From Claude to GPT-5: How to Master the New AI Powerhouse
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Zack Saadioui
8/12/2025
So, you’re used to Claude. You’ve gotten comfortable with its more, let's say, refined way of doing things. Its prose feels a bit more poetic, its reasoning a little more transparent, & its overall vibe just clicks with you. But now, with all the hype around GPT-5, you're trying to make the switch, & it’s just not hitting the same. I get it. It can feel like you’ve traded in a finely tuned sports car for a beast of a machine that, while powerful, is a bit… unpredictable.
Honestly, a lot of people feel this way. There's a reason Claude has such a dedicated following. It's known for being reliable & producing high-quality, often more "human" sounding text with less effort. You’re not just imagining things. But here’s the thing: GPT-5 is an absolute powerhouse, & with the right approach, you can get some seriously impressive results out of it. It just requires a different way of thinking & a bit of a new skill set.
This isn’t going to be another one of those surface-level comparison posts. We’re going to go deep into the nitty-gritty of why these models feel so different & how you can adapt your workflow to not just get by with GPT-5, but to actually leverage its unique strengths to your advantage. We'll cover everything from the fundamental differences in their architecture to practical, hands-on prompting techniques that will make you a GPT-5 power user.
The Elephant in the Room: Why GPT-5 Feels So Different
First off, let’s talk about the “why.” Why does GPT-5 sometimes feel like a step-down from Claude, even though it’s newer &, in many benchmarks, more powerful? It really comes down to a few key things.
One of the biggest factors is what some have dubbed the "router lottery." GPT-5 isn't just one single model; it's a "unified system" that uses a router to decide which internal model is best for your specific query. This could be a super-fast, efficient model for simple tasks or a deeper, more "thoughtful" model for complex reasoning. In theory, this is great, but in practice, it can lead to some inconsistency. You might get a brilliant, in-depth response one minute & a surprisingly basic one the next. With Claude, you pretty much know what you’re getting every time, & that consistency is a HUGE part of its appeal.
Another piece of the puzzle is their underlying philosophies. Anthropic, the creators of Claude, have been very vocal about their focus on "Constitutional AI," which is a fancy way of saying they’ve baked in a strong ethical framework from the ground up. This often translates to a more cautious & deliberate tone, which can come across as more thoughtful & less, well, robotic. OpenAI, on the other hand, has been relentlessly pushing the boundaries of raw capability, which is why GPT-5 can feel so incredibly powerful, but also a bit more wild & untamed.
Then there's the cost & context window. GPT-5 is significantly cheaper than Claude & has a much larger token context window. This is a massive advantage for certain tasks, like analyzing huge documents or iterating on code without breaking the bank. But it also means that the way you interact with it has to be different. You can afford to be more verbose & provide more context, which is something we’ll dig into later.
So, now that we have a better understanding of why they feel so different, let’s get into the good stuff: how to actually use GPT-5 effectively, especially when you’re used to the cushy comfort of Claude.
Shifting Your Mindset: From Claude Whisperer to GPT-5 Wrangler
The first step is a mental one. You need to stop thinking of GPT-5 as a direct replacement for Claude & start thinking of it as a different tool with a different set of strengths & weaknesses. It's less of a gentle collaborator & more of a super-intelligent intern that you need to manage. Here’s how to do that:
Embrace the Verbosity: With Claude, you can often get away with shorter, more elegant prompts. With GPT-5, it’s often better to be overly explicit. Don’t be afraid to write a whole paragraph explaining the context, the desired tone, the format you want, & any constraints. Remember that massive context window? Use it.
Be the Boss: GPT-5 is an "agentic" model, which means it's designed to take a high-level goal & break it down into smaller, executable steps. This is incredibly powerful, but it also means you need to be a good manager. Give it a clear end goal, but also provide some guidance on how to get there.
Iterate, Iterate, Iterate: Don’t expect to get the perfect response on the first try, especially with more complex tasks. Think of your first prompt as a starting point. Then, use follow-up prompts to refine & improve the output. This is where GPT-5's lower cost really shines – you can afford to have a longer, more detailed conversation to get to the final result.
Getting Your Hands Dirty: Actionable Prompting Techniques for GPT-5
Alright, let's get into the practical stuff. Here are some specific prompting techniques you can use to start getting better results from GPT-5 right away.
1. The Art of the Detailed Prompt
This is the most important one, so we’re starting here. A good GPT-5 prompt is a detailed one. Here’s what you should include:
Role & Goal: Start by telling the model who it is & what it’s trying to achieve. For example, instead of "Write a blog post about email marketing," try "You are an expert email marketer with 10 years of experience. Your goal is to write a comprehensive blog post for small business owners who are new to email marketing."
Context is King: Give it all the relevant background information. If you're writing an email, who is it for? What’s your relationship with them? What’s the key message you want to convey?
Step-by-Step Instructions: For complex tasks, break it down into steps. The model is surprisingly good at following numbered or bulleted lists of instructions.
Examples & Constraints: If you have a specific format or style in mind, give it an example. You can also tell it what not to do. For instance, "Do not use corporate jargon" or "Avoid using emojis."
