Claude vs. ChatGPT: Which AI Chatbot Is Best for Everyday Tasks? – MUO – MakeUseOf
Which generative AI chatbot will you be using?
ChatGPT has undoubtedly made history as the most popular AI chatbot to hit our screens, but it has no shortage of competitors. One such competitor, Claude, offers an impressive AI chatbot service, but does this outshine ChatGPT?
You've likely already heard of OpenAI's ChatGPT AI chatbot and its GPT LLM (large language model). While ChatGPT is presented as a chatbot, incredible work has been done behind the scenes to make it a knowledge hub.
Numerous versions of ChatGPT have been developed over the years, with the two most popular and recent being GPT-3.5 and GPT-4.
ChatGPT has been trained with both knowledge and human feedback (specifically Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback [RLHF]) to become a robust and advanced AI-powered tool. In its training period, ChatGPT was fed 570GB of data from books, websites, news articles, journals, and other sources (dating up to September 2021).
As such, ChatGPT can process human prompts to provide facts, tips, content, and even code to users. According to Similar Web, ChatGPT amassed over 1.6 billion visits in June 2023 alone.
On the other hand, Claude is an LLM developed by Anthropic. Like ChatGPT, Claude is designed to process natural human language and respond in a friendly and informative manner. In July 2023, Anthropic released Claude 2, which is currently in beta.
This came as Claude 1.3's successor and has a variety of improved features, namely its greater ability to write code from human prompts. Claude 2 also has a larger context window than its predecessor, meaning users can give longer prompts and add more information when communicating with the chatbot.
We'll be using Claude 1.3 and Claude 2 in this comparison.
ChatGPT's two most recent versions, GPT-3.5 and GPT-4, can be used, though the latter is only available via ChatGPT Plus. GPT-4 has far more parameters than GPT-3.5 and a higher character input and output limit. Again, both iterations of ChatGPT will be discussed here.
Before discussing ChatGPT and Claude's pros and cons in depth, we've provided a simple comparison table that you can use to understand the basics.
ChatGPT
Claude
Availability
159 countries
US and UK
Available version(s)
GPT-3.5 and GPT-4
Claude 1.3 and Claude 2
Price
Training Data Limit
Trained up to September 2021
Trained up to December 2022
Token Limit
Chat History
Yes—can be deleted
Yes—can be deleted
VPN Support
No
Yes
As you can see, there are several differences to consider.
In what ways does ChatGPT outshine Claude? What perks and advantages does it boast?
ChatGPT offers great features and benefits to its users, starting with its ability to fulfill prompts.
As previously discussed, ChatGPT wasn't just fed data in its training period. The GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 LLMs were also trained to process human language, allowing for more adept and conversational responses. Along with its human-like tone, ChatGPT can fulfill an endless list of prompts. You can ask ChatGPT to provide facts, check spelling and grammar, create schedules, translate text, and more.
While GPT-3.5 can carry out all the functions mentioned above, GPT-4 has an even greater ability to interpret user language, accurately fulfill prompts, and reason effectively. GPT-4 also has an increased character limit double that of GPT-3.5.
Additionally, ChatGPT has a wide range of browser plugins, including:
These plugins have various functions but generally allow you to integrate ChatGPT into your online activities.
One of ChatGPT's biggest downsides is that its training data only dates up to September 2021. This means that ChatGPT cannot provide any newer information, which limits what you can request.
ChatGPT also experiences AI hallucination, in which an AI system provides an inaccurate answer that does not correlate with its training data.
The system will believe this answer to be true, regardless of how far from reality the response strays. AI hallucination can lead to untruthful responses and misinformation.
If you want to use ChatGPT, you can do so for free, but you will be limited to GPT-3.5's capabilities. To use GPT-4, you'll need to upgrade to ChatGPT Plus, which costs $20 monthly at the time of writing. If you're not looking to spend any money but want the best version of ChatGPT, you may find this a tough barrier to cross.
Lastly, ChatGPT does not support use via a VPN, which can be tricky if you're a regular VPN user or want to get around your region's geo-restrictions.
So, how does Claude compare to ChatGPT?
There are some ways in which Claude outshines ChatGPT, which we'll get into here.
Firstly, Claude can be a better fit for those looking to create or refine code using an AI chatbot.
This is especially the case for those using Claude 2, as it has a much greater context window than Claude 1.3 (which had a token limit of just 9,000) and ChatGPT. Claude 2 users can input an incredible 100,000 tokens per prompt, meaning the chatbot can be given more data to work with.
If you've got a large block of code you want a generative AI chabot to look over, you'll be limited using ChatGPT (be it GPT-3.5 or GPT-4) compared to Claude 2. With Claude 2, you can provide hundreds of lines of code without worrying about hitting the input limit.
Subsequently, Claude 2's increased output limit allows for more fleshed-out and informative responses.
Additionally, Claude was trained with information dating up to December 2022, almost two years later than ChatGPT. This means Claude can call upon more recent data, expanding its ability to answer fact-based questions.
Lastly, Claude 2 is entirely free to use, with no one-off fees or monthly subscriptions required for use.
Claude's biggest limitation is geographical availability. At the time of writing, Claude is only available to US and UK residents, while ChatGPT is available in most countries worldwide.
Unlike ChatGPT, Claude does not offer plugins, which limits its versatility in certain settings. However, Claude can be added to Slack if you want a little help writing your messages or summarizing the messages you receive.
Like ChatGPT, Claude is also at risk of hallucinating, which is important to remember.
To further understand how these two AI chatbots and their respective LLMs work, let's provide each with the same prompts to see how they react.
First, we asked both Claude and ChatGPT to provide us with a poem using the same prompt each time.
Both ChatGPT and Claude provided poems that fit the parameters of the prompt.
ChatGPT's poem was a little shorter, highlighting that it followed the requested ABAB rhyming structure.
On the other hand, Claude provided a slightly lengthier poem, but both are fairly equal in their creative abilities.
We also asked both ChatGPT and Claude to solve a mathematical equation. Both chatbots were given the same trigonometry question, which involved finding the value of an angle.
ChatGPT's response took us through the equation step-by-step instead of just providing the answer.
When given the same problem, Claude gave us the following response:
Interestingly, both chatbots gave different outcomes, with ChatGPT providing the correct answer.
Lastly, we asked ChatGPT and Claude to translate a paragraph of Japanese into English. The original paragraph reads:
Flowers bloom in spring, but sometimes they bloom in summer. The grass beyond the meadow is green. The atmosphere is rich in the aroma of bark.
ChatGPT's interpretation read:
Flowers bloom in spring, but they can also bloom in summer. The grass beyond the pasture is green. There is a rich scent of tree bark in the atmosphere.
Claude's interpretation read…
Flowers bloom in spring, but they also bloom in summer. The grass beyond the meadow is green. The aroma of the tree bark makes for a rich atmosphere.
Compared to the original text, Claude did a slightly better job translating from Japanese to English.
While ChatGPT is almost a household name nowadays, competitors like Claude have a lot of potential to knock it from its number-one spot. Who knows, Claude could one day become ChatGPT's biggest competitor!
Katie has been writing about tech-based topics for two years, with a specific interest in cybersecurity, AI, and cryptocurrency. Katie has covered a variety of topics during her time at MUO, including crypto explainers, cybersecurity guides, VPN reviews, recent hacks, and software tutorials. With a passion for emerging tech, Katie is also excited to see what new devices and digital platforms the coming years will bring.
