“What the heck should I charge for this project??”
Three years ago, that question would’ve taken me an afternoon of Googling, snacking, and hang-wringing to answer. Even then, I’d end up under-charging just to “be safe.”
But then I built a ChatGPT “Business Advisor.”
It knows I tend to downplay my experience and it pushes back. Which gives me the confidence to hit “send” on proposals that are thousands of dollars higher than I would have sent.
And, yes, clients have accepted them!
These days, I use ChatGPT for everything from pricing projects to researching clients and developing content. It has literally changed my life to the tune of thousands of dollars.
But the people in the writing community keep telling me Claude is better.
So, I wanted to know: If you’re a copywriter, which AI should you actually use?
Which AI should you use?
Though the landscape is constantly (and rapidly) changing, as of today there are two major players:
- Claude, by Anthropic
- ChatGPT, by OpenAI
Currently, ChatGPT leads the pack with over 1 billion monthly active app users.
But according to an article on Forbes.com, as of June 2026, Claude and related Anthropic products have pulled ahead in monetization. Claude users are more likely to pay to use it than ChatGPT users.
Why? Is Claude better?
The writing community seems to be smitten with its smooth, more human-like responses.
Even Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale, calls it a “cutie-pie.” Read her long, intellectual romp with Claude, where it guesses who she is, here.
After having used both, my answer is: It really depends.
ChatGPT and Claude are both powerful AI platforms. You can use each of them for free, or upgrade for $20/month.
But they do slightly different things.
ChatGPT is better at:
- Searching the web in real time
- Creating or modifying images
- Voice mode
- Flattering you constantly
Claude is better at:
- Writing more like a human
- Analyzing uploaded documents
- Not pandering to you at every turn!
They each also have a main downfall (or two).
ChatGPT “sounds” like AI, no matter what. You can engineer the most elegant prompt, and it will never fully write “in your voice.” At least, not in its current iteration.
Claude can’t create images. So, if you need images for a blog post or you want to see yourself hanging off the top of the Eiffel Tower, go back to ChatGPT.
And then, of course, there’s the big government contract that was all over the news back in March. Politics aside, Anthropic told the U.S. government they weren’t okay with their AI being used for autonomous killing or “mass surveillance.” They lost the contract. Whereas OpenAI said “the government can’t use it for anything illegal” and won the contract.
Interpret the above as you like.
But if that sort of thing doesn’t bother you…
Use Both Claude AND ChatGPT
If you need help editing and refining, developing “brand voice,” or drafting, use Claude.
If you need to do client research, better understand a particular industry, or work with images, use ChatGPT.
If you like to think out loud with an AI, talking to it in the car or while folding laundry, use ChatGPT.
(By the way, I use it to practice French… très utile!)
Since I’ve poured years into my “business advisor” project on ChatGPT, I’m keeping it for now. It already “knows” so much about me and my clients and prospects that we can catch up where we left off. I don’t have to explain anything a second time.
But whenever I need help reiterating something, massaging a paragraph, or developing a “voice” for a brand, I’m turning to Claude.
AI Power Move: Use Them in Tandem
Last year, while attending the Marketing AI Institute’s annual conference, MAICON, I noticed that almost every presenter had the same AI “power move.”
They all took the results from one AI and put it into another for deeper analysis.
I tried this by copying a conversation with my ChatGPT business advisor and pasting it into Claude.
“What do you think? Would you have come up with the same fee?” I asked.
Claude said yes. Then it gave me a few more things to consider.
So, I feel even more confident hitting “send” on the next retainer proposal.
Constant Compliments
While Claude and ChatGPT are both powerful on their own and excel at certain things, there’s still an elephant in this room.
The compliments.
While both AIs are built to give you the answer you want and to make sure you have a good time using them, ChatGPT is heavier on the sycophancy.
Everything you ask is such a great question.
Everything you suggest is an excellent idea.
You’re just so smart.
Which feels good at first but gets old after a while.
Claude does this too, but it’s subtler and it seems to slow down as you use it. One of my recent conversations with Claude ended like this:
“So, it was the right call. Now it’s just a waiting game.”
I love that. No synthetic praise. No cloying optimism. Just a positive angle and a neat ending.
What About the Others?
Are there other AIs you could use? Absolutely. And why not use them all?
- Perplexity excels at research.
- Google’s Gemini is especially helpful within the Google ecosystem.
- NotebookLM can summarize a topic and give it back to you as a podcast.
- Midjourney creates stunningly realistic images.
- Apple just launched “Siri AI” to be your personal assistant.
Play with as many as you can stand and use them for what they do best.
Final Thoughts
This article wasn’t exactly an AI “throw-down,” was it?
In the end, I can’t tell you which one to use. But, if you want to pay for just one, play around with the free versions of ChatGPT and Claude for a few months, first.
Depending on what you want to use it for, you could pay for ChatGPT and use Claude for free or vice-versa.
Either way, you’re not in this alone anymore, and that’s worth at least a few thousand dollars.