Read on 13 October 2026: Claude Pro and ChatGPT Plus both cost $20 a month in the US, so pick on fit. Claude suits long documents and terminal coding: its apps list a context window of up to 1M tokens and every paid plan includes Claude Code. ChatGPT suits image generation, a cheaper $8 Go plan and a free tier with limited deep research and Codex. On the API the two lineups share list prices at each tier; the rules for long prompts and cached input differ.
Claude and ChatGPT cost the same at the tier most people buy, $20 a month, so the choice comes down to the work you do. Pick Claude for long documents and coding in the terminal, and ChatGPT for image generation, a cheaper $8 plan and a free tier that includes more tools.
Every figure below was read on 13 October 2026 from the two companies' own pages: Anthropic's plan page, help centre, models overview and API pricing, and OpenAI's ChatGPT pricing page, plan docs, API models and API pricing. Prices are US dollars before tax. Anthropic's plan page shows local currency outside the US (opened from Australia it showed Australian prices with GST included), so the plan prices here are the ones its help centre states for US customers.
- Work from long transcripts, contracts or codebases
- Want a coding agent in your terminal on a $20 plan
- Would pay yearly: Pro is $200 a year
- Build on the API with prompts longer than 272K tokens
- Need images generated in the same chat
- Want the cheapest paid plan: Go at $8 a month
- Want deep research and Codex on a free account
- Need image or live voice models on the same API bill
Claude vs ChatGPT at a glance
Both are chat assistants built on a large language model (see LLM in the glossary), sold as a free plan, a set of paid plans and a separate developer API. The table compares what each company lists today.
| Read 13 October 2026 | Claude | ChatGPT |
|---|---|---|
| Made by | Anthropic | OpenAI |
| Free plan | $0. Sonnet and Haiku models, web search, files, memory, voice mode | $0. Unlimited text chats, with limited images, voice, deep research and Codex |
| Lowest paid plan | Pro: $20 a month, or $17 a month billed annually | Go: $8 a month. Plus: $20 a month |
| Heavy-use plan | Max 5x: $100 a month. Max 20x: $200 a month | Pro: $100, $200 or $500 a month |
| Coding agent | Claude Code, on every paid plan | Codex, limited on Free and Go, full from Plus |
| Image generation | Not listed. Models return text | Yes, on every plan, limited on Free |
| Context in the app | Up to 1M tokens, varies by model | Instant: 27K to 128K by plan. Reasoning: 256K to 400K |
| Training on personal chats | Opt-out setting | Opt-out setting |
Plans and prices
The two price lists are close to mirror images. Both have a free plan, a $20 plan, a $100 plan and a $200 plan, and both charge $25 a seat for teams. OpenAI adds a plan below $20 and one above $200; Anthropic adds annual billing for individuals.
| Tier | Claude | ChatGPT |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 |
| Budget | No equivalent | Go: $8 a month. The plan may include ads |
| Main plan | Pro: $20 a month, or $200 a year | Plus: $20 a month |
| Heavy use | Max 5x: $100. Max 20x: $200. Monthly billing only | Pro: $100, $200 or $500 |
| Team seat | $25 a month, or $20 billed annually. Premium seat: $125 or $100. 2 to 150 seats | Business: $25 a month, or $20 billed annually, for 2 or more users |
| Large company | Enterprise: $20 a seat a month, billed annually, plus usage at API rates | Enterprise: through sales |
Claude prices come from Anthropic's help centre articles on the Pro plan, the Max plan and the Team plan, with the annual Pro figure from the US dollar version of the plan page. ChatGPT prices come from OpenAI's plan docs, which state the Pro tiers in US dollars.
Neither company publishes a message count for its chat plans. Anthropic says limits reset on a rolling five-hour session and that paid plans add a weekly limit, with Max giving 5 or 20 times the Pro allowance per session. OpenAI describes everyday text chats as unlimited on every plan, subject to abuse guardrails, and limits uploads, images, voice and deep research by tier. Our Claude pricing guide covers the Claude side in full.
Which models you get
Claude
Anthropic's models overview lists four current models: Claude Fable 5.1, Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5 and Haiku 5.5. Each has a 1M-token context window, a 128K-token maximum reply and a June 2026 knowledge cutoff. Anthropic suggests starting with Opus 5.5 for most work.
In the apps, Free includes the Sonnet and Haiku models, and Pro adds Opus. Fable is the exception: on Pro it runs on pay-as-you-go usage credits, while Max plans can spend up to 50% of their weekly limit on it at no extra cost (help centre).
