Hello, I'm Artem and I've been using all three of those most popular AI models for a long time. If you are not on a cutoff island, you surely know how fat AI has come. We now have multiple models that lead the way, and it may be difficult to understand, which one to use and when. So it may be useful and insteresting to compare.

Among those top AI models today are OpenAI ChatGPT with their OpenAI o3 and
long awaited GPT-5 from OpenAI, Gemini 2.5 from Google, and Claude 4/4.1 from Anthropic. This detailed guide will explore their functionality, performance and cost. I also dive into some security features, and how to compare all those models independently.

TL;DR + Full Comparison Table

There are a thing or two I want you to know after reading this. Those models functionality, performance, then, cost, their security, too. How to compare AI models by yourself. And multi-AI model use with Writingmate, which is all-in-one AI tool that lets you use all of those models for much better price. So, let's start! But first, here is a short tl;dr for those with less time to read it all ;)

For all‑round assistant for everyday use: ChatGPT (OpenAI), has many model flavors, also broad tool support.
If you need the strongest “reasoning/code + long context” combo for research or heavy engineering: Gemini 2.5 (Google) and Anthropic’s Opus/Sonnet families are the leaders in different areas — Gemini shines on benchmarks and long‑context, Claude focuses on safe, steady agentic workflows.
Short wording for SEO: claude vs chatgpt vs gemini — who to pick? (We’ll fix titles/tags below so search engines like that phrase.)

Feature / Model	OpenAI GPT-5 (Pro)	Google Gemini 2.5 Pro / Flash	Anthropic Claude 4 (Opus / Sonnet 4.1)	WritingMate AI (as integrated)
Release date	Aug 7 2025	Jun–Jul 2025 (2.5 Pro & Flash)	Opus 4 – May 22 2025 • Opus 4.1 – Aug 5 2025	Continuous rollout (built on GPT-5 + Claude 4 + Gemini 2.5)
Developer	OpenAI	Google DeepMind	Anthropic	WritingMate AI
Core strength	Deep reasoning, accuracy, creativity	Context length (1 M tokens), speed	Long-form reasoning, safe outputs	Unified assistant: writing, coding, medical, SEO and SMM tasks, research and more
Context window	Up to 400 K (API) / 128 K (Pro chat)	Up to 1 M tokens (Flash & Pro)	Up to 200 K tokens	Unified 1 M + context aggregation across models
Performance (benchmarks)	80 % fewer hallucinations vs GPT-4o (o3) [OpenAI Aug 2025]	Slightly below GPT-5 in reasoning, faster throughput	Opus 4.1 ≈ 72.5 % SWE-Bench (top coding LLM 2025)	Uses best-available model per task; hybrid reasoning
Modes / capabilities	Text, image, voice, “thinking” mode	Text, image, code; multimodal input	Text, image, code; “extended thinking” mode	Text, voice, image, research + autonomous writing
Pricing (approx.)	Free (limited mini) • $20 Plus • Pro API ≈ $25/1M output tokens	Flash $2.50 / 1M • Flash-Lite $0.40 / 1M	Sonnet $3 in / $15 out • Opus $15 in / $75 out (per million tokens)	Subscription includes all models
Speed	Moderate (faster than GPT-4)	Fastest (latency < 1 s for small prompts)	Slower but deliberate (reasoned mode)	Auto-balances speed vs depth
Coding quality	Excellent (o1 Pro > 90 % pass@1)	Good but less stable	Opus 4.1 top performer (72 % SWE-Bench)	Auto-routes coding tasks to Claude4 or GPT-5
Writing quality	Natural tone, creative narrative	Concise, factual	Polished, formal, safe style	Adaptive voice mode + SEO optimisation built in as well as other built in Assistants/Agents
Integration & APIs	ChatGPT web + API + Agents + Realtime API	Vertex AI + Gemini API	Claude AI chat + Bedrock API	earlier, Chrome / potentially Docs / API integrations
Best use cases	Deep research, creative writing, reasoning	Large context analysis, enterprise data	Long-form reasoning, safety-critical work	Unified AI workspace for writing and teams
Limitations	Some slowdowns under load; mini fallback for free tier	API rate limits; occasional inconsistency	Expensive (Opus); longer latency	Depends on API availability from others
Unique advantage	“Thinking” mode for complex tasks	1M-token context + fast API	Top coding and reasoning accuracy	Combines and merges all major models in one workspace; all-in-one AI tool
Official links	OpenAI.com	Gemini.Google	Anthropic.com	WritingMate.ai

