| Anthropic API | OpenAI API | Google Gemini API | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flagship model | Claude Opus 4.6 | GPT-4o / o3 | Gemini 2.0 Pro |
| Flagship pricing (input) | $5 / MTok | $2.50 to $15 / MTok | $1.25 to $10 / MTok |
| Flagship pricing (output) | $25 / MTok | $10 to $60 / MTok | $5 to $30 / MTok |
| Max context window | 1M tokens (beta) | 128K tokens | 2M tokens |
| Max output tokens | 128K | 16K to 64K | 8K to 65K |
| Image generation | Yes (DALL-E, GPT Image) | Yes (Imagen) | |
| Audio/Voice | Yes (Whisper, TTS, Realtime) | Yes (native multimodal) | |
| Tool integration standard | MCP (open standard) | Function calling (proprietary) | Function calling (proprietary) |
| Computer use | Operator (limited) | ||
| Batch discount | 50% | 50% | 50% |
| Prompt caching | Yes (5min + 1hr) | Yes (auto) | Yes (context caching) |
Bottom line
Choose the Anthropic API when you need the best writing, reasoning, and instruction following, when MCP integration is important, or when you need computer use and large output limits. Choose OpenAI when you need multimedia generation (images, audio, video) or the broadest feature set. Choose Google when you need the largest context window or deep Google Cloud integration.