So Anthropic just dropped Claude 3, and the AI world is losing its mind. Three new models, benchmarks that beat GPT-4, and everyone's asking the same question: should I switch?
Here's my honest take after testing both for business tasks.
What Actually Launched
On March 4, 2024, Anthropic released three models in their Claude 3 family:
- Claude 3 Haiku – The fast, cheap one. Best for quick tasks where speed matters more than depth.
- Claude 3 Sonnet – The balanced middle option. Good enough for most business work at a reasonable price.
- Claude 3 Opus – The big brain. Anthropic's most capable model, designed for complex reasoning.
The naming is confusing, I know. Just remember: Haiku is smallest, Opus is biggest, Sonnet is in the middle.
The Numbers (If You Care)
Opus beat GPT-4 on most standard AI benchmarks – things like graduate-level reasoning, math problems, and expert knowledge tests.
But here's the thing about benchmarks: they measure how well an AI takes tests, not how well it writes your customer emails.
What actually matters for small businesses:
- 200,000 token context window – That's roughly 150,000 words. You can paste in an entire employee handbook and ask questions about it.
- Vision capabilities – All three models can look at images, charts, and documents. Upload a screenshot of a confusing spreadsheet, ask what's wrong.
- Better at following instructions – In my testing, Claude is less likely to go off on tangents or add stuff you didn't ask for.
What Each One Costs
If you're using these through the web interface (claude.ai or chat.openai.com), both cost $20/month for the premium version.
Claude Pro gets you access to Opus. ChatGPT Plus gets you GPT-4.
Same price. Different strengths. Which brings us to the actual useful part...
When to Use Claude
After testing both on real business tasks, here's my rule of thumb:
Use Claude for anything that needs nuance.
- Writing that sounds human – Claude is better at matching your voice and not sounding robotic. Customer emails, proposals, anything where tone matters.
- Analyzing documents – Paste in a contract, a policy, meeting notes. Claude is excellent at pulling out what actually matters.
- Sensitive topics – Claude handles nuanced situations better. Less likely to give you generic advice when the real answer is "it depends."
- Long conversations – That big context window means Claude remembers what you talked about 20 messages ago.
When to Use ChatGPT
Use ChatGPT for anything that needs speed or plugins.
- Quick answers – ChatGPT is faster for simple questions where you just need the answer, not a nuanced discussion.
- Web browsing – ChatGPT Plus can search the web in real-time. Claude can't (yet).
- Image generation – ChatGPT has DALL-E built in. Ask it to create an image and it does. Claude just analyzes images, doesn't make them.
- Custom GPTs – The GPT Store has thousands of specialized bots for specific tasks. Claude doesn't have an equivalent.
The 40-prompt limit every three hours on ChatGPT Plus is annoying, but honestly, most people don't hit it during normal use.
The Real Answer: Use Both
I keep both subscriptions. That's $40/month total, which sounds expensive until you realize how much time they save.
My workflow:
- Draft customer communications in Claude (better tone)
- Quick research questions in ChatGPT (faster, has web access)
- Document analysis in Claude (handles long text better)
- Image creation in ChatGPT (only one that does it)
You don't have to pick one forever. Try the free versions of both. See which one feels more natural for how you work.
The Bottom Line
Claude 3 is a genuine leap forward. It's not just marketing hype – the improvements in writing quality and document analysis are real.
But ChatGPT still has features Claude doesn't: web browsing, image generation, custom bots.
If you're paying for one AI tool and have to choose, here's my recommendation:
- Mostly writing and analyzing documents? → Claude Pro
- Need web search and image generation? → ChatGPT Plus
- Not sure yet? → Start with ChatGPT Plus (more features), then try Claude's free tier to see if the writing quality wins you over
What YouGrow Does Differently
We use AI tools daily – both Claude and ChatGPT – to help our clients with everything from drafting website copy to analyzing their competitors' sites. But we're not here to sell you on AI. We're here to help you figure out what actually makes sense for your business.
Confused about which tools are worth your time? Let's talk. I'll give you an honest opinion on what might help and what's probably hype – no strings attached.