Features & Capabilities of Each Model

Now, let me go through each one of those models and see, how do they compare with each other in various use cases. I came up with 3-4 example to each one, and below is my personal experience with them plus some more or less objective facts. First one is a model by OpenAI, then Anthropic Claude, and later we will also go through Gemini.

ChatGPT by OpenAI

ChatGPT is probably the most known AI model (and chatbot). Designed by OpenAI, it can be used for many purposes, from writing articles to answering questions and aiding in coding. The latest version, GPT-5 (GPT-4o is not now available by default), was much improved in contextual understanding, it (generally) gives you more coherent responses. There is also GPT-5 Mini with a reduced price and a set of cool features.

Example Uses:

Content Creation: ChatGPT can help writers by generating ideas, drafting articles, or even writing complete essays, that said, it is easy to know when it was not human writing the text.
Coding Assistance: Developers can use ChatGPT to fix bugs in the code, generate code snippets, even to troubleshoot problems.
Customer Service: Businesses can automate responses to customer inquiries, providing quick and accurate support.

How Powerful is GPT-5? Is GPT-5 a Bad Model to Use?

I’ve been spending time with GPT-5 lately… and honestly, I have mixed feelings about it.

On paper, it’s supposed to be the most advanced OpenAI model yet, but in real use it doesn’t always feel like the huge leap forward people were hyping.
For example, I still can’t upload files directly the way I’d expect, which is frustrating when you’re trying to get real work done (I even wrote more about that here: Can’t upload files to ChatGPT).

And while GPT-5 seems to be quite smart with reasoning and longer context windows, the limits around how much you can push it at once are still a thing. If you’re running into that problem, I covered some GPT limit solutions too.

But in any case, all of those models plus legacy OpenAI models like 4o and o3-mini, are available right inside writingmate.ai all-in-one AI tool as of 2025.

GPT-5 is powerful, probably one of those decent LLMs for everyday users right now. Don’t get me totally wrong. Sometimes, though, I feel like OpenAI is holding it back just enough that it never feels as free or fluid as Claude4 or newer Gemini.

Gemini by Google

Gemini version 2.5 by Google works best for real-time conversation. It gives rapid responses and maintains the context of long conversations. And that just makes it perfect for customer service chatbots and for wider API use. It is also able to make videos with Gemini Pro (and soon - with Writingmate) through Veo3 video generation model.

Example Uses Include:

Customer Support: Companies use Gemini for multiple years, it helps them work over hundreds of customer inquiries and resolve issues instantly. Some users find it useful, some users hate those AI assistants… But, either way, Gemini changed customer support forever and I have some respect to it just for that.
Interactive Applications: Gemini can help financial advisors who need interactivity on the spot, with some live assistance and advice.
Personal Assistants: Gemini can manage schedules, also set reminders, and perform tasks that require some answers on a larger scale.

Claude by Anthropic

Claude 4 Sonnet, asides from being quite a capable model, also focuses on safe and ethical AI usage. It is designed to avoid harmful or biased responses. This is why Claude became quite a standard for educational and sensitive applications, even though many schools and universities ban Claude. Writingmate helps to use new Claude 4 without those bans and with much less limits, in any country and with a lot of document, research and studies oriented features.

