A comparison of ChatGPT and Claude 2 describes a snapshot that can no longer be repeated. Anthropic released Claude 2 on July 11, 2023, and its documentation lists Claude 2 and Claude 2.1 as retired on July 21, 2025. ChatGPT is a product whose underlying model changes over time, so any head-to-head review is only valid for the named versions, the plan, and the date on which the prompts were run.
Key takeaways
- Claude 2 launched on July 11, 2023 with a context window of up to 100K tokens and an open beta chat limited to the U.S. and U.K. at first.
- Anthropic notified developers on January 21, 2025 that Claude 2, Claude 2.1, and Claude Sonnet 3 would be retired, and all three were retired on July 21, 2025.
- Anthropic states that it gives at least 60 days of notice before retiring a publicly released model.
- OpenAI's Help Center says GPT-4o was retired from ChatGPT on February 13, 2026, while API access is handled separately.
- A fair comparison records the model name, plan, date, and exact prompts, and does not declare an overall winner from a single run.
What was announced for Claude 2 in July 2023
Anthropic's launch post for Claude 2, dated July 11, 2023, said the model could take up to 100K tokens in a prompt, enough to work with hundreds of pages of documentation. The chat experience was an open beta available in the U.S. and U.K., with wider availability promised for later. The company said the API cost the same as Claude 1.3 and reported improved coding, math, and reasoning, plus longer responses.
The post is also cautious. It says Claude can generate inappropriate responses, that no model is immune to jailbreaks, and that AI assistants should not be used where physical or mental health and well-being are involved. The "2x better" harmlessness claim in that post comes from Anthropic's own internal red-teaming, so it is a vendor statement, not an independent result. None of the figures from that launch apply to the models sold today.
How model retirement works at Anthropic
Anthropic's model deprecations page describes four lifecycle states: active, legacy, deprecated, and retired. A retired model is no longer available, and requests to it fail. The company says it notifies customers with active deployments at least 60 days before retiring a publicly released model. The page also says the dates apply to Anthropic-operated platforms, while Amazon Bedrock and the Google-managed offering on Google Cloud set their own retirement schedules.
| Model family | Announced | Retired |
|---|---|---|
| Claude 1 and Claude Instant | September 4, 2024 | November 6, 2024 |
| Claude 2, Claude 2.1, Claude Sonnet 3 | January 21, 2025 | July 21, 2025 |
| Claude Sonnet 3.5 (two versions) | August 13, 2025 | October 28, 2025 |
| Claude Opus 3 | June 30, 2025 | January 5, 2026 |
| Claude Haiku 3 | February 19, 2026 | April 20, 2026 |
Each row is taken from the deprecation history on that page, read on October 27, 2026. A review written about any of these models is a record of a product that has been switched off for API users.
The ChatGPT side of the same problem
ChatGPT is a product name rather than a single model. According to OpenAI's Help Center article on retiring GPT-4o and other ChatGPT models, GPT-4o was retired from ChatGPT on February 13, 2026, and it remains a separate matter in the API. OpenAI's own help pages block automated access, so the article itself could not be opened for this check; the date and the API note were confirmed through a forum post that quotes it, and no other details are repeated here.
The lesson is the same on both sides. A phrase such as "ChatGPT beats Claude" has no fixed meaning unless it names the model shown in the app, the subscription tier, and the day of the test. Both companies retire older models over time, and Anthropic's schedule can differ by platform.
A log that makes a comparison repeatable
The table is an illustrative template. It shows the fields a careful tester can record so another person could repeat the test or see that it has aged.
| Field | Example entry | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Product and plan | Free tier, consumer app | Limits and default models differ by plan |
| Model name shown | As displayed in the model picker | The brand name hides which model answered |
| Date and region | October 27, 2026, Canada | Defaults and availability change |
| Exact prompt | Full text, copied and pasted | Small wording changes alter answers |
| Number of runs | Three per prompt | Single runs vary |
| Grader | Two people, blind to the product name | Brand expectations bias scoring |
Results from such a log describe the tested tasks. They do not say which product is better in general, and readers with different tasks may see different outcomes. Privacy terms, data retention, and pricing are separate questions that each provider documents and updates, and they should be read from the provider's current pages and not from a dated review.
FAQ
Is Claude 2 still available?
Not through Anthropic's API. The deprecations page lists Claude 2 and Claude 2.1 as retired on July 21, 2025, with a newer model named as the recommended replacement.
Which is better, ChatGPT or Claude?
No source checked for this article supports a general ranking. Results depend on the model version, the task, and the date, which is why the log above records all three.
Why do old comparisons stay on search results?
Web pages usually stay online after the models they describe are retired. A page that does not state its test date and model names cannot be checked against the current products.
Do the retirement dates apply to every platform?
No. Anthropic says its dates apply to the platforms it operates, and partner platforms can set different schedules for the same model.
Related reading
- What people actually ask ChatGPT
- Teaching ChatGPT with better prompts
- AI compared with automated intelligence
- AI and deep learning compared
More in AI Tools and Industry.
Last verified: October 2026
Sources
- Model deprecations, Anthropic developer documentation, read October 27, 2026
- Claude 2, Anthropic, July 11, 2023
- Retiring GPT-4o and other ChatGPT models, OpenAI Help Center, 2026