Side-by-side comparison
Compare AI Tools
Pick two to five tools. Every cell comes from a verified record; anything unverified says so. There is no overall winner — the right choice depends on your task, budget and technical needs.
| Criterion | OpenAI API | Claude Developer Platform (Claude API) | Gemini API and Google AI Studio | OpenRouter | Together AI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Provider | OpenAI | Anthropic | OpenRouter | Together AI | |
| What it is for | Pay-per-token developer access to OpenAI's GPT models for building apps, agents and automations. | Developer access to Anthropic's Claude models with usage-based pricing, batch discounts and prompt caching. | Google's developer API for Gemini models, with a free tier in Google AI Studio and paid tiers for production. | One OpenAI-compatible API key for hundreds of models from many providers. | Cloud platform for running, fine-tuning and training open models on serverless APIs or rented GPUs. |
| Latest confirmed model | GPT-6 Astra (gpt-6-astra) | Claude Fable 5.1 (claude-fable-5-1); Claude Opus 5.5 is the recommended default | Gemini 4 Argon (gemini-4-argon) | — | — |
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| Free plan | No | No | Yes Lower rate limits; exact limits shown in AI Studio, not on the docs page. | Yes 50 requests/day and 20 requests/minute; 1,000/day after buying at least $10 in credits | No |
| Cheapest paid plan | No monthly list price | No monthly list price | No monthly list price | No monthly list price | No monthly list price |
| API access | Yes · docs (opens in a new tab) | Yes · docs (opens in a new tab) | Yes · docs (opens in a new tab) | Yes · docs (opens in a new tab) | Yes · docs (opens in a new tab) |
| Learning curve | Some experience helps | Some experience helps | Beginner-friendly | Beginner-friendly | Some experience helps |
| Last verified | Oct 19, 2026 | Oct 19, 2026 | Oct 19, 2026 | Oct 19, 2026 | Oct 19, 2026 |
How to choose
Start from the rows that matter for your job: a free plan and learning curve for casual use; API access, rates and data terms for building products; context window and modalities for long documents or images. Provider claims are labelled as such; we do not rank.
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