Example Uses of Claude 4 Sonnet in 2025:

Educational Tools: Claude can help students with their studies to make texts that will be safe and appropriate.
Mental Health Support: Claude can provide mental health advice while carefully avoiding triggers or harmful suggestions.
Ethical Chatbots: Use Claude for coding or for tasks where safety and ethics are in top priority. I would say law or healthcare are also things that Claude works well with.

Brief timeline of changes

As I was gathering info about all those tools and models, also combined a table of changes. So this may be useful to you as well. Here goes info on recent updates and changes to those AI that we use most often.

Platform	Model / Release	Public Release Date	Key Features / My personal notes	Where have I found this information? Where to find API?
OpenAI	GPT-5	August 2025	Research preview; larger pre-trained GPT family model; available to Pro users/devs with less caps; web search very limited for free users.	OpenAI Blog and Youtube Presentation
OpenAI	GPT-4.1 family (GPT-4.1, 4.1 mini, 4.1 nano)	Apr 14, 2025	Improved coding; better instruction following; 1M-token context in API	OpenAI
OpenAI	o3 / o4-mini reasoning family	Apr 16, 2025	o3 = high-reasoning; o4-mini = cost/latency efficient; o3-pro variant in June 2025	OpenAI
Google	Gemini 2.5 (2.5 Pro experimental)	Mar 25, 2025	“Thinking” model family; Gemini 2.5 Pro leads benchmarks	Google Blog
Google	Gemini 2.5 updates @ Google I/O	May 20, 2025	Deep Think mode; native audio out; security updates; thought summaries; Vertex rollout	Google Blog
Anthropic	Claude 3.7 Sonnet & Claude Code (preview)	Feb 24, 2025	Hybrid reasoning with “extended thinking”; Claude Code tool for agentic coding	Anthropic
Anthropic	Claude 4 (Opus 4 & Sonnet 4)	May 22, 2025	Opus 4 = top coding/agent model; Sonnet 4 improved; Claude Code GA; Files API + MCP	Anthropic

Performance

Comparing models, people often want to see benchmarks and some… objective metrics of performance. Here I will review some benchmarks and information on those modes. I have analyzed this, so here go the insights:

ChatGPT

ChatGPT was trained on very diverse data, and in my experience GPT-5 model and previous recent generations are one of the most well-rounded models ever made.
Besides GPT-5, the GPT-4 Mini version is even in 2025, a decent enough option. It's lighter, faster model ideal for applications that require quick responses. And now there is also OpenAI's new o1 model that is great for calculations, math & tasks like vibe coding, which also works well on o-3-mini that was built-in before, but now is available mostly just through tools like writingmate.ai.

GPT-5 (in three versions) compared to other models:

Example Performance:

Newsrooms: Journalists can use ChatGPT (f.e. GPT-5 or 4o) to draft articles quickly. That makes their job more productive, less monotonous… but also gives some challenges to overcome, including with privacy and generic style of writing that GPT often has even in its latest release.
Coding: Developers benefit from its fast and accurate coding suggestions, especially with something like ChatGPT o1 model or Gemini 2.
Customer Service: Automates and enhances customer interactions with precise and quick responses.

And as previous GPT versions are also many people's favourites even in 2025, here is a benchmark comparing previous generation of GPT to recent Claude.

Gemini

Gemini 2.5 (available in Pro or Flash versions) is great when it comes to real-time communication. It is being made by Google (earlier naming the model Bard), and there are also Pro and Flash versions available.

I like how it keeps conversation context over longer time than other models. This matters in customer support and advisory roles, and also on day-to-day level. Who wants to constantly remind that chatbot all the details you "fed" it before? Better to remember everything and to generate based on that.

Example Performance:

Financial Advising: Assists in giving accurate and timely advice when having client conversations.
Customer Interaction: Handles multiple customer queries simultaneously with minimal response time.
Live Assistance: Suitable for applications requiring continuous and dynamic interaction.

