Head-to-head · documents read November 4, 2026 or later
ChatGPT vs Claude: which fine print is kinder to you?
Short answer
On paper the two are close: both give you ownership of the output and both cap usage without publishing numbers. Claude shows clearer prices; ChatGPT is a little kinder when you want to leave, with a discretionary refund on individual plans if you ask within seven days, where Claude's consumer terms say payments are non-refundable. On both, check the training setting the day you sign up.
| ChatGPT | Claude | |
|---|---|---|
| Zone score | 6.7/10 | 6.7/10 |
| Paid from | $8/month (Go, US price) | $17/month (Pro, billed yearly at $200) |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| What users say | B App users rate ChatGPT highly (4.8 from about 11.9 million App Store ratings, 4.8 on Google Play, 4.9 from 762 Product Hunt reviews, 4.6 on G2 and 4.5 on Capterra), while Trustpilot is harsh at 1.6 from 3,921 reviews. The most repeated complaints are usage limits that run out fast, billing and cancellation trouble, and answers that invent details or ignore instructions. The most repeated praise is everyday versatility: study help, writing, brainstorming and quick answers. | B App and software-review users like Claude (5.0 from 1,083 Product Hunt reviews, 4.7 from about 296,000 App Store ratings, 4.6 on G2, 4.5 on Google Play), but Trustpilot is harsh at 1.5 from 2,115 reviews. The most repeated complaint is tight, opaque usage limits, followed by billing trouble, account locks and bot-only support. The most repeated praise is clear writing, careful reasoning and strong coding help. |
| Pricing clarity | B US prices are published, but not where you would expect. The pricing page adapts to your country and can show local currency, so the clearest dollar figures are in OpenAI's help center. There, Plus is $20/month, Pro tiers are $100, $200 and $500, and Business seats are $25 monthly or $20 billed annually. Go is quoted at $8 as an indicative US price that varies by market. Personal plans are monthly only, the terms say taxes are added where required, and Business requires at least two paid seats. | A The pricing page shows every individual and team price in US dollars. It says plainly that prices exclude applicable taxes. Pro is $20 monthly or $17 a month on annual billing, which means $200 charged up front. Max ($100) and Ultra ($200) are monthly only. Enterprise is $20 per seat plus usage at API rates, billed annually with a 20-seat minimum, so its real cost depends on how much you use. |
| Cancel & refunds | C You can cancel any time and keep access to the end of the paid period, but the help center states that payments are generally non-refundable. A discretionary refund may be granted on an individual plan if you ask within seven days of the charge and have made no substantial use. Forgetting to cancel, dissatisfaction or a plan change do not qualify on their own, and there is no prorated refund after day seven. EU, UK and Turkey residents get a prorated refund within 14 days. Unused Business seats are generally not refunded for the committed period. | D The Consumer Terms state that, except as the terms provide or where law requires, all payments are non-refundable. To avoid renewal you must cancel at least 24 hours before the last day of the term. You keep access until the paid period ends. The EEA and UK get a prorated refund within 14 days, and Brazil, Mexico, South Korea and Taiwan get a 7-day right to cancel. The help center offers a refund-eligibility check but publishes no window for US buyers. |
| Limits & credits | C No plan publishes a fixed message count. Plus 'may include usage limits such as message caps' that vary with demand, and 'unlimited' Pro access is subject to abuse guardrails. Speed modes eat your allowance faster: Fast mode counts at 2.5 times the standard rate and Ultrafast at 8 times. Credits bought on personal plans are valid for 12 months and then expire without rolling over. The API credits bundled with Pro expire at the end of each billing cycle, according to the pricing page footnote. | C Paid plans have a 5-hour session limit and a weekly limit, and Max and Ultra add a separate weekly limit for Fable. None comes with a number of messages. Anthropic also reserves the right to add weekly or monthly caps or to limit specific models and features at its discretion. Usage credits let you keep going at API rates, and in most countries they do not expire (in Japan they expire after six months). The monthly API credits included with Max, Ultra and Team expire at the end of each billing cycle and cannot be refunded. |
| Your data | C On personal Free, Plus and Pro workspaces, 'Improve the model for everyone' is on by default, so your chats can train OpenAI's models until you turn it off. The opt-out is easy and keeps your history, but a thumbs-up or thumbs-down can still send that whole conversation to training. Voice mode and Codex environments have their own separate training switches. Temporary chats are not used for training and may be kept up to 30 days for safety. Business, Enterprise and Edu workspaces are not used for training by default. | C On consumer plans (Free, Pro, Max) you choose whether your chats and coding sessions are used to train models, and the pricing page lists training as something you can switch off. If you allow it, de-identified data can stay in training pipelines for up to 5 years. Deleted chats leave back-end storage within 30 days. Chats flagged for policy violations can be kept for 2 years, and anything you send through thumbs-up or thumbs-down is kept for 5 years. Turning training off does not pull your data out of models already trained. Team plans do not train on your content by default. |
| Output rights | A The US Terms of Use say you keep ownership of your input and own the output, and OpenAI assigns to you any rights it has in that output. That applies on every plan, free included, with no watermark or commercial-use carve-out in the terms. The one caveat is that output may not be unique, and the assignment does not cover similar output other users receive. | A The Consumer Terms say you keep your rights in your inputs and that Anthropic assigns to you all of its right, title and interest, if any, in the outputs, as long as you comply with the terms. The terms set no paid-plan condition for commercial use and impose no watermark. Anthropic does warn that outputs can be inaccurate and should be checked before you rely on them. |
Pick ChatGPT if…
you want the widest feature set (images, voice, Codex) on one plan, a cheaper Go tier, or a small chance of a refund if you change your mind within a week.
Pick Claude if…
you write or code at length, want prices you can read in dollars without hunting, and are happy to pay yearly for Pro at $17 a month.
Plans side by side
| ChatGPT | |
|---|---|
| Free free | $0 |
| Go monthly | $8/month |
| Plus monthly | $20/month |
| Pro 100 monthly | $100/month |
| Pro 200 monthly | $200/month |
| Pro 500 monthly | $500/month |
| Business Standard monthly or annual | $25/user/month ($20 billed annually) |
| Business Premium monthly or annual | $125/user/month ($100 billed annually) |
| Enterprise annual | Contact sales |
| Claude | |
|---|---|
| Free free | $0 |
| Pro monthly or annual | $20/month or $200/year |
| Max monthly | $100/month |
| Ultra monthly | $200/month |
| Team Standard monthly or annual | $25/seat/month ($20 billed annually) |
| Team Premium monthly or annual | $125/seat/month ($100 billed annually) |
| Enterprise annual | $20/seat/month plus usage at API rates |
Every grade links back to its source in each full review. How we grade · Affiliate disclosure.