Claude Opus 4 vs GPT 4.1

Two models have emerged as front-runners in the race for intelligence, reliability, and versatility: Claude Opus by Anthropic and GPT-4.1. Both represent the cutting edge of large language models (LLMs), promising more natural interactions, deeper reasoning, and broader utility across tasks.

But how do they actually compare in real-world use? This article dives into their strengths, weaknesses, and key differences, from reasoning power and creativity to usability and safety to help you decide which model is best for your needs.

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Specifications and Technical Details

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Sources:

• Anthropic news release: Claude Sonnet 4 \ Anthropic
• Anthropic Documentation: Intro to Claude - Anthropic
• Open AI documentation: https://platform.openai.com/docs/models/gpt-4.1

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Performance Benchmarks

Claude Opus 4 consistently outperforms GPT-4.1 across key benchmarks. In software engineering (SWE-bench), Claude scores 72.5% (79.4% with test-time compute), far ahead of GPT-4.1’s 54.6%. For graduate-level reasoning, Claude reaches up to 83.3%, compared to GPT-4.1’s 66.3%. In high school math, Claude achieves 90.0%, a test GPT-4.1 didn’t report results for.

Claude also leads in multilingual Q&A (88.8% vs. 83.7%) and visual reasoning (76.5% vs. 74.8%). It performs significantly better in agentic tool use—81.4% in retail and 59.6% in airline settings, compared to GPT-4.1’s 68.0% and 49.4%, respectively.

Overall, Claude demonstrates stronger capabilities in reasoning, coding, and tool use, making it a more powerful model for technical and enterprise applications.

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Sources:

• Anthropic news release: https://www.anthropic.com/claude/sonnet‍
• Open AI documentation: https://platform.openai.com/docs/models/gpt-4.1

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Practical Applications and Use Cases

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Claude Opus 4

• Complex AI Agents: Manages multi-channel marketing and enterprise workflows with high accuracy on long tasks.
• Advanced Coding: Handles large-scale coding projects, refactoring, and style adaptation with 32K token support.
• Agentic Search & Research: Performs deep, autonomous research across data sources to deliver strategic insights.

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GPT 4.1

• Frontend Web Development: Quickly generate, debug, and optimize HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and React code for responsive, functional interfaces.
• Agentic Problem-Solving: Break down complex tasks, write and revise code, and troubleshoot issues.
• Legal and Financial Analysis: Extract clauses, summarize documents, and flag risks in contracts or reports.

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Using the Models with APIs

For developers interested in building custom AI solutions with Claude Opus 4, it is available on the Anthropic API, Amazon Bedrock, and Google Cloud's Vertex AI. As for GPT 4.1, the API can be found on Open AI's platform.

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Accessing APIs Directly

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Claude Opus 4 request example:

import anthropic

client = anthropic.Anthropic(
    # defaults to os.environ.get("ANTHROPIC_API_KEY")
    api_key="my_api_key",
)
message = client.messages.create(
    model="claude-opus-4-20250514",
    max_tokens=1024,
    messages=[
        {"role": "user", "content": "Hello, Claude"}
    ]
)
print(message.content)

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GP4 4.1 request example:

from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI()

completion = client.chat.completions.create(
  model="gpt-4.1-2025-04-14",
  messages=[
    {"role": "developer", "content": "You are a helpful assistant."},
    {"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}
  ]
)

print(completion.choices[0].message)

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Streamlined AI Access with Eden AI

Eden AI delivers a unified platform that grants seamless access to both Claude Opus 4 and GPT-4.1 through a single API, eliminating the hassle of managing multiple API keys and simplifying integration workflows. With an extensive selection of advanced AI models available, developers can easily connect and manage custom data sources via an intuitive interface and comprehensive Python SDK.

Eden AI also provides robust performance monitoring and analytics, enabling teams to optimize AI usage and maintain high productivity.

The pricing structure is straightforward and transparent—pay only for the API calls you make, with no hidden fees or subscriptions. Thanks to Eden AI’s supplier-side margin, pricing remains clear and predictable, with no restrictions on API call volume.

Designed with developers in mind, Eden AI emphasizes simplicity, reliability, and scalability, empowering teams to build powerful AI-driven solutions without unnecessary complexity.

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Eden AI Example Workflow

Python request (multimodal chat) example for chat with Eden AI API:

import requests

url = "https://api.edenai.run/v2/multimodal/chat"

payload = {
    "fallback_providers": ["DeepSeek-R1"],
    "response_as_dict": True,
    "attributes_as_list": False,
    "show_base_64": True,
    "show_original_response": False,
    "temperature": 0,
    "max_tokens": 16384,
    "providers": ["claude-sonnet-4-20250514"]
}
headers = {
    "accept": "application/json",
    "content-type": "application/json"
}

response = requests.post(url, json=payload, headers=headers)

print(response.text)

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Cost Analysis

The cost comparison between Claude Opus 4 and GPT-4.1 reveals a significant pricing gap that can strongly influence model selection, especially at scale.

For input tokens, Claude Opus 4 charges $15 per 1M tokens, whereas GPT-4.1 is far more economical at $2 per 1M tokens, making Claude 7.5x more expensive for ingesting data.

For output tokens, the difference is even starker: Claude costs $75 per 1M tokens, compared to GPT-4.1’s $8 per 1M tokens. This makes Claude nearly 9.4x more expensive for generating responses.

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Overall, GPT-4.1 offers a much more cost-efficient option for high-volume use cases such as chatbots, agents, or document processing.

Claude Opus 4 may still be justified for scenarios where slightly better reasoning or nuanced output is critical, but the pricing delta makes GPT-4.1 the clear winner in terms of token efficiency and operational cost.

Sources:

• Anthropic Documentation : Models overview - Anthropic
• Open AI documentation: https://platform.openai.com/docs/models/gpt-4.1

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Conclusion

Claude Opus 4 excels in reasoning, coding, and complex tasks but comes with a higher cost, making it ideal for enterprise use where accuracy is key.

GPT-4.1 offers strong versatility and much better pricing, suited for high-volume and cost-sensitive applications. Ultimately, your choice depends on whether you prioritize performance or cost-efficiency.

With Eden AI’s unified platform, accessing and testing both models has never been easier.