The AI Tokens

OpenAI vs Anthropic Pricing

Complete cost comparison between OpenAI's GPT models and Anthropic's Claude models

OpenAI GPT Models

GPT-5.2$1.75 / $14.00
GPT-5.1$1.25 / $10.00
GPT-5$1.25 / $10.00
GPT-5 mini$0.25 / $2.00
GPT-4o$2.50 / $10.00

Prices per 1M tokens (input / output)

Anthropic Claude Models

Claude Opus 4.6$5.00 / $25.00
Claude Sonnet 4.6$3.00 / $15.00
Claude Haiku 4.5$1.00 / $5.00
Claude Haiku 3.5$0.80 / $4.00

Prices per 1M tokens (input / output)

Direct Model Comparisons

TierOpenAIAnthropicWinner
BudgetGPT-5 mini ($0.25)Claude Haiku 3.5 ($0.80)OpenAI
Mid-RangeGPT-5 ($1.25)Claude Haiku 4.5 ($1.00)Anthropic
PremiumGPT-5.2 ($1.75)Claude Sonnet 4.6 ($3.00)OpenAI
FlagshipGPT-5.2 ($1.75)Claude Opus 4.6 ($5.00)OpenAI

OpenAI vs Anthropic: Complete Comparison

Pricing Philosophy

  • OpenAI: Competitive pricing across all tiers, focus on accessibility
  • Anthropic: Premium pricing for superior safety and reasoning

Model Strengths

OpenAI Advantages

  • Cost Efficiency: Generally lower prices across all model tiers
  • Model Variety: 5 GPT-5 variants from nano to flagship
  • Multimodal: Native vision, audio, and image capabilities
  • Ecosystem: Extensive integrations and developer tools
  • Speed: Generally faster response times

Anthropic Advantages

  • Safety: Constitutional AI with superior safety guardrails
  • Reasoning: Better performance on complex analytical tasks
  • Context: 200K context window across all models
  • Transparency: More honest about limitations and uncertainties
  • Research Focus: Strong performance on academic and research tasks

Use Case Recommendations

Choose OpenAI When:

  • Budget is a primary concern
  • You need multimodal capabilities (vision, audio)
  • Building consumer applications or chatbots
  • Speed and response time are critical
  • You want extensive ecosystem integrations

Choose Anthropic When:

  • Safety and ethical AI are priorities
  • You need superior reasoning for complex tasks
  • Working on research or academic projects
  • Processing long documents (200K context)
  • Quality is more important than cost

Cost Analysis by Usage Pattern

Light Usage (10K tokens/day)

  • OpenAI GPT-5 mini: ~$0.75/month
  • Anthropic Claude Haiku 3.5: ~$2.40/month
  • Winner: OpenAI (3x cheaper)

Medium Usage (100K tokens/day)

  • OpenAI GPT-5: ~$37.50/month
  • Anthropic Claude Haiku 4.5: ~$30/month
  • Winner: Anthropic (20% cheaper)

Heavy Usage (1M tokens/day)

  • OpenAI GPT-5.2: ~$525/month
  • Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.6: ~$900/month
  • Winner: OpenAI (42% cheaper)

Hybrid Strategy

Many organizations use both providers strategically:

  • High-volume tasks: OpenAI GPT-5 mini for cost efficiency
  • Complex reasoning: Anthropic Claude Sonnet for quality
  • Safety-critical: Anthropic Claude for ethical applications
  • Multimodal needs: OpenAI GPT-5 series for vision/audio