GPT-5.2 vs Claude Opus 4.5: Complete Comparison (2026)

GPT-5.2 and Claude Opus 4.5 are the two flagship models of 2026. Both are excellent, but they have different strengths. Here's how to choose.

Quick Comparison

Pricing Analysis

GPT-5.2 is significantly cheaper:

• 65% cheaper on input tokens
• 44% cheaper on output tokens
• For 10M tokens/month (50/50 split): $78.75 vs $150.00

If cost is your primary concern, GPT-5.2 is the clear winner.

Quality Comparison

Where GPT-5.2 Wins

• Speed: Significantly faster response times
• General knowledge: Slightly broader training data
• Multimodal: Better audio integration
• Tool use: More refined function calling

Where Claude Opus 4.5 Wins

• Complex reasoning: Better at multi-step analysis
• Long-form content: More coherent at length
• Context window: 200K vs 128K
• Extended thinking: Can "think" before responding
• Nuanced tasks: Better at subtle distinctions

Use Case Recommendations

Choose GPT-5.2 for:

• High-volume production workloads
• Real-time applications requiring low latency
• General-purpose chat and assistance
• When cost is a primary concern
• Multimodal applications (especially audio)

Choose Claude Opus 4.5 for:

• Complex analysis and research
• Long document processing (>128K tokens)
• Tasks requiring careful reasoning
• When quality is worth the premium
• Coding tasks requiring deep understanding

Our Recommendation

For most teams: Start with GPT-5.2. It's cheaper, faster, and excellent quality. Only upgrade to Opus when you have specific tasks that clearly benefit from its superior reasoning.

For quality-critical applications: Test both on your actual use cases. The quality difference may justify the cost for some tasks.

Hybrid approach: Use GPT-5.2 for most tasks, route complex reasoning to Opus. This gives you the best of both worlds.