These are the tiers for people whose AI usage is a line item, not a hobby. Both remove the caps that frustrate $20-tier power users — but they reward very different kinds of work, and one of them starts at half the price.
For heavy coding, Claude Max — its $100 tier (5× Pro limits, Opus 5 default) undercuts ChatGPT Pro by half. For heavy research, reasoning and video, ChatGPT Pro ($200) with unlimited Sol, GPT-5.5 pro mode and 250 Deep Research runs is the stronger unlimited tier.
By OpenAI. Full ChatGPT profile →
By Anthropic. Full Claude profile →
Best for: Everyday writing, brainstorming, image generation, casual coding
Weakness: Output quality varies between model tiers; pricing tiers can confuse
From $0 (free)/mo. Top tier: $200/mo.
Best for: Document analysis, research papers, nuanced writing, software engineering
Weakness: No image or video generation; smaller usage caps than ChatGPT
From $0 (free)/mo. Top tier: $200/mo.
Pick ChatGPT Pro if your heavy use is broad: unlimited GPT-5.6 Sol, the GPT-5.5 pro reasoning mode for the hardest problems, 250 Deep Research runs a month, and Sora video. It's the strongest do-everything unlimited tier.
Pick Claude Max if your heavy use is code or long-form work: $100 buys 5× Pro limits with Opus 5 as the default model (20× at $200), and it's the natural home for all-day Claude Code sessions. Half the entry price of ChatGPT Pro.
Coding-heavy → Claude Max, and start at the $100 tier. Research- and video-heavy → ChatGPT Pro. If you're unsure you need either, you don't — stay on the $20 tiers.
Only if you routinely hit Plus's weekly GPT-5.6 Sol cap, need GPT-5.5 pro mode, or run Deep Research more than ~10 times a month. Otherwise Plus at $20 covers you.
Claude Max is $100/month for 5× Pro usage or $200/month for 20×, with Opus 5 as the default model and Fable 5 included up to 50% of the weekly limit.
Claude Max. Opus 5 and Fable 5 lead real-world software benchmarks, and Claude Code is built for long agentic sessions — at $100 it's also half the price of ChatGPT Pro.