Claude 4 + previous Anthropic Models

Claude 4 Sonnet may not be the fastest as of now (in my experience), but its focus on ethical responses and on consistent quality is unparalleled. It makes any interaction safe and balanced. In my opinion, Claude is probably an easiest model to avoid any harmful content and one of the least hallucinating ones. Keep in mind that there are also several versions of this model avaliable, for example, Claude Sonnet 4 or 3.7 Sonnet.

Example performance for three industries:

Mental Health Chatbots: Provides safe and supportive responses for users seeking mental health advice.
Educational Platforms: Ensures educational content is free from harmful biases.
Legal Assistance: Offers reliable and ethical advice, avoiding any controversial statements.

Free vs Paid

Let me now show you some insights on pricing. What I have found may surprise you and save you quite a budget.

ChatGPT

The pricing for ChatGPT ranges widely, from free versions with limited features to the advanced GPT-4o with a premium price tag. The cost reflects the model's extensive capabilities and high performance.

Pricing examples as of now:

Free Edition: Limited features, suitable for casual users or small-scale applications.
Premium Packages: Higher prices justified by advanced features, suitable for businesses needing high performance and versatility. You can see the recent list of plus and team features below.
Here is how ChatGPT pricing looks like in 2025. For a smaller amount you can use GPT-5, Claude-4 and 100+ other models with no API keys needed on your side, all through writingmate.ai that is a newest GPT alternative that… just does 10x more for similar price in 2025.

Gemini

Gemini 2.5 Pro is a part of larger Google AI subscription. With it, you get VEO-3, less limits in a (free!) notebookLM, and other tools, but not from other developers of course. Prices are somewhat balanced considering conversational features that Gemini now has.

Pricing Examples:

Basic Plan: Affordable, individuals/small businesses looking for efficient customer service solutions.
Pro or Enterprise Plan: More expensive, targeted at large organizations requiring more of extensive use of the model.

Claude

Claude 4 Sonnet cost may seem steep, but it also geaves some peace of mind for users prioritizing responsible AI and platforms like Claude Code. Issue is, again, that you only receive Claude models with its subscription, and if you need to use, try, or test, compare or daily drive multiple models, then using multiple subscriptions is not optimal and maybe a reason to switch to all-in-one-tools like writingmate.

Here is Claude 4 Pricing as of Autumn 2025.

Security and Privacy

Security is one more important parameter to compare in AI models. Foundd some nuances to all three models, you may fin that useful as well, especially if doing work-related tasks with AI.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT still has one of the best protocols to protect user privacy. There are some options to choose in the settings. To me, it is not always sufficient, so I would say that you better follow best practices from this video:

Security features of this chatbot include data encryption, it (mostly) protects user data from any unauthorized access. There is some user anonymity to GPTT: it makes sure user interactions are private and secure, and some compliance with regulations as well.

Gemini

Gemini 2.5 does, as it claims, have some advanced encryption methods and they seem to be consistent with Google’s security standards.

Is this reliable enough? Will it keep your sensitive information safe? I will let you decide on that, but personally did not have problems with Gemini and most of Google's services.

Security Features here include:

Advanced Encryption: says it protects sensitive data, f.e. medical or financial information.
Dual Authentication: seemingly adds one more layer of security for user accounts and ties well with Google infrastructure if you use one.
Regular Security Audits: "continuous improvement of security protocols"?

Claude

Claude is a bit different to gpt in that regard. Anthropic has always said that that it is committed to ethical AI use. They seem to have some inbuilt safety features that prevent misuse better.

Security Features I found:

Harm Prevention Algorithms: Prevents the generation of harmful or biased responses.
Ethical Guidelines: Ensures all interactions adhere to ethical standards.
Regular Updates: Frequent updates to address potential security vulnerabilities.

How to Compare AI Models by Yourself

Recently I've noticed that more people are interested to compare, users all over the world search for "Comparison of ChatGPT and Claude" in the US or for GPT Gemini 比较 in China. If you wish to compare these AI models yourself, follow these steps on Writingmate:

Step-by-Step Guide:

Log in to Writingmate and purchase a subscription.
Open the left menu and select the Split Screen option.
Choose any two models to run side-by-side comparisons.