2. The “Let’s Think Step-by-Step” Trick
This one is almost like a cheat code. If you have a complex reasoning task, simply adding the phrase "Let's think step-by-step" to your prompt can dramatically improve the quality of the output. It forces the model to slow down & articulate its reasoning process, which often leads to a more accurate & logical answer.
3. The Feedback Loop
This is a more advanced technique, but it's incredibly powerful. Instead of just taking the first output, ask GPT-5 to critique its own work. For example, after it generates a piece of writing, you can ask, "Now, critique the blog post you just wrote. What are its weaknesses? How could it be improved?" You’ll be amazed at the insights it can provide. You can even create an "AI debate" where you have it argue for & against a certain point to explore different perspectives.
4. The Power of Personas
GPT-5 is really good at adopting different personas. You can use this to your advantage to get more interesting & nuanced responses. Instead of just asking for a generic response, try something like:
"Explain this concept to me like I’m a 5th grader."
"Write this in the style of a cynical, world-weary detective."
"Give me a response from the perspective of a bubbly & enthusiastic marketing intern."
This can be a fun way to break out of the generic "AI voice" & get more creative & engaging content.
A Head-to-Head Showdown: GPT-5 vs. Claude in the Real World
Okay, so we’ve talked a lot about the theory. Now, let’s look at how these two models stack up in a few key areas & when you might want to choose one over the other.
Creative Writing
This is one of the areas where Claude has traditionally shined. Its prose is often described as more lyrical & less formulaic. If you’re looking for a creative partner to help you brainstorm ideas, write poetry, or craft a narrative, Claude is still an excellent choice.
However, GPT-5 is no slouch in the creative department. It can generate incredibly detailed & imaginative stories, especially if you give it a rich, detailed prompt. One interesting finding from my research is that the API version of GPT-5 seems to be much better for creative writing than the version you get in the ChatGPT interface. It can produce much longer & more detailed outputs. So, if you're serious about creative writing with GPT-5, it might be worth exploring the API.
The verdict: For quick, poetic, & "human-sounding" creative writing, Claude is often the go-to. For long-form, detailed, & world-building-heavy creative projects, GPT-5 might have the edge, especially if you're using the API.
Coding & Development
This is where things get really interesting. In many coding benchmarks, GPT-5 performs exceptionally well. It has a massive knowledge base & can tackle complex coding challenges. However, remember that "router lottery"? It can be a real pain for developers. You might get a perfect, production-ready piece of code one minute & a buggy, incomplete mess the next.
Claude, on the other hand, is known for its consistency & reliability in coding tasks. It might not always be the most creative or innovative coder, but it’s a dependable workhorse. This is why many developers are willing to pay the premium for Claude – they know they can trust its output.
The verdict: If you’re on a budget & are willing to do some extra debugging & iteration, GPT-5 can be a powerful coding assistant. If you need consistent, reliable, & production-ready code, Claude is probably the safer bet.
Business & Marketing
This is where GPT-5’s "agentic" capabilities really come into play. You can give it a high-level marketing goal, like "Analyze my website & give me a list of recommendations to improve my conversion rate," & it will go out, browse your site, & come back with a detailed report. It can also be used for things like lead qualification, data analysis, & automating routine tasks.
Claude is also great for business use cases, especially content creation. Its ability to produce high-quality, on-brand content with minimal prompting is a huge time-saver for marketing teams.
When it comes to integrating AI into your business for customer-facing applications, like customer service, you need a solution that is both powerful & reliable. This is where a platform like Arsturn comes in. Arsturn helps businesses create custom AI chatbots trained on their own data. This means you can have a chatbot that provides instant, accurate customer support, answers questions, & engages with website visitors 24/7. It’s like having a team of super-intelligent customer service agents who never sleep.
For businesses looking to boost conversions & provide a more personalized customer experience, Arsturn is a fantastic solution. You can build no-code AI chatbots that are trained on your specific business data, ensuring that they provide accurate & relevant information to your customers. This can be a game-changer for lead generation & customer engagement.
The verdict: For high-level, multi-step business tasks & analysis, GPT-5’s agentic capabilities are hard to beat. For creating high-quality, on-brand content with less effort, Claude is an excellent choice. And for building a reliable, custom AI solution for your business, a platform like Arsturn is the way to go.
The Bottom Line
So, how do you use GPT-5 effectively when you’re used to Claude’s superior performance? The key is to stop thinking of it as a direct competitor & start thinking of it as a different kind of tool. It’s a powerful, versatile, & incredibly capable model, but it requires a more hands-on approach.
You need to be more detailed in your prompts, embrace the iterative process, & learn to leverage its unique strengths, like its agentic capabilities & massive context window. It might take a bit of getting used to, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll be able to get some truly amazing results.
And remember, it’s not about choosing one model & sticking with it forever. The future of AI is about having a toolbox of different models & knowing which one to use for which task. Sometimes, that will be the reliable & eloquent Claude. Other times, it will be the powerful & versatile GPT-5. And for specialized business applications, it might be a custom solution built on a platform like Arsturn.
I hope this was helpful! It’s a lot to take in, I know. But trust me, with a little practice, you’ll be a GPT-5 pro in no time. Let me know what you think in the comments – I’d love to hear about your own experiences with these two AI giants.