ChatGPT
OpenAI's API models page features three models: GPT-6 Astra for complex reasoning and coding, GPT-6.1 Sol to balance intelligence and cost, and GPT-6 Luna for high-volume work. Each has a 1,050,000-token context window with a 922,000-token input limit and a 128,000-token maximum reply.
Inside ChatGPT the picture is split. The pricing page describes Free as unlimited text chats with GPT-6 and Plus as adding advanced reasoning models, while OpenAI's model docs say the named GPT-6.1 Sol, GPT-6 Sol and GPT-6 Luna models are available in ChatGPT Work and Codex, not in Chat. Chat context also depends on the plan: 27K tokens on Free, 54K on Go and Plus and 128K on Pro for instant answers, with 256K on Go and Plus and 400K on Pro for reasoning.
API prices for apps and automations
A chat subscription does not run code. To call either model from an app or an n8n workflow you create an API key and pay per token: see how to get a Claude API key and how to get an OpenAI API key. List prices per million tokens, from Anthropic and OpenAI:
| Model | Input | Cached input | Output | Long prompts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Fable 5.1 | $10 | $0.25 | $50 | Standard rate across 1M tokens |
| Claude Opus 5.5 | $4 | $0.20 | $20 | Standard rate across 1M tokens |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | $2 | $0.10 | $10 | Standard rate across 1M tokens |
| Claude Haiku 5.5 | $0.10 | $0.01 | $0.50 | $0.50 and $2.50 once a prompt passes 100,000 tokens |
| GPT-6 Astra | $10 | $1.00 | $50 | 2x input, 1.5x output above 272K input tokens |
| GPT-6.1 Sol | $2 | $0.10 | $10 | 2x input, 1.5x output above 272K input tokens |
| GPT-6 Luna | $0.10 | $0.01 | $0.50 | 2x input, 1.5x output above 272K input tokens |
At list price the tiers match: $10 and $50 at the top, $2 and $10 in the middle, $0.10 and $0.50 at the bottom. Three rules separate them.
- Long prompts. Claude bills its full 1M window at the standard rate on Fable 5.1, Opus 5.5 and Sonnet 5.5. OpenAI charges twice the input price and 1.5 times the output price on the whole request once a prompt passes 272K input tokens. Claude Haiku 5.5 has its own step at 100,000 tokens.
- Cached input. An agent that resends a long prefix pays $0.25 per million cached tokens on Fable 5.1 and $1.00 on GPT-6 Astra. The middle and bottom tiers match.
- Batch jobs. Both take 50% off work that can wait.
One new wrinkle on the Claude side: Max and Team plans now include monthly Claude API credits, $100 on Max 5x and $200 on Max 20x, claimed by linking a Console organization (help centre). Our Claude API pricing post has the cost math, and the LLM API pricing comparison adds Google and Mistral.
Codex vs Claude Code
Each company bundles a coding agent with its chat plans: a tool that reads your repository, edits files and runs commands.
| Claude Code | Codex | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | Terminal, VS Code and JetBrains, desktop app, browser | Web, CLI, IDE extension and iOS |
| Plan needed | Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise or a Console account. Not on Free | Plus and above. Free and Go: GPT-6 Luna in the desktop app, subject to rollout |
| Pay per token instead | Yes, with a Claude Console account | Yes, with an API key. No cloud features in that mode |
| Usage | Shares the five-hour and weekly limits of your Claude plan | Shares your ChatGPT plan allowance. Pro plans currently have no five-hour limit |
| Install on macOS or Linux | curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash | curl -fsSL https://chatgpt.com/codex/install.sh | sh |
Details are from Anthropic's Claude Code setup docs and OpenAI's Codex pricing page. OpenAI publishes rough local message ranges for Plus per five-hour period, 15 to 160 on GPT-6.1 Sol and 350 to 3,000 on GPT-6 Luna, and says they are estimates, not fixed limits. Anthropic publishes no equivalent range.
Neither vendor page tells you which agent writes better code, and we ran no tests for this post. The independent rankings we could read are on our Claude vs GPT comparison. To try the Claude side, follow how to install Claude Code; if you are weighing it against an AI editor, read Claude Code vs Cursor.
Privacy and business plans
On personal plans, both companies list model training as a setting you can turn off. Anthropic's plan table shows it as opt-out on Free, Pro and Max. OpenAI's pricing page shows an opt-out on Free, Go, Plus and Pro.
