Short verdict: at roughly the same price ($20/month), ChatGPT offers more features (images, voice, Codex, and an $8 budget tier), while Claude is stronger at long writing, large documents and coding with Claude Code — and saves you $3/month if you pay yearly.

Choose ChatGPT if

  • You want one tool for everything: writing, images, voice chat, file analysis.
  • Your budget is under $20 — Go at $8 has no Claude equivalent.
  • You code now and then and Codex inside Plus is enough.

Choose Claude if

  • Your work is long-form writing or summarising and analysing big documents.
  • You code a lot and want Claude Code in the same subscription.
  • You'll use it for a full year: Pro at $17/month billed yearly.

Before you pay

Use both free plans for a week on your real tasks, then pay for the one you had to correct less. Most people need one paid subscription plus the free plan of the other.

Add Gemini to the comparison: ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini.

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