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Anthropic: Claude Opus 4 vs OpenAI: GPT-4

Neither wins outright: Anthropic: Claude Opus 4 is the pick when cost matters at scale, OpenAI: GPT-4 when you need structured output (JSON schema).

Key numbers

SpecAnthropic: Claude Opus 4OpenAI: GPT-4
ProviderAnthropicOpenAI
Input price (per 1M tokens)$15.00$30.00
Output price (per 1M tokens)$75.00$60.00
Blended price (3:1 input/output)$30.00$37.50
Cheaper than … of all models we track2%1%
Context window200K tokens (~300 pages)8K tokens (~12 pages)
Larger context than … of all models37%1%
Max output per response32K tokens (~24,000 words)4K tokens (~3,100 words)
Input typesimage, text, filetext
Output typestexttext
Free variantNoNo
Listed since2025-05-222023-05-28
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What it costs for real workloads

Monthly cost at list price for five common workloads. Token counts per unit are stated so you can scale them to your own traffic. A workload that does not fit a model's context window is marked rather than priced.

Workload (per month)Anthropic: Claude Opus 4OpenAI: GPT-4Difference
Customer-support chatbot
50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation (1,500 in / 400 out tokens)
$2,625$3,450Anthropic: Claude Opus 4 saves $825
RAG search over documents
20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages (6,000 in / 500 out tokens)
$2,550$4,200Anthropic: Claude Opus 4 saves $1,650
Coding / tool-using agent
2,000 tasks — each a multi-step task with tool calls and file context (60,000 in / 6,000 out tokens)
$2,700Doesn't fit context—
Batch summarisation
10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page (8,000 in / 600 out tokens)
$1,650Doesn't fit context—
Long-document analysis
500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass (100,000 in / 2,000 out tokens)
$825Doesn't fit context—

Capabilities side by side

CapabilityAnthropic: Claude Opus 4OpenAI: GPT-4What it lets you do
Tool / function calling✓ Yes✓ Yescall your APIs and run agent loops
Structured output (JSON schema)—✓ Yesreturn JSON that validates against your schema
Reasoning / thinking mode✓ Yes—spend extra tokens thinking before answering hard problems
Image input✓ Yes—read screenshots, charts and scanned pages
Audio input——take speech or audio directly
File / PDF input✓ Yes—accept documents without your own parsing step
Image output——generate images, not just text
Built-in web search✓ Yes—answer from live web results
Seed (reproducible sampling)—✓ Yesrepeat a generation for tests and evals
Log-probabilities—✓ Yesread token confidence for classification and scoring

From each model's published parameters and input/output types. “—” means not advertised, not proven absent.

Price history

Which should you choose?

Choose Anthropic: Claude Opus 4 if…

  • cost matters at scale — it is 20% cheaper on a typical 3:1 input/output mix ($2,625 vs $3,450 a month for 50,000 support chats)
  • you need to fit long inputs in one request — 200K tokens is roughly 300 pages, against 12
  • you need reasoning / thinking mode — to spend extra tokens thinking before answering hard problems; OpenAI: GPT-4 does not advertise it
  • you need image input — to read screenshots, charts and scanned pages; OpenAI: GPT-4 does not advertise it
  • you need file / PDF input — to accept documents without your own parsing step; OpenAI: GPT-4 does not advertise it
  • you need built-in web search — to answer from live web results; OpenAI: GPT-4 does not advertise it
  • you generate long outputs in one go — up to 32K tokens (about 24,000 words) per response
  • you want the newer model — released 2025-05-22, 24 months after the other

Choose OpenAI: GPT-4 if…

  • you need structured output (JSON schema) — to return JSON that validates against your schema; Anthropic: Claude Opus 4 does not advertise it
  • you need seed (reproducible sampling) — to repeat a generation for tests and evals; Anthropic: Claude Opus 4 does not advertise it
  • you need log-probabilities — to read token confidence for classification and scoring; Anthropic: Claude Opus 4 does not advertise it

Frequently asked questions

Is Anthropic: Claude Opus 4 better than OpenAI: GPT-4?

Neither wins outright: Anthropic: Claude Opus 4 is the pick when cost matters at scale, OpenAI: GPT-4 when you need structured output (JSON schema). In short: Anthropic: Claude Opus 4 when cost matters at scale, you need to fit long inputs in one request, you need reasoning / thinking mode, you need image input, you need file / PDF input, you need built-in web search, you generate long outputs in one go, you want the newer model; OpenAI: GPT-4 when you need structured output (JSON schema), you need seed (reproducible sampling), you need log-probabilities.

Which is cheaper, Anthropic: Claude Opus 4 or OpenAI: GPT-4?

Anthropic: Claude Opus 4 is cheaper: $30.00 vs $37.50 per 1M tokens at a typical 3:1 input/output mix, 20% less. For 50,000 support conversations a month that is $2,625 against $3,450.

How much do Anthropic: Claude Opus 4 and OpenAI: GPT-4 cost per million tokens?

Anthropic: Claude Opus 4 costs $15.00 per 1M input tokens and $75.00 per 1M output tokens; OpenAI: GPT-4 costs $30.00 input and $60.00 output. Output tokens are billed separately, so long answers shift the gap.

Which has the bigger context window, Anthropic: Claude Opus 4 or OpenAI: GPT-4?

Anthropic: Claude Opus 4: 200K tokens, about 300 pages, against 8K (about 12 pages) for OpenAI: GPT-4.

Do Anthropic: Claude Opus 4 and OpenAI: GPT-4 support function calling and JSON output?

Tool calling — Anthropic: Claude Opus 4: yes, OpenAI: GPT-4: yes. JSON-schema structured output — Anthropic: Claude Opus 4: not advertised, OpenAI: GPT-4: yes.

Can Anthropic: Claude Opus 4 or OpenAI: GPT-4 read images?

Only Anthropic: Claude Opus 4 accepts image input; OpenAI: GPT-4 is text-only for input.

Is Anthropic: Claude Opus 4 or OpenAI: GPT-4 free to use?

No free variant is listed for either; both are pay-per-token.

What is the maximum output length of Anthropic: Claude Opus 4 and OpenAI: GPT-4?

Anthropic: Claude Opus 4 can write up to 32K tokens (about 24,000 words) per response; OpenAI: GPT-4 up to 4K (about 3,100 words).

When were Anthropic: Claude Opus 4 and OpenAI: GPT-4 released?

Anthropic: Claude Opus 4 was listed on 2025-05-22; OpenAI: GPT-4 on 2023-05-28.

About the two models

OpenAI

OpenAI: GPT-4

OpenAI's flagship model, GPT-4 is a large-scale multimodal language model capable of solving difficult problems with greater accuracy than previous models due to its broader general knowledge and advanced reasoning...

Full OpenAI: GPT-4 specs →

Compare Anthropic: Claude Opus 4 with other models

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Compare OpenAI: GPT-4 with other models

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