ChatGPT

September 2026 update: OpenAI's summer brought GPT-5.6 (Sol, Terra, Luna), GPT-6 Astra, ChatGPT Work, Codex merged into the desktop app, and the end of both Sora and the Atlas browser. The recap is in OpenAI over the summer of 2026. The text below is the original spring 2026 review — mentions of GPT-4o, o1/o3 and Sora are historical.

Where ChatGPT is still king

ChatGPT has two huge advantages that Claude hasn't caught up with yet: ecosystem and multimodality.

GPT Store and plugins

Thousands of custom GPTs for specific tasks — from SEO assistants through translators to specialized analyses. If you need AI for a niche use case, it probably already exists in the GPT Store.

Multimodality

ChatGPT handles text, images, audio, and video in a single conversation. You can send it a photo of a whiteboard from a meeting, an audio recording, and a spreadsheet — and it processes all of it in context. Claude currently supports only text and images.

Where ChatGPT falls short

Accuracy

In a direct comparison, ChatGPT is less accurate than Claude — it "hallucinates" more often, i.e. generates plausible-sounding information that isn't true. For factually critical tasks (legal documents, technical documentation, customer support), that's a problem.

Working with long context

Although GPT-4 Turbo supports 128k tokens, answer quality on long inputs drops noticeably. In needle-in-a-haystack tests, it lags behind Claude, which consistently finds information anywhere in a 200k context.

Code

ChatGPT is very good at generating code, but Claude (especially with Claude Code) is a step ahead in this area. ChatGPT has no equivalent of Claude Code — a terminal agent that works directly with your repository.

The o1/o3 model line: reasoning

OpenAI responded to Claude's extended thinking with the o1 and o3 model lines. These models excel at:

• Math and science
• Competitive programming
• Planning and strategy

The main difference: o1/o3 hide the chain-of-thought (you only see the result), Claude shows it. For debugging and understanding how the model thinks, Claude's transparency is more useful.

When to use ChatGPT instead of Claude?

• Creative writing — ChatGPT has better "flow" and is more creative
• Multimodal tasks — video and audio analysis
• Brainstorming — generates more varied ideas
• Visual content — DALL-E and Sora directly in chat
• Niche tasks — GPT Store likely has a specialized version

Verdict

ChatGPT is an excellent all-round AI assistant with the broadest ecosystem on the market. For creative work, multimodal tasks, and regular daily use, it's a great choice. But for professional work with code, data, and documents, I recommend reaching for Claude — it's more accurate and consistently better in those areas.