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If you’ve been using ChatGPT for a while and you’re wondering whether switching from ChatGPT to Claude is actually worth it – I get it. I resisted for ages.
Not because I hadn’t heard about Claude, but because I’d genuinely got quite good at ChatGPT. I wasn’t using it like a casual user typing “write me a blog post.” I’d built workflows, I knew how to prompt it well, and I was getting decent results.
Starting over with a completely new AI tool felt overwhelming – especially when I was already time-poor, sleep-deprived (hello, two kids under three) and dealing with a few curveballs life had thrown my way. Why fix what wasn’t broken?
But eventually, the balance tipped. I got curious. I took the plunge. I started to see that instead of learning a new AI tool being a problem, it might actually prove to be the solution! (Spoiler alert, it did)
And now, a few months in, I can honestly say it’s one of the better business decisions I’ve made this year.
Here’s the full story – including where ChatGPT still wins, the setup things I wish someone had told me, and how I’ve been using Claude during one of the trickiest seasons I’ve had in a while.
Why I Finally Stopped Using ChatGPT
The Chat GPT love bombing problem
This one might sound a bit dramatic, but stick with me.
ChatGPT has a habit of telling you what you want to hear. Ask it to review your business plan and it’ll tell you it’s brilliant. Share a dodgy piece of copy and it’ll respond with “this is great, here are a few small tweaks!”
It’s encouraging in the moment, but it’s not actually helpful – and after a while, you start to notice that the outputs feel slightly inflated. A bit fluffy. Like getting feedback from someone who really doesn’t want to upset you.
In April 2025, OpenAI actually had to roll back an update to GPT-4o because it had become – their words, not mine – “overly flattering or agreeable.”
Users were posting screenshots of ChatGPT praising genuinely terrible ideas. One person shared that it endorsed their decision to stop taking medication. It validated someone calling themselves a divine messenger. OpenAI fixed it within days, but it was concerning.
Claude pushes back. It asks questions. It’ll tell you if something doesn’t quite work. That’s not always comfortable, but it’s what actually makes the output better.
Ethical concerns about Chat GPT I couldn’t ignore
There were a few stories circulating in the media about