The summer of 2024 has come to an end, but thanks to the AI giants and all the new models they released during the past few months, it will surely be one we remember. June and July were especially fruitful, with some exciting launches from OpenAI (which had already released its groundbreaking GPT-4o in May), Anthropic, and Meta, coming nearly one after another, and Google joining the club in August. And, of course, the AI world started wondering yet again: how do these new models compare to those we already know?
To help you find the answer, in this article, we’ll dive into the differences between Claude 3.5 vs. GPT-4o and GPT-4o mini. Let’s start with a short introduction of today’s competitors!
Table of Contents
What is Claude 3.5 Sonnet?
Claude 3.5 Sonnet, launched on June 20, 2024, is Anthropic’s latest addition to the Claude family. According to its creators, the model stands out thanks to its emphasis on safety, accuracy, and user-centric design. Trained using Anthropic’s Constitutional AI approach, Claude 3.5 Sonnet is said to be all about aligning AI behavior with human values, making it a trustworthy assistant for both personal use and team collaboration.
According to Anthropic, Claude 3.5 Sonnet sets new industry standards in graduate-level reasoning, undergraduate-level knowledge, and coding proficiency. It’s designed to better grasp nuance, humor, and complex instructions, making it suitable for tasks that require writing high-quality, natural-sounding content. The model operates at twice the speed of its predecessor, Claude 3 Opus, which, combined with its cost-effectiveness, positions it well for complex tasks like context-sensitive customer support and managing multi-step workflows.
What are GPT-4o mini and GPT-4o?
As you’re probably well aware, GPT-4o is the first member of the new generative AI models family by OpenAI, launched in May this year. It’s currently the biggest and the most capable model offered by the company, and one of the strongest (some would say THE strongest) on the market. If you want to dive deeper into the GPT-4o’s capabilities, you can read all about it in our previous article comparing Llama 3, GPT-4 and GPT-4o.
GPT-4o mini is the newest member of the GPT-4o family. It’s designed to handle everyday tasks with speed and efficiency, making it faster and more cost-effective than GPT-4o, which is geared towards more complex, specialized tasks. While GPT-4o boasts multimodal capabilities and advanced reasoning, GPT-4o mini is optimized to be a more accessible, smaller model, maintaining many of the flagship’s strengths at a lower price.
Even though GPT-4o mini is part of the “4o” family, OpenAI presents it as an alternative to GPT-3.5 Turbo — providing enhanced capabilities at a reduced cost. It supports both text and image inputs and outputs, making it suitable for smaller tasks that involve text and vision processing. As OpenAI’s most advanced model in the small models category, GPT-4o mini is positioned as an affordable, high-performance option for everyday use.
Read also: GPT-4o vs. GPT-4 vs. GPT-3.5 Comparison in Real-World Scenarios
Alright, now that we have the basic understanding of all three models, let’s dive in and find out who wins the duel between Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs. GPT-4o and GPT-4o mini.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs. GPT-4o vs. GPT-4o mini — which generative AI model is better?
When it comes to choosing between Claude 3.5 Sonnet, GPT-4o, and GPT-4o mini, it’s essential to consider their key differences in performance, capabilities, and use cases.
First of all, let’s note that GPT-4o mini is a small model, which places it in a slightly different category than the Claude 3.5 Sonnet and GPT-4o belong to. However, as you can see below, it’s capable enough to stand nearly on par with the other two on many benchmarks, which makes it an interesting player in this comparison — showing that smaller models don’t necessarily have to fall far behind the large models.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs. GPT-4o vs. GPT-4o mini — context window & modalities
Claude 3.5 Sonnet offers a generous maximum context window of 200k tokens, which is equivalent to approximately 150,000 words or 300 pages. Compared to that, the GPT-4o’s and GPT-4o mini’s context window of 128k tokens doesn’t seem so impressive anymore, but OpenAI compensates for it with a previously uncommon output limit of 16,384 tokens for both models — while Claude 3.5 Sonnet supports only 4,096 to 8,192 tokens (available in Anthropic API).
All three models are said to be multimodal, however, at the moment, this term has a different meaning for each of them:
- Claude 3.5 Sonnet is capable of handling text and image inputs,
- GPT-4o extends these capabilities further by also supporting audio and video,
- GPT-4o mini can currently process only text in ChatGPT, text and image in API, and is promised to be fully multimodal (as in support also audio in video) in the future.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs. GPT-4o vs. GPT-4o mini — model size
When it comes to parameter counts, it looks like Anthropic is as “open” as its competitor, meaning: the numbers for Claude 3.5 Sonnet aren’t publicly known.
The internet speculates that GPT-4o has to be bigger than GPT-4, so it probably has more than 1.76 trillion parameters, but nobody seems to have any reasonable guesses on how many more. Similarly with Claude, there are no widely shared guesses about its size. All we know is that it was made to balance size and performance, so it’s highly possible it’s smaller than the flagship GPT.
