Ever since 2025, a new generation of large language models (LLMs) has emerged, each pushing the boundaries of what AI can accomplish. This article provides a comprehensive comparison between OpenAI's latest offerings (GPT 4.5 and GPT-4o), Anthropic's Claude 3.7 Sonnet, and Deepseek's R1 model, exploring their unique features, capabilities, accessibility, and potential applications.
GPT-4.5: OpenAI's Latest Powerhouse
GPT 4.5 Benchmarks
GPT 4.5 represents OpenAI's most recent advancement in large language model technology. Released as a research preview, it's being touted as OpenAI's "largest and best model for chat yet." Based on available information, GPT 4.5 delivers significant improvements in several key areas:
- Enhanced Reasoning Abilities: GPT-4.5 represents a substantial step forward in pre-training capabilities, allowing for more sophisticated reasoning and problem-solving.
- Tool Compatibility: The model supports all ChatGPT tools and API features such as function calling and image inputs.
- Performance Improvements: Early reports suggest notable improvements in capabilities across reasoning, creativity, and knowledge domains compared to its predecessors.
GPT 4.5 Pricing & When GPT 4.5 Will Be Available
GPT 4.5 has been released as a research preview. Access details indicate it will likely follow OpenAI's typical rollout strategy:
- Initial availability to ChatGPT Plus subscribers
- Gradual expansion to API users
- Eventually reaching broader availability
GPT-4o: The Omni-Modal Evolution
Key Features and Capabilities
GPT-4o represents OpenAI's most versatile model, built to seamlessly handle multiple types of information:
- Multimodal Integration: GPT-4o combines text, voice, and vision processing within a single unified model.
- Enhanced Audio Output: The model can express human emotions, sing, and provide more naturalistic voice responses.
- Speed Improvements: GPT-4o delivers responses significantly faster than previous models while maintaining GPT-4 level intelligence.
- Canvas Collaboration: The model enables new collaborative features in ChatGPT, such as the Canvas feature for project development.
Access and Availability
OpenAI made GPT-4o widely accessible:
- Available to both free and premium ChatGPT users
- Integrated into the ChatGPT interface and API
- Developers can access GPT-4o through the OpenAI API to build applications
Claude 3.7 Sonnet: Anthropic's Hybrid Reasoning Model
Claude 3.7 Sonnet Benchmarks
Claude 3.7 Sonnet, released by Anthropic, introduces several groundbreaking features:
- Hybrid Reasoning Model: Claude 3.7 Sonnet is marketed as the first hybrid reasoning model on the market, integrating both quick responses and deep reflection capabilities.
- Visible Thinking Process: The model introduces an "extended thinking mode" that makes its reasoning process visible to users, allowing them to follow along as Claude works through complex problems.
- Exceptional Coding Abilities: Claude 3.7 Sonnet shows significant improvements in coding and front-end web development, achieving state-of-the-art performance on software engineering benchmarks like SWE-bench Verified.
- GitHub Integration: Available across all Claude plans, enabling developers to connect their code repositories directly to Claude for more contextual assistance.
- Agentic Capabilities: The model excels at task automation and complex workflows, particularly when using tools and handling multi-step processes.
Where to Use Claude 3.7 Sonnet
Anthropic has made Claude 3.7 Sonnet available across multiple platforms:
- All Anthropic plans (Free, Pro, Team, and Enterprise)
- Amazon Bedrock
- Google Cloud's Vertex AI
- Extended thinking mode available on all surfaces except the free Claude tier
Deepseek R1: The Open-Source Reasoning Champion
Deepseek R1 Benchmarks
Deepseek R1, released in January 2025, focuses specifically on reasoning capabilities:
- Advanced Reasoning: The model excels at logical inference, chain-of-thought reasoning, and real-time decision-making, making it particularly strong for mathematics and logical problem-solving.
- Impressive Benchmarks: Achieves approximately 79.8% pass@1 on the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME) and about 97.3% pass@1 on the MATH-500 dataset.
- Efficient Architecture: Despite having 671 billion parameters in total, only 37 billion are activated per forward pass thanks to its Mixture of Experts (MoE) framework, making it computationally efficient.
- Search With Reasoning: DeepSeek R1 integrates web search capabilities with its reasoning abilities, creating a powerful combination for research and information retrieval.
