✓ Verified on September 3, 2026⏱ 2 min read✓ done
Competitor comparison
| Criterion | Claude | ChatGPT | Gemini | Mistral | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flagship model | Fable 5 ✦ | GPT-5.5 | Gemini | Mistral Large | Sonar |
| Context | 1M ✦ | 128K | 1M | 128K | Variable |
| Output | 128K ✦ | 16K | 64K | 32K | ~8K |
| Writing | ★★★★★ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★☆☆ |
| Coding | 80.8% SWE-bench* | 80.0% | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★☆☆ |
| Research | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★★★ ✦ |
| Images | Analysis ✓ · generation no | DALL-E 3 | Nano Banana | No | No |
| Computer ctrl | Cowork ✦ | Operator | Agent | No | No |
| Office | Add-ins ✦ | Copilot | Workspace | No | No |
| Skills | 2,300+ ✦ | GPTs | Gems | Le Chat | Spaces |
| Safety | Constitution ✦ | RLHF | Filters | Guardrails | Standard |
| Pro price | $20 | $20 | $20 | Free | $20 |
| Open src | No | No | Partial | Yes ✦ | No |
🦋 The gap widens on long tasks
With the launch of Fable 5 (Mythos class), Claude is state of the art on nearly every public benchmark — the edge is all the sharper when the task is long and complex (large-scale code migrations, multi-day autonomous research). Two officially claimed references: the best score ever recorded on FrontierCode (Cognition) and on Hebbia's Finance Benchmark. And Opus 5 puts this frontier intelligence at half the price — it even beats Fable 5 on some benchmarks, such as OSWorld 2.0 (computer use). Fable 5.1 is back on top (Terminal-Bench 4.0, Humanity's Last Exam) ahead of Opus 5 and GPT-5.6 Sol, at the same price as Fable 5 but with cache reads 4× cheaper. On image generation, Claude deliberately stays absent: pair it with a dedicated tool if needed.
* SWE-bench: the industry's reference test on code (Sonnet 4.6 score, Feb. 2026 — Sonnet 5 and Fable 5 do better). The stars reflect a usage impression, not an official measure: run your own test on your real cases.
Blind test — 134 participants (Feb. 2026, independent community study, read with caution)
🥇 FIRST
Claude — 4/8
Margins 35-54 pts
🥈 SECOND
Gemini — 3/8
Margins 3-11 pts
🥉 THIRD
ChatGPT — 1/8
Margin 25 pts