Claude and ChatGPT 2.0: The Tour

This is the detailed tour behind the book's first page, Claude and ChatGPT 2.0. That page explains what changed and what stays your responsibility. This one shows each feature, compares the two apps, and advises which model to use for which job.

You do not need to read it all now, or remember it. Skim it to see what the apps can do, and come back when a chapter uses a feature. Part 0 walks you through setting up the apps step by step. Words like repository, worktree and pull request belong to software work. You can skip any paragraph that uses them.

This book uses the two desktop apps as its default platforms, because they can do the most for the work it teaches: they work on the files in your own folders, use a built-in browser, control other apps on your computer, and run the coding agents you meet in Part III. The web and phone apps can do much of the same, and the book points out where they differ.

Note

Words used on this page

AI Worker platform: an app, such as the Claude or ChatGPT desktop app, that gives an AI Worker a computer to work on, your files and apps, limits you set, and ways for you to check its work.
Model: the AI itself, such as Claude Opus 5.5 or GPT-6 Astra. The app is the program around it.
Task: a job the AI works through on its own, step by step, instead of answering in one reply.
Brief: what you tell the AI when you hand it a task. Chapter 5 teaches how to write one.
Done-when: a test the AI can apply to its own work to know it has finished, such as "every invoice has a decision".
Context: everything the AI holds in mind at once while it works.
Connector: a link from the AI to another app, such as your email or a database. Most use an open standard called MCP.
Skill: saved instructions that teach the AI how to do one kind of job your way.
Plugin: a package of skills and connectors you install together.
Permission setting: how much the AI may do before it asks you.
Effort: how hard the model thinks before answering. More effort is slower and uses more of your plan.

Note

How to read the product detail on this page

Product detail changes monthly, and features differ by plan and region. Each vendor section carries one "as verified" date. Facts come from the vendors' own documentation unless marked (reported), which means they come from walkthroughs or news reports and were not found in the vendor's documentation. Rollout dates and plan details are in the footnotes. If your app looks different, the vendor's help page is the authority, and the ideas on this page still hold.

The sources were accessed on November 5, 2026. Sources marked † could not be opened when this page was verified. The facts this page takes from them were confirmed in the other sources named in the same footnote.

Check yourself

On the tour page, what does the label (reported) mean?

Sources