The AI Model Race Heats Up: Comparing Grok 3, Claude 3.Sonnet, o3-mini, and Gemini 2.0

Grok 3 vs Claude 3.7 Sonnet vs o3-mini vs Gemini 2.0

Each of these models excels in different areas, reflecting the diverse strategies employed by their developers. The LLM battle in 2025 is off to a strong start, with frontier models already vying for dominance. Elon Musk's xAI recently launched Grok 3, which has reportedly impressed users worldwide. Meanwhile, Anthropic introduced Claude 3.7 Sonnet, and earlier this year, OpenAI launched o3-mini with plans to release GPT-4.5 soon. Google has expanded its Gemini 2.0 lineup with the introduction of Gemini 2.0 Flash and Gemini 2.0 Pro models. With a 70.3% score on SWE-bench Verified, Claude 3.7 Sonnet outperforms o3-mini, which scores 49.3%, making it a strong choice for coding. Meanwhile, Grok 3 is also gaining recognition as a competitive coding model. In a blog post, xAI stated that on LiveCodeBench (v5), Grok 3 mini beta (Think) scored 80.4, while o3-mini scored 74.1. The reasoning models are available through the Grok app. Users can prompt Grok 3 to 'Think' or, for more complex inquiries, activate 'Big Brain' mode, which uses extra computational power for deeper reasoning. Besides coding and reasoning, Grok 3 can generate images and supports voice conversation mode. However, access to these features requires a Premium+ or SuperGrok subscription. Claude 3.7 Sonnet is ideal for complex software tasks. Its extended thinking mode enhances math and science capabilities. However, it does not support voice or video processing. The model is a 'hybrid', meaning it can simultaneously function as both a standard LLM and a reasoning LLM. In extended thinking mode, the model reviews its reasoning before generating a response, leading to improved performance in math, physics, coding, instruction-following, and other complex tasks. When using Claude 3.7 Sonnet through the API, users can control the number of tokens allocated for reasoning, up to a maximum of 1,28,000 tokens. This allows them to manage the trade-off between response speed, cost, and output quality. The model can accept text and images as input. This means it can process and analyse text-based data and images to generate responses or perform tasks like code generation and problem-solving. However, it lacks image generation capabilities and does not support voice conversation. Similarly, OpenAI's o3-mini is suitable for competitive programming, coding challenges, and cost-sensitive applications. The company released the model in response to DeepSeek's R1, an open-source alternative to OpenAI's o1, which was developed at a fraction of the cost. Unlike Anthropic, where users can set a fixed number of tokens for reasoning, OpenAI provides three reasoning effort levels - low, medium, and high - allowing developers to adjust processing based on their needs. This feature lets o3-mini allocate more processing power for complex problems or prioritise speed when low latency is required. However, o3-mini does not support vision-related tasks, so developers should continue using OpenAI o1 for visual reasoning. Like o1, o3-mini comes with a larger context window of 2,00,000 tokens and a max output of 1,00,000 tokens in the API. Few can match Google Gemini when it comes to multimodality and longer context windows. Gemini 2.0 Flash offers a range of features, including native tool use, a 1 million-token context window, and multimodal input. While it currently supports text output, image and audio output, along with the Multimodal Live API, will be available soon. For coding, Google has introduced Gemini 2 Pro. The tech giant says the model excels at coding capabilities and processing complex prompts with improved comprehension and reasoning. It also features Google's largest-ever context window of 2 million tokens, allowing for in-depth analysis of extensive information. Grok 3 is integrated into X and available for free to all users. However, advanced features like voice mode are exclusive to Premium+ subscribers. Users can interact with Grok 3 directly through the X app or website. X Premium+ is currently available in India for ₹3,470 per month. xAI's SuperGrok subscription costs $30 per month or $300 per year when purchased through the iOS app. This standalone app provides access to advanced Grok 3 features like DeepSearch and reasoning modes. The company also announced that in the coming weeks, Grok 3 and Grok 3 mini will be available through its API platform, offering access to both standard and reasoning models. Moreover, DeepSearch will be released to Enterprise partners via the API. On the other hand, OpenAI's o3-mini is available to all free ChatGPT users. The model is accessible through the Chat Completions API, Assistants API, and Batch API for select developers in API usage tiers 3-5. OpenAI's o3-mini is a small, cost-efficient reasoning model optimised for coding, math, and science. It supports tools and Structured Outputs and offers a context length of 2,00,000 tokens. The model's pricing is set at $1.10 per million input tokens, with a discounted rate of $0.55 per million cached input tokens. Output tokens are priced at $4.40 per million tokens. Claude 3.7 Sonnet is available across all Claude plans, including Free, Pro, Team, and Enterprise, as well as through Anthropic's API, Amazon Bedrock, and Google Cloud's Vertex AI. The model is priced the same as its predecessors at $3 per million input tokens and $15 per million output tokens, including thinking tokens. Meanwhile, Gemini 2.0 Pro is now available as an experimental model to developers in Google AI Studio and Vertex AI and to Gemini Advanced users in the model drop-down on desktop and mobile. In the free tier, users can process inputs and generate outputs at no cost. In the paid tier, input processing costs $0.10 per million tokens for text, images, and videos, while audio inputs are priced at $0.70 per million tokens. Output generation is available at $0.40 per million tokens. Moreover, context caching is free in the free tier. In the paid tier, however, it costs $0.025 per million tokens for text, image, and video data and $0.175 per million tokens for audio. Each of these models excels in different areas, reflecting the diverse strategies employed by their developers. The choice between these models should be based on specific needs and the type of tasks intended for them. Grok 3 stands out with its multimodal capabilities and advanced reasoning, while Claude 3.7 Sonnet shines in coding and complex problem-solving. OpenAI's o3-mini offers cost-efficient reasoning and flexibility, whereas Google's Gemini 2.0 boasts an extensive context window and strong multimodal capabilities.