Business products flip the default. Anthropic says it does not use inputs or outputs from its commercial products, including Claude for Work and the API, to train models by default (privacy centre). OpenAI says data sent to its API has not been used for training since 1 March 2023 unless you opt in (your data), and lists no training on business data by default for ChatGPT Business.
Which to pick for your work
- 1Writing from long source material
Claude. Its apps list a context window of up to 1M tokens, against 54K to 256K on ChatGPT Plus.
- 2Illustrated posts, thumbnails, mock-ups
ChatGPT. Image creation is listed on every plan. Claude lists Artifacts and Claude Design, not an image generator.
- 3Coding every day
Try both agents on one task. Claude Code is on the $20 Pro plan; Codex is fully available from the $20 Plus plan.
- 4Research with sources
ChatGPT lists limited deep research on Free. Claude lists Research from Pro upward.
- 5An app or automation
Use the API on either. Prices match by tier, so decide on prompt length, caching and the other models you need.
- 6A team
Seat prices match at $25 a month. Compare admin controls and the limits per seat.
You do not have to choose once: many workflows send different steps to different models. AI SaaS Builder, one of our programs, builds a product on the Claude API and covers prompting, tool use, structured output and prompt caching. If Google is on your shortlist too, see Claude vs Gemini, and the AI automation library has the rest of our guides.
What changes often
Model names, prices and limits on this page have a short shelf life. Check the vendor page before you budget on any number here.
- 3 Sep 2026OpenAI released GPT-6 Astra
- 22 Sep 2026Anthropic launched Claude Opus 5.5
- 28 Sep 2026Anthropic launched Claude Sonnet 5.5
- 29 Sep 2026OpenAI released GPT-6.1 Sol
- 6 Oct 2026OpenAI cut its API usage tiers from five to three
- 7 Oct 2026Anthropic launched Claude Haiku 5.5
- 14 Oct 2026GPT-5.5 retires from ChatGPT and Codex
The API is not affected.
- 23 Oct 2026OpenAI removes gpt-4 and gpt-4-turbo from its API
Source: Anthropic release notes and OpenAI changelog, read 13 October 2026
Dates are from Anthropic's release notes, OpenAI's API changelog, its deprecations page and its ChatGPT model docs.
Claude vs ChatGPT: FAQ
Is Claude better than ChatGPT?
Neither wins everything. On the vendor pages read on 13 October 2026, Claude offers a context window of up to 1M tokens in its apps and includes Claude Code on every paid plan. ChatGPT generates images on every plan, sells an $8 Go plan and gives free accounts limited deep research and Codex. Match the tool to your main task.
Which is cheaper, Claude or ChatGPT?
The main plans tie at $20 a month in the US. ChatGPT is cheaper at the bottom with Go at $8, and Claude Pro is cheaper if you pay yearly, at $200 up front, which works out to $17 a month. Team seats match, and on the API the two lineups share list prices at each tier.
Is Claude better than ChatGPT for coding?
The vendor pages cannot settle that, and this page runs no tests of its own. The practical differences are access and limits: Claude Code needs a paid Claude plan or a Console account, while Codex is listed on every ChatGPT plan with limits on Free and Go. Run both on one real task from your own repository.
Can Claude generate images like ChatGPT?
Anthropic's models overview lists text and image input with text output for every current Claude model, and its plan page lists Artifacts, Claude Design, Slides and Docs, not an image generator. ChatGPT lists image creation on every plan, limited on Free.
Does Claude Pro or ChatGPT Plus include API access?
No. Anthropic's help centre says the Pro plan does not include API usage through the Claude Console, and OpenAI's plan docs say API token prices are separate from subscription usage. One exception read on 13 October 2026: Claude Max and Team plans include monthly Claude API credits, $100 on Max 5x and $200 on Max 20x.
Do Claude and ChatGPT train on my chats?
On personal plans both list model training as something you can opt out of: Claude on Free, Pro and Max, and ChatGPT on Free, Go, Plus and Pro. Team and business plans list no training by default, and neither company trains on API data unless you opt in.
What is the difference between Codex and Claude Code?
Both are coding agents that read a repository, edit files and run commands. Claude Code, from Anthropic, runs in the terminal, IDEs, a desktop app and the browser on any paid Claude plan. Codex, from OpenAI, runs on the web, in a CLI, in an IDE extension and on iOS from the Plus plan, with limited desktop access on Free and Go.