For a helpful video guide, watch this YouTube tutorial.

Writingmate lets you compare different aspects like response quality, speed, cost, and overall performance hands-on. Let's say you need to compare Gemini 2.5 Pro and GPT4, or that same Gemini 2.5 Flash with Claude 比较 Sonnet 4. Writingmate AI model comparison is something that will help you make more informed decisions, based on your specific needs. Here is a brief video tutorial on how to compare models side by side on this web platform:

Things to Compare:

Response Quality: Evaluate the accuracy and relevance of responses.
Speed: Measure the time taken to generate responses.
User Experience: Assess the ease of interaction and overall experience.
Cost Efficiency: Compare the features offered concerning their cost.

Practical Example: say you run a small business and want to choose the best AI model for customer support. Using Writingmate, you could directly compare ChatGPT and Gemini by generating responses to typical customer queries. Then, just see and evaluate which model provides quicker, more accurate responses, and that way you then select the best fit for your business or for a very exact task.

Multi-AI Model Use with Writingmate

Writingmate includes GPT-5, 4o, GPT-4o Mini, OpenAI's o1, Claude 4 Sonnet, Claude 4.1 Opus, Gemini 2, and much, much more. Dozens of AI models in a single web app, so, pay once for access to all these professional models.

One more remarkable feature of Writingmate is the Split Screen Model Comparison.

This lets you test two AI models simultaneously, at the same time. This feature is particularly helpful to see their actual performance, response quality, and speed side-by-side. Why should you believe benchmarks from the company, now you can see how it works yourself, then compare it for specific things that you do.

writingmate-ai-models-comparison-pricing

How to Use Split Screen Model Comparison:

Log in to Writingmate, get a subscription. No API keys needed, beginner-friendly and all-inclusive :)
Select the Split Screen option from the left menu.
Choose the two models you wish to compare.

This feature lets you see which AI model best fits their needs, whether for educational support, customer service, or content creation.

Examples of Multi-AI Model Use:

Use the combined strengths of different, multiple AI models for various applications of yours with Writingmate.

Educational Platforms: Schools can use Claude 4 to ensure student safety and ChatGPT to generate content and manage educational materials.
Customer Service: Companies can use Gemini for real-time customer support and ChatGPT for creating knowledge bases and automatic report generation.
Content Creation: Media outlets can use ChatGPT for writing articles & Gemini to interact with readers or to gather feedback.

Example: multimedia content creators could use ChatGPT for scriptwriting and Claude to make sure the script is ethical and unbiased. In the same tim Gemini talks to yur audience in real-time for feedback & live sessions.

Conclusion

Each AI model, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude, are different and each model has its own personality, best use cases and top capabilities. ChatGPT 4o feels like the swiss-army-knife of AI, does all kinds of things you throw at it. Gemini 2.5 is well-made for live chats, which is why a lot of customer support teams use it via api, and google tools integration is nice, too. Claude Sonnet is a top choice for coding and for educational institutions, given Anthropic policies and feature set.

Then there are models like o1 or DeepSeek that go deep into specific stuff - a topic for another blog post perhaps.

If you actually want to see how they stack up, check out Chatbot Arena. It lets you test two models head-to-head without knowing which is which, and their leaderboard shows what’s hot right now.

I found Arena to be great at theoretical comparisons, and WritingMate is for, then, getting things done and seeing models in action with your tasks. There are all of top models in one place for about nine bucks a month and way easier than juggling different accounts of gpt and claude. If you just want to write, research, or brainstorm without the hassle, that’s the move to make.

See you in the next article!
Artem

Articles by Writingmate

Best Dictation App for Mac in 2025: I Tested Them All So You Don't Have To

All Articles

Ready to experience the power of AI?