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Max Peng
Max Peng

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GPT-4.5 vs Claude 3.7:A lower-cost option might be better for us

In just a few days, OpenAI and Anthropic released their latest flagship models—GPT-4.5and Claude Sonnet 3.7. The competition between the models is heating up.

GPT-4.5 and Claude Sonnet 3.7 represent two different visions of advanced AI. One prioritizes cost-effectiveness and streamlined performance; the other doubles down on reasoning transparency and multimodal capabilities.

OpenAI's View on GPT-4.5

OpenAI describes GPT-4.5 as the largest and best chat model to date.

It enhances the ability to recognize patterns, make connections, and generate creative insights without relying heavily on reasoning. Interactions with GPT-4.5 feel more natural. Its knowledge base is broader, its ability to track user intent is stronger, and it has a higher level of "emotional intelligence," making it very useful for tasks like writing, programming, and solving real-world problems.

Anthropic's View on Claude 3.7 Sonnet

Claude 3.7 Sonnet shows significant improvements in coding and front-end web development.

It functions both as a general LLM model and a reasoning model: users can choose when to let the model respond normally and when to allow it to think longer before responding. In standard mode, Claude 3.7 Sonnet is an upgrade from Claude 3.5 Sonnet. In the expanded thinking mode, it reflects on its answers before providing them, thus improving its performance in mathematics, physics, instruction-following, coding, and many other tasks.

Comparison of GPT-4.5 and Claude 3.7 Sonnet

To help users make a better choice, we’ll compare Claude 3.7 Sonnet and GPT-4.5 in terms of cost, context architecture, speed, and benchmark performance:

● Cost of Use:

GPT-4.5: Priced at about $75 per million input tokens and $150 per million output tokens.

Claude 3.7: $3 per million input tokens and $15 per million output tokens.

It's clear that Claude 3.7 Sonnet is much cheaper than GPT-4.5. The input token cost for GPT-4.5 is 25 times higher, and the output token cost is 10 times higher than those of Claude 3.7 Sonnet. Claude 3.7 Sonnet serves as both a general model and a reasoning model, seeming to have a clear advantage in pricing.

● Context Architecture:

GPT-4.5: An improved large transformer trained on vast amounts of text, featuring enhanced alignment, image support, and a 128k context window.

Claude 3.7: Uses a “mixed reasoning” design that allows switching between quick responses and deeper thought chain reasoning. It has a 200k context window and specialized optimizations for coding.

● Speed and Scalability:

GPT-4.5: Highly optimized for faster response times compared to GPT-4, with a context window of up to 128k tokens. It is widely accessible through OpenAI and Azure, making large-scale deployment easy.

Claude 3.7: Offers two modes—quick responses for simple queries or slower, expanded reasoning for complex issues. It can handle contexts of 200k tokens, suitable for large documents.

● Benchmark Performance:

GPT-4.5: Scored about 89-90% on knowledge assessments (MMLU). It has strong general accuracy and reasoning capabilities, although it performs slightly weaker on advanced mathematics and coding tasks compared to specialized models.

Claude 3.7: Leads in coding (achieving over 70% on specialized coding benchmarks) and scores as high as 96% on some mathematical datasets. It scored about 80% on MMLU and demonstrates excellent performance in step-by-step reasoning.

Claude 3.7 Sonnet clearly outperforms GPT-4.5 in coding. While mathematics is not Claude's strong suit, it still performs better than GPT-4.5.

Integration of Claude 3.7 at XXAI

Following the launch of Claude 3.7 Sonnet and Claude 3.7 Sonnet (thinking), XXAI swiftly integrated it into its platform. XXAI now includes 15 popular AI models, allowing users to switch between their preferred models freely. If you’re looking for unlimited access to Claude 3.7, you might want to try XXAI.

Conclusion

The analysis shows that GPT-4.5 is more of an interim step in technological evolution rather than a revolutionary leap. Although it has made progress in reducing hallucinations and optimizing conversational flow, its pricing strategy has raised widespread questions—its input cost is about 75 times higher than GPT-4, seemingly disproportionate to the actual performance improvements.

In contrast, Claude 3.7 Sonnet has established a leading position in programming with a reasonable pricing structure, efficient processing capabilities, and outstanding logical reasoning.

The AI field is undergoing rapid changes. GPT-4.5 may very well be a tactical adjustment in OpenAI's strategy, paving the way for significant technological breakthroughs that may soon be on the horizon. We need to stay attentive, as more transformative innovations could be just around the corner.

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