The hottest AI models, what they do, and how to use them | TechCrunch

AI models are being cranked out at a dizzying pace, by everyone from Big Tech companies like Google to startups like OpenAI and Anthropic. Keeping track of the latest ones can be overwhelming. Adding to the confusion is that AI models are often promoted based on industry benchmarks. But these technical metrics often reveal little about how real people and companies actually use them. To cut through the noise, TechCrunch has compiled an overview of the most advanced AI models released since 2024, with details on how to use them and what they're best for. We'll keep this list updated with the latest launches, too. There are literally over a million AI models out there: Hugging Face, for example, hosts over 1.4 million. So this list might miss some models that perform better, in one way or another. Anthropic says this is the industry's first 'hybrid' reasoning model, because it can both fire off quick answers and really think things through when needed. It also gives users control over how long the model can think for, per Anthropic. Sonnet 3.7 is available to all Claude users, but heavier users will need a $20 a month Pro plan. Grok 3 is the latest flagship model from Elon Musk-founded startup xAI. It's claimed to outperform other leading models on math, science, and coding. The model requires X Premium (which is $50 a month.) After one study found Grok 2 leaned left, Musk pledged to shift Grok more "politically neutral" but it's not yet clear if that's been achieved. This is OpenAI's latest reasoning model and is optimized for STEM-related tasks like coding, math, and science. It's not OpenAI's most powerful model but because it's smaller, the company says it's significantly lower cost. It is available for free but requires a subscription for heavy users. OpenAI's Operator is meant to be a personal intern that can do things independently, like help you buy groceries. It requires a $200 a month ChatGPT Pro subscription. AI agents hold a lot of promise, but they're still experimental: a Washington Post reviewer says Operator decided on its own to order a dozen eggs for $31, paid with the reviewer's credit card. Google Gemini's much-awaited flagship model says it excels at coding and understanding general knowledge. It also has a super-long context window of 2 million tokens, helping users who need to quickly process massive chunks of text. The service requires (at minimum) a Google One AI Premium subscription of $19.99 a month. This Chinese AI model took Silicon Valley by storm. DeepSeek's R1 performs well on coding and math, while its open source nature means anyone can run it locally. Plus, it's free. However, R1 integrates Chinese government censorship and faces rising bans for potentially sending user data back to China. Deep Research summarizes Google's search results in a simple and well-cited document. The service is helpful for students and anyone else who needs a quick research summary. However, its quality isn't nearly as good as an actual peer-reviewed paper. Deep Research requires a $19.99 Google One AI Premium subscription. This is the newest and most advanced version of Meta's open source Llama AI models. Meta has touted this version as its cheapest and most efficient yet, especially for math, general knowledge, and instruction following. It is free and open source. Sora is a model that creates realistic videos based on text. While it can generate entire scenes rather than just clips, OpenAI admits that it often generates "unrealistic physics." It's currently only available on paid versions of ChatGPT, starting with Plus, which is $20 a month. This model is one of the few to rival OpenAI's o1 on certain industry benchmarks, excelling in math and coding. Ironically for a "reasoning model," it has "room for improvement in common sense reasoning," Alibaba says. It also incorporates Chinese government censorship, TechCrunch testing shows. It's free and open source. Claude's Computer Use is meant to take control of your computer to complete tasks like coding or booking a plane ticket, making it a predecessor of OpenAI's Operator. Computer use, however, remains in beta. Pricing is via API: $0.80 per million tokens of input and $4 per million tokens of output. Elon Musk's AI company, x.AI, has launched an enhanced version of its flagship Grok 2 chatbot it claims is "three times faster." Free users are limited to 10 questions every two hours on Grok, while subscribers to X's Premium and Premium+ plans enjoy higher usage limits. x.AI also launched an image generator, Aurora, that produces highly photorealistic images, including some graphic or violent content. OpenAI's o1 family is meant to produce better answers by "thinking" through responses through a hidden reasoning feature. The model excels at coding, math, and safety, OpenAI claims, but has issues deceiving humans, too. Using o1 requires subscribing to ChatGPT Plus, which is $20 a month. Claude Sonnet 3.5 is a model Anthropic claims as being best in class. It's become known for its coding capabilities and is considered a tech insider's chatbot of choice. The model can be accessed for free on Claude although heavy users will need a $20 monthly Pro subscription. While it can understand images, it can't generate them. OpenAI has touted GPT 4o-mini as its most affordable and fastest model yet thanks to its small size. It's meant to enable a broad range of tasks like powering customer service chatbots. The model is available on ChatGPT's free tier. It's better suited for high-volume simple tasks compared to more complex ones. Cohere's Command R+ model excels at complex Retrieval-Augmented Generation (or RAG) applications for enterprises. That means it can find and cite specific pieces of information really well. (The inventor of RAG actually works at Cohere.) Still, RAG doesn't fully solve AI's hallucination problem.