Claude vs ChatGPT: which AI assistant suits you?

The difference in brief

Claude comes from the US company Anthropic, ChatGPT from OpenAI. Both are AI assistants: you type or say a question in plain sentences and the program answers. Both search the web, work with uploaded files and have a voice mode.

The biggest practical difference: ChatGPT creates images, Claude does not. According to Anthropic, Claude does not make photos or illustrations, only diagrams, charts and small interactive views in the chat. Claude is also only allowed from 18, ChatGPT from 13.

Both run on several models, meaning versions of the AI with different strengths. According to Anthropic, Claude uses Haiku 5.5 and Sonnet 5.5 on the free plan and Opus 5.5 from Pro. The Fable 5.1 model is included in Max; on Pro it costs extra through separately paid usage credits. ChatGPT uses the GPT-6 Luna model on the free plan and on Go. From Plus, the stronger models GPT-6 Sol, GPT-6 Astra and GPT-6.1 Sol are added, with tighter limits on Plus than on Pro.

If you are also considering Gemini, our comparison of ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini will help. This page is only about these two.

What both cost in Germany (as of October 2026)

Claude can be used for free. According to the German pricing page, Pro costs 18 euros a month, or 15 euros a month billed annually (180 euros upfront). Max starts at 90 euros a month and offers either five or twenty times as much usage as Pro. Anthropic states its prices excluding any taxes; you see the final amount at checkout.

ChatGPT can also be used for free. According to the German pricing page, Go costs 8 euros, Plus 23 euros and Pro from 103 euros a month. Go may include ads.

The free versions differ clearly. ChatGPT Free offers unlimited text chats with abuse protection, plus limited uploads, images, voice chats and the in-depth Deep Research feature. Claude Free covers chat, web search, file creation, voice mode and up to five projects, but not the in-depth Research feature, not Opus and not Claude Code. Anthropic does not name a fixed number of messages; usage limits apply.

Our assessment: the list price of Claude Pro is below ChatGPT Plus, even if 19 percent VAT were added (about 21.40 euros). ChatGPT, in turn, has Go as a cheaper middle tier.

How old do you have to be? Claude only from 18

According to Anthropic's terms, Claude is only allowed for people aged 18 or over, or a higher minimum age if one applies where you live. When you sign up, you confirm that you are an adult. If Anthropic finds signs that someone is younger, the account is disabled until the age is verified. This works through the service Yoti, either with a selfie for age estimation or a photo of an ID document. According to the help page, Anthropic only receives a pass or fail result.

According to OpenAI's European terms, ChatGPT is allowed from 13, or from the minimum age required in your country to give consent. If you are under 18, you need permission from your parent or legal guardian, who should read the terms with you.

If ChatGPT estimates from signals such as conversation topics and usage times that an account belongs to a minor, it automatically switches on the ChatGPT for Teens experience. It filters sensitive content more strictly and shows no ads. Adults placed there by mistake can verify their age through the service Persona if the option is offered. Parents can manage selected settings through parental controls but cannot see the conversations.

Our assessment: for school pupils only ChatGPT is an option of the two, and only with their parents' permission.

Strengths: writing, documents, coding, images and voice

Long documents: according to the pricing page, Claude processes up to one million tokens at once depending on the model; tokens are text pieces made of words and parts of words. The pricing page states this for every plan, but the help page on the context window only confirms it explicitly for paid plans, for example for Sonnet 5.5, Opus 5.5 and Haiku 5.5. The free plan also has tighter usage limits. With ChatGPT the amount depends heavily on the plan: according to OpenAI, Free fits about 12 pages of text into one input with the fast model, Go and Plus about 320 pages with the reasoning models, and Pro about 680 pages.

Writing: Anthropic says Opus 5.5 writes more clearly and naturally than earlier models. A writer at Zapier, an automation company, found in his comparison, last reviewed in October 2026, that Claude writes more naturally and is more helpful when editing. According to the same review, ChatGPT offers Canvas, a built-in text editor. This is a hands-on review, not a systematic test.

Coding: Claude Code, Anthropic's coding tool, is available from Pro. ChatGPT includes the comparable Codex on every plan, limited on Free and Go. More on this in our comparison of Claude Code and Codex.

Images: ChatGPT creates images, limited on Free and unlimited on Pro. Claude does not create images but can analyse photos and graphics you upload.

Voice: both have a voice mode on every plan. According to Anthropic, Claude's is a beta feature for the app, desktop and web that works best on a phone and counts towards your normal usage limit. ChatGPT Voice has a Live option that listens and speaks at the same time. Video during a conversation is available from Go according to the pricing page.

Web search: both search the web on every plan. ChatGPT decides by itself whether to search, but you can also start a search on purpose. In-depth research reports are available on Claude only from Pro, on ChatGPT Free only in limited form.

Privacy and ads

According to Anthropic, Claude only uses your chats for training if you allow model improvement in your privacy settings or a chat is flagged in a safety review. According to Anthropic, you make this choice when you sign up and can change it at any time. The help pages do not make clear whether the toggle is already switched on at that point; the pricing page lists training on Free, Pro and Max as opt-out, meaning something you have to switch off yourself. So check the toggle under Settings and Privacy. If you agreed, Anthropic keeps the data in de-identified form for up to five years. Deleted chats are removed from its storage systems within 30 days, and incognito chats are never used for training.

With ChatGPT, content from Free, Plus and Pro can be used for training until you turn off the model improvement toggle under Data controls in the settings. Temporary chats are not used for training but are kept for up to 30 days.

Ads: ads may appear on ChatGPT Free and Go; in the European Economic Area they are not personalised for now, according to OpenAI. Plus and Pro are ad-free, as are accounts of minors. In February 2026 Anthropic announced that Claude will remain ad-free.

On both providers' business plans, your content is not used for training by default. For private use, do not enter health data, account numbers or passwords into either service unless necessary.

Who should choose which?

The following is an editorial recommendation based on the providers' information and one hands-on review, not our own test.

Claude suits you if you write a lot, want long contracts, reports or studies summarised, or write code. It is ad-free but does not create images, and you must be an adult.

ChatGPT suits you if you want one assistant for everything: questions, texts, images, conversations by voice and video. The free version allows unlimited text chats, and teenagers from 13 may use ChatGPT with their parents' permission.

Both are available in Germany, in the browser, as an app for iPhone and Android and as a computer program. You usually do not need two subscriptions. Try the free versions first.