- Open-Source Accessibility: Distributed under the MIT license, allowing researchers and developers full freedom to inspect, modify, and integrate the model.
Access and Availability
As an open-source model, Deepseek R1 offers unique accessibility advantages:
- Fully available for commercial use under the MIT license
- Significantly lower operational costs compared to proprietary models
- Available in distilled versions (1.5B to 70B parameters) for resource-limited environments
- Hosted on platforms like Fireworks AI for easy access
GPT-4.5 vs Claude 3.7 Sonnet vs Deepseek R1
Performance Benchmarks
When comparing these models across various benchmarks:
- Reasoning Tasks: OpenAI's GPT-4.5 and Deepseek R1 both excel at complex reasoning tasks, with R1 showing particularly strong performance in mathematical problem-solving. Claude 3.7 Sonnet's extended thinking mode provides significant improvements in math and science tasks.
- Coding Capabilities: Claude 3.7 Sonnet demonstrates exceptional performance in real-world coding tasks, especially with its new Claude Code tool. Deepseek R1 also shows strong coding abilities, with high performance on Codeforces-like challenges.
- Multimodal Processing: GPT-4o leads in seamless integration of text, voice, and vision in a single model architecture, while the other models have varying degrees of multimodal capabilities.
- Real-world Applications: Claude 3.7 Sonnet and Deepseek R1 both emphasize real-world task performance over competition problems, focusing on practical business use cases.
Cost and Access Considerations
The models present different economic and access profiles:
- Proprietary vs. Open-Source: While GPT-4.5 and GPT-4o (OpenAI) and Claude 3.7 Sonnet (Anthropic) are proprietary models with controlled access, Deepseek R1 is fully open-source under the MIT license.
- Pricing Structure: Claude 3.7 Sonnet maintains consistent pricing at 3 per million input tokens and 15 per million output tokens. Deepseek R1 running on Fireworks AI costs approximately $8 per million tokens (both input and output), making it potentially more cost-effective for certain workflows.
- Accessibility: GPT-4o has been made available to free ChatGPT users, increasing its accessibility. Claude 3.7's extended thinking mode remains a premium feature, unavailable on the free tier.
Specialized Capabilities
Each model brings unique specialized capabilities to the table:
- GPT-4.5: Represents OpenAI's most advanced overall chat model, likely with improved context understanding and generation capabilities.
- GPT-4o: Excels in multimodal tasks, providing seamless transitions between text, voice, and image processing.
- Claude 3.7 Sonnet: Stands out with its visible reasoning process and exceptional coding capabilities, particularly for software engineering tasks.
- Deepseek R1: Focuses specifically on mathematical reasoning and logic-heavy tasks, with strong performance in structured problem-solving domains.
What's the Best AI Model in 2025 for Coding?
The emergence of these advanced models signals several important trends in AI development:
Reasoning as a Core Capability
The focus on reasoning across all these models, particularly with Claude 3.7 Sonnet's extended thinking mode and Deepseek R1's reasoning-centric design, indicates that advanced reasoning is becoming a central focus of AI development rather than a separate specialized function.
Open-Source Competition
Deepseek R1 demonstrates that open-source models can now compete with proprietary offerings on performance while providing additional benefits of transparency and cost-effectiveness, potentially shifting the industry landscape.
Specialization vs. General Capability
These models show different approaches to balancing specialized excellence with general capabilities. While GPT-4o focuses on multimodal versatility, Deepseek R1 emphasizes mathematical reasoning, and Claude 3.7 Sonnet prioritizes visible thinking and coding.
Conclusion
The development of GPT 4.5, GPT-4o, Claude 3.7 Sonnet, and Deepseek R1 represents a significant evolution in artificial intelligence capabilities. Each model brings unique strengths and approaches to the table, from OpenAI's advanced chat and multimodal processing to Anthropic's visible reasoning and coding excellence to Deepseek's open-source mathematical reasoning prowess.
As these models continue to develop and new competitors emerge, we can expect further improvements in reasoning capabilities, multimodal processing, and specialized functions. Organizations and individuals looking to leverage these technologies should carefully consider their specific needs, resource constraints, and use cases when choosing between these powerful AI systems.
The competition between proprietary and open-source approaches, as well as between different philosophical approaches to AI development, will likely drive further innovation and potentially reshape how we interact with and deploy artificial intelligence in the coming years.
