What is Claude? How It Differs from ChatGPT
If you've used ChatGPT, you already know what an AI assistant can do. Claude is Anthropic's answer to ChatGPT — a powerful AI assistant that takes a different approach to how it helps you think, write, and work.
Meet Claude
Claude is an AI assistant built by Anthropic, a company founded in 2021 by former OpenAI researchers Dario and Daniela Amodei. While ChatGPT launched in November 2022 and became the fastest-growing consumer app in history, Claude quietly built a reputation as the thinking person's AI — excelling at tasks that require careful reasoning, nuanced writing, and deep analysis.
The name "Claude" comes from Claude Shannon, the father of information theory. That choice reflects Anthropic's mission: building AI that processes information thoughtfully and reliably.
Claude's Model Family
Claude comes in several models, each designed for different needs:
| Model | Best For | Speed | Intelligence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Sonnet | Everyday tasks, writing, coding | Fast | Excellent |
| Claude Opus | Complex analysis, research, nuanced reasoning | Slower | Highest |
| Claude Haiku | Quick questions, simple tasks, high-volume use | Fastest | Good |
Claude Sonnet is the model most people use day-to-day. It handles writing, coding, analysis, and conversation with an excellent balance of speed and intelligence.
Claude Opus is the most powerful model, reserved for tasks that need deep reasoning — like analyzing complex legal documents or solving multi-step research problems.
Claude Haiku is the speed champion, ideal for quick tasks where you need fast answers without waiting.
How Claude Differs from ChatGPT
While both are AI assistants, they have distinct personalities and capabilities:
Writing Style
Claude tends to write in a more measured, natural tone. Where ChatGPT might say "Absolutely! Here's an amazing breakdown of the top 10 strategies!", Claude is more likely to respond with "Here are several approaches worth considering, each with different tradeoffs."
This matters because:
- Claude's writing sounds less "AI-generated" to readers
- Professional documents feel more polished
- The tone is easier to publish without heavy editing
Context Window
Claude offers a 200K token context window — roughly 150,000 words or a 500-page book. ChatGPT's GPT-4o offers 128K tokens. This means Claude can process significantly longer documents without losing information.
Honesty About Uncertainty
Claude is more likely to say "I'm not sure about this" or "This is outside my training data." ChatGPT tends to give confident-sounding answers even when uncertain. Neither approach is always better, but Claude's transparency helps you know when to double-check.
Safety Philosophy
Anthropic built Claude using Constitutional AI (CAI), a technique where the AI follows a set of principles to guide its behavior. The goal is to be helpful, harmless, and honest. In practice, Claude is sometimes more cautious than ChatGPT about sensitive topics, though Anthropic continues to refine this balance.
What Claude Can Do
Here's a quick overview of Claude's capabilities:
- Write and edit — Articles, emails, reports, creative writing, code documentation
- Analyze documents — Summarize PDFs, extract data, compare multiple files
- Write code — Generate, debug, review, and explain code in many languages
- Answer questions — Research topics, explain concepts, provide analysis
- Process images — Analyze charts, read screenshots, describe photos
- Create artifacts — Generate interactive previews of code, documents, and visualizations
- Reason through problems — Break down complex questions step by step
What Claude Cannot Do
Understanding the limitations is just as important:
- No web browsing — Claude cannot search the internet for current information
- No image generation — Claude cannot create images (no DALL-E equivalent)
- No code execution — Claude can write code but cannot run it for you
- No voice mode — Text-only interaction (no spoken conversations)
- Knowledge cutoff — Claude's training data has a cutoff date and may not know about very recent events
Why People Choose Claude
Different users gravitate to Claude for different reasons:
Writers choose Claude because its output needs less editing and sounds more natural.
Developers choose Claude because its code reviews are thorough and its explanations are clear.
Researchers choose Claude because it can analyze entire papers and books in a single conversation.
Professionals choose Claude because it handles long documents — contracts, reports, transcripts — without losing context.
Key Takeaways
- Claude is Anthropic's AI assistant, built with a focus on being helpful, harmless, and honest
- Three models are available: Sonnet (daily use), Opus (complex tasks), and Haiku (speed)
- Claude has a larger context window (200K tokens) than ChatGPT, making it better for long documents
- Claude's writing style is more measured and natural-sounding than ChatGPT's
- Claude cannot browse the web, generate images, or execute code
- Claude is more transparent about uncertainty, which helps you know when to verify answers