Google Gemini (formerly Bard) vs Claude.ai: Which is better?

With the proliferation of generative AI, it can be difficult to determine which of these AI assistants for coding and creative work is right for your business. Two of the leading AI assistants are Google Gemini (formerly Bard) and Anthropic's Claude.ai.

This article compares the main features of the two AI assistants, both of which will be free as of July 2024. To use Gemini, you must log in with a Google account. To use Claude, you must log in with a Google account or an email address. In any case, if you use a Google Workspace account, you should check with your administrator to make sure access is allowed.

What is Google Gemini?

Gemini is an experimental conversational artificial intelligence system designed by Google. As a large language model, Gemini can generate text, code, and other content responses in response to an input prompt or image. Google launched Gemini (as Bard) in Q1 2023. In February 2024, Google renamed Bard to Gemini to reflect that users could access a family of AI models, not just a single chatbot, through the same brand.

What is Claude.ai?

Claude.ai is a public beta version of Anthropic’s conversational AI system. It was launched at the same time the company announced Claude 2 in mid-2023. Claude.ai has since been updated to the latest version of Anthropic’s model, Claude 3.5 Sonnet. Anthropic has emphasized its efforts to design Claude with an emphasis on AI safety.

Gemini vs Claude: Comparison Chart

The following graphic highlights the key differences between Google's Gemini and Anthropic's Claude.

The context window determines the length of content that the system can retain and respond to at one time. Simply put, if the limit is exceeded, the system may provide feedback indicating a lack of “retention” or “understanding” of the content beyond the window. A long window allows for analysis of long documents.

Gemini vs. Claude Prices

Gemini and Claude.ai are both free. Anthropic offers paid Pro and Team plans on Claude.ai with multiple seats and higher rate caps. Pro costs $20 per user per month, while Team costs $25 per user per month. Google offers Gemini Advanced, which allows Gemini to interact directly with Gmail and Docs and adds 2TB of storage. You can access Gemini Advanced through a subscription to Google One AI Premium, which costs $19.99.

The most notable competitor to these two systems, OpenAI's ChatGPT, offers a free edition and a more capable edition for a $20 per month upgrade.

Google and Anthropic are also looking to meet the AI ​​needs of businesses and developers. Google offers a wide range of AI and machine learning systems, while Anthropic offers access to different editions of Claude, each optimized for different situations and price ranges.

Feature Comparison: Google Gemini vs Claude.ai

Conversational talk

Both Gemini and Claude work like conventional AI chatbots: you type an instruction and the system responds with a response. As conversational chat systems, they allow you to reference previous instructions in a chat. For example, if your first instruction is a request to summarize a book:

Can you summarize the key recommendations in the book “Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology & Prosperity”?

A subsequent query in the chat conversation with the intention of meeting the authors could be:

Who wrote it?

The system should accurately understand that “it” refers to the book and “who” refers to the authors. Contrast this with a traditional search, where it is simply not possible to summarize the key points and where you would need to combine everything into a single keyword search query just to find out the authors.

The only significant difference between the two systems is that Claude supports a much wider context window than Gemini. The result is that Claude can work with longer texts and also allows for more extensive conversation on a topic than Gemini.

Write text

Gemini and Claude work well when you want the system to generate text. For example, you can ask either system to write the text you need for virtually any purpose, such as an email, marketing copy, cover letter, or blog post. Specify in as much detail as possible the content, length, and type of text you want, and both systems will tend to produce usable text. Not happy with the result? Describe exactly how you need the tone, content, length, or structure of the text revised, and ask Gemini or Claude to try again.

Generate suggestions

Gemini and Claude are great when looking for suggestions. Ask either chatbot for lists of things you want to learn, explore, or read and you'll likely receive at least a few relevant items. If you have examples, include them to provide context and guide the system toward a more relevant response.

Please note that both systems may provide inaccurate, misleading or simply wrong information, so you may need to verify the content to check its accuracy.

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Claude.ai: Pros and cons

Claude's distinctive feature is its ability to work with long text files, thanks to the system's significantly long context window. You can upload up to five files of up to 10 MB each, along with your message.

For example, you can upload one or more sample technology plans, roadmaps, or strategy documents. Once shared, you can explore various details within those documents with Claude. Alternatively, you can provide Claude with relevant details about a different organization or client and ask the system to write a new plan, based on previous example plans you had uploaded.

Advantages of Claude

• Excellent capabilities for long documents (due to long context window of over 200,000 tokens or approximately 500 pages of text with Claude Pro).
• Up to five files of up to 10 MB each may be uploaded as part of one application.
• Extensive support for coding/programming languages.

Disadvantages of Claude

• No access to internet search.

Google Gemini: Pros and Cons

Gemini’s ability to access the Internet and accept images is what sets Claude’s system apart. Gemini can leverage search to incorporate recent news, weather, and other information into responses, unlike some large language models that lack access to information after a defined date. In many cases, this allows Gemini to provide up-to-date data in responses, with a sample message about an event that occurred during the previous month. Additionally, since Gemini incorporates many image capabilities previously released in Google Lens, you can upload a JPEG, PNG, or WebP file and then chat about the image content. (Gemini’s image capabilities are initially available only when used in English.)

Advantages of Gemini

• Accessible in many languages.
• Internet search.
• Integrated export to Gmail, Google Docs and public sharing.

Disadvantages of Gemini

• Lacks support for file uploads.
• Limited context window compared to Claude.ai.

Should you use Gemini or Claude?

Gemini and Claude represent cutting-edge conversational AI systems with rapidly evolving capabilities. Either system is a great choice when you want to experiment with a generative AI tool.

However, Gemini is clearly the better choice when the chat requires internet access or image support, while Claude is clearly the better choice when the chat can benefit from uploaded documents or a long conversational context.

Experiment with both AI systems to familiarize yourself with their capabilities and then select the chatbot that is best able to help you accomplish a specific task.

Methodology

This comparison was based on detailed reviews of each vendor’s announcements, experimentation with each system, and manual testing of specific publicly available features between July 2023 and June 2024. Since both companies add features fairly frequently, you may want to check out the latest Google Gemini updates or Anthropic announcements for the most recently added features.

Editor's note: This article was updated by Megan Crouse.