat, images with built-in DALL-E, can browse the web, has plugins, has memory across conversations. It's a Swiss Army knife.

Claude, from Anthropic, takes a different approach. It was designed with an obsession for safety and being genuinely helpful. But the difference you'll notice immediately is something else: Claude is better with long texts. Much better.

Let me give you a practical example. Need to analyze a 50-page contract? Claude reads the whole thing and gives you an accurate summary. Base ChatGPT gets lost after a few pages. Need to write a long, structured document? Claude maintains coherence over very long texts. This is called "context window" — how much text the model can keep in memory during a conversation.

Another difference: style. ChatGPT tends to be more... how to put it... enthusiastic. "Of course! Great question! Here's what I can tell you!" Claude is calmer, more direct. Some people prefer it because it feels less artificial.

But when should you use which?

ChatGPT when: you need to generate images (has built-in DALL-E), you want to search for updated information on the web, you use specific apps and plugins, you need memory across different sessions.

Claude when: you're working with long documents — contracts, reports, code — you need deep analysis of texts, you're writing long, structured content, you prefer more direct, less "performative" responses.

A practical tip: try both on the same task. Ask the same thing and compare the answers. You'll see that for certain tasks, one is clearly better than the other.

And the cost? Both have limited free versions and paid subscriptions. The price is similar — about 20 dollars a month for Pro versions. Worth it? If you use them for work, absolutely yes. The paid version is much more powerful.

To recap: ChatGPT is the Swiss Army knife, versatile with lots of integrations. Claude is the long-text specialist, more direct in style. There's no absolute winner — it depends on what you need to do.

In the next episode we talk about agents: what they are and why they'll change how we use AI.

I'm Luca, this was FIVE-minutes-AI. See you tomorrow.