Claude or Gemini? One's great at coding, the other does everything (images, audio, video). Both are good, but they're built for different things. Let's break it down.
| Feature | Claude Pro | Gemini Advanced |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly Price | $20.00 | $19.99 |
| Context Window | 200k tokens | 1M tokens (2M soon) |
| Web Access | ✓ | ✓ |
| Multimodal | Images only | Text, Images, Audio, Video |
| Coding Performance | Excellent | Good |
| Google Integration | ✗ | Gmail, Docs, Drive |
| File Uploads | ✓ | ✓ |
| Mobile App | Web Only | iOS & Android |
| Writing Quality | Superior | Good |
| Speed | Fast | Very Fast |
Claude's the coding favorite right now. Scores 72.5% on SWE-bench and most tools like Cursor picked it as their default model. Really good at understanding what you're trying to build and editing multiple files at once.
If you're building something complex, Claude won't lose track of your project structure.
Gemini 2.5 Pro scores 63.2-63.8% on SWE-bench, which is actually pretty competitive. Plus Gemini Code Assist is free for individuals - 180k completions per month in VS Code and JetBrains IDEs.
Hard to beat free, and the quality gap is smaller than you'd think.
Claude can read images and PDFs pretty well. Upload a screenshot of code and it'll debug it. But that's about it - no audio, no video. It's basically text and images only.
Works for most tasks, but you'll need other tools for anything involving sound or video.
This is where Gemini shines. Images, audio, video - it can handle all of it in one conversation. Upload a video and ask it to analyze what's happening. Record audio and get transcriptions. It's genuinely impressive.
Gemini 2.0 even generates images and audio natively. Claude can't touch this.
| Model | Input | Output |
|---|---|---|
| Claude 4 Sonnet | $3.00 | $15.00 |
| Claude 3.5 Haiku | $0.80 | $4.00 |
| Gemini 2.5 Pro | $1.25-2.50 | $10-15 |
| Gemini 2.5 Flash | Much cheaper | Much cheaper |
Note: Gemini API costs are significantly lower - up to 16x cheaper than Claude for similar tasks. Consumer plans are nearly identical in price.
Superior performance on coding benchmarks and complex programming tasks
200k context handles most coding tasks without losing track of your project
Natural tone, excellent at dialogue, fiction, humor, and creative content
Complex reasoning, thoughtful responses, and analytical thinking
Constitutional AI training for sensitive and ethical work
Process text, images, audio, and video in one conversation
2M token context means entire books, legal docs, or research papers in one go
Deep integration with Gmail, Docs, Drive, and Google Workspace
Web access for current events, news, and up-to-date information
Native iOS and Android apps with voice interactions
Quick processing and responses for time-sensitive tasks
World's best coding model
Hybrid reasoning model
Advanced thinking model
Built for agentic era
The choice depends on your needs. Claude Pro ($20/month) excels at coding, creative writing, and has a large context window (200k tokens). Gemini Advanced ($19.99/month) offers multimodal capabilities, web access, and better integration with Google services.
Yes, Claude is generally better for coding. Claude leads on SWE-bench (72.5%) and is preferred by many coding tools like Cursor. However, Google's Gemini Code Assist offers strong coding features with free access and IDE integration.
Key differences: Gemini offers multimodal processing (text, images, audio, video), web access, and Google ecosystem integration. Claude has a larger context window (200k vs 128k tokens), superior coding performance, and more natural writing style.
Gemini is significantly better for multimodal tasks. It can process text, images, audio, and video in a single conversation, while Claude is limited to text and images only. Gemini 2.0 also features native image and audio generation.
Almost - Claude Pro costs $20/month while Gemini Advanced costs $19.99/month. Both offer free tiers with limitations. Gemini Advanced includes 2TB of Google One storage, while Claude offers higher usage limits.
Gemini has deep Google ecosystem integration, working seamlessly with Gmail, Google Docs, Drive, Workspace, and Google Search. Claude has no Google integrations and operates as a standalone service.
Yes! Both Claude and Gemini offer generous free tiers. Claude Free provides limited daily messages with Claude 3.5 Sonnet, while Gemini Free offers access to Gemini 1.5 Pro with multimodal capabilities and Google integration.
Claude is generally preferred for creative writing. It has a more natural, conversational tone and excels at dialogue, humor, and creative storytelling. Gemini is good but tends to be more structured and less creative in its writing style.
Gemini has dedicated iOS and Android apps with voice interaction capabilities. Claude is currently web-only, though the web interface works well on mobile browsers. For mobile users, Gemini is the better choice.
Claude is significantly better for long document analysis with its 200k token context window compared to Gemini's 128k. You can upload entire research papers, books, or reports to Claude for comprehensive analysis and questions.
Gemini is generally faster at generating responses, especially Gemini 2.5 Flash which is optimized for speed. Claude takes slightly longer but often provides more thoughtful and detailed responses. Speed vs quality trade-off.
Yes! Both offer free coding help - Claude Free has limited daily usage, while Gemini Code Assist for individuals is completely free with 180,000 code completions per month and VS Code/JetBrains integration.
For Google Workspace users, Gemini provides seamless integration with business tools. For coding teams and technical work, Claude's superior performance is preferred. Both offer enterprise plans with enhanced security and privacy features.
If you use Google stuff a lot (Gmail, Docs, Drive), Gemini makes sense. It's also great if you work with images, audio, or video regularly. Plus it's a penny cheaper.
But if you code professionally or need really good writing, Claude's worth it. The quality difference is noticeable, especially for complex tasks.
Try both free versions first. You'll know pretty quickly which one clicks with how you work.
Want to see how ChatGPT and Claude compare? Dive into our comprehensive analysis covering features, pricing, web access, and creative capabilities.
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