What about the GPT-4o mini? According to TechCrunch, it’s supposed to replace GPT-3.5 Turbo as the smallest model in OpenAI’s offer. Again, there’s no official information about its size, but it’s said to be in the same range as other small AI models (e.g. Llama 3 8b, Claude Haiku and Gemini 1.5 Flash), which suggests it may have around 8 billion parameters.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs. GPT-4o vs. GPT-4o mini — accuracy & complex tasks
In terms of accuracy and performance on complex tasks, Claude 3.5 Sonnet and GPT-4o both stand out but in slightly different ways. Claude’s emphasis on advanced reasoning allows it to perform exceptionally well in scenarios that require nuanced understanding and detailed responses. According to its creators, the model is particularly effective in structured problem-solving and can handle intricate instructions with ease.
GPT-4o is said to take these capabilities even a step further, thanks to its advanced architecture that enhances contextual understanding and maintains conversation flow over extended interactions, as well as audio and video processing abilities. This makes GPT-4o ideal for tasks involving ongoing dialogue or requiring a deep grasp of context. However, as we already know, both models achieve very similar results on various benchmarks.
GPT-4o mini, on the other hand, is designed for those who prioritize speed over complexity and seek more cost-effective options. While it’s less effective in handling complex tasks, it offers sufficient accuracy for everyday tasks (remember the benchmark table above?), making it a great choice for simpler applications where speed and lower costs are key priorities.
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Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs. GPT-4o vs. GPT-4o mini — creativity
Claude 3.5 Sonnet brings a lot to the table when it comes to creative tasks. It uses its advanced reasoning to produce nuanced and engaging content, whether you’re looking for creative writing, brainstorming new ideas, or something in between.
GPT-4o is right up there, pushing the limits with its ability to handle multimodal inputs — text, audio, visuals, you name it. This makes it a go-to for projects involving multimedia content.
What about the GPT-4o mini? This one is best for simpler creative tasks. It keeps things efficient, offering a solid mix of speed and performance, though it doesn’t dive as deep into the creative pool as its bigger counterpart — but still produces satisfying results!
Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs. GPT-4o vs. GPT-4o mini — math tasks
In the realm of mathematics, at first sight, GPT-4o seems to beat the competition mercilessly, with its 76.6% against Claude’s 71.1% and mini’s 70.2% on the MATH benchmark. However, it loses the crown to Claude when tested on visual math reasoning, and, for that matter, many other visual tasks:
Although it’s not included in the above chart, according to the information shared on the official GPT-4o mini page, it scored 56.7% on MathVista. It’s undoubtedly far behind Claude 3.5 Sonnet and GPT-4o, but still way better than some other big models, like, for example Anthropic’s former best player, Claude 3 Opus.
It looks like, even though GPT-4o mini doesn’t have as impressive math skills as its larger competitors, it’s still quite proficient in basic math tasks. It can handle standard calculations and simpler problem-solving with ease, though, making it a reliable option for everyday mathematical needs.
laude 3.5 Sonnet vs. GPT-4o vs. GPT-4o mini — price
This comparison wouldn’t be complete without discussing one more crucial factor—the models’ pricing. As you’ve probably guessed, GPT-4o mini is the most affordable option here, underscoring that it belongs to a different category than Claude 3.5 Sonnet and GPT-4o, both of which are significantly more expensive.
While GPT-4o comes with advanced multimodal capabilities and a higher context window, these enhancements naturally drive up the cost. Similarly, Claude 3.5 Sonnet is priced higher due to its focus on safety and complex reasoning, making it a go-to for more demanding and specialized applications.
Let’s not forget, though, that on many benchmarks, GPT-4o performs closely behind its larger competitors, making it an excellent option for a wide range of use cases that don’t involve mission-critical or highly specialized tasks.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs. GPT-4o vs. GPT-4o mini — when to choose which?
Considering all we know about these models, let’s try to summarize in what cases which of them might be the best choice.
When to choose Claude 3.5 Sonnet?
Claude is best suited for applications that prioritize safety, accuracy, and advanced reasoning. It’s ideal for scenarios where complex problem-solving and nuanced understanding are crucial, such as in research, sensitive data handling, or high-stakes decision-making environments.
When to choose GPT-4o?
It shines in tasks that require a blend of high-level reasoning, multimodal input handling, and advanced contextual understanding. It’s the go-to option for applications needing dynamic and interactive capabilities, such as virtual assistants, customer service bots, or multimedia educational tools.
When to choose GPT-4o mini?
As already mentioned, GPT-4o mini is perfect for everyday tasks where speed, cost-effectiveness, and basic multimodal processing are needed. It’s a great fit for applications that previously relied on models like GPT-3.5 Turbo, providing enhanced capabilities at a lower price point without sacrificing performance for routine use.
Key differences between Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs. GPT-4o and GPT-4o mini — final notes
In the rapidly evolving landscape of AI, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, GPT-4o, and GPT-4o mini each bring unique strengths to the table. Whether you’re prioritizing advanced reasoning, multimodal capabilities, or cost-effective performance, the AI companies made sure there’s a model suited to each of those needs.
Ultimately, the best choice depends on your specific requirements, budget, and the complexity of the tasks at hand — but hopefully, this article makes it a little easier for you to determine what option might be the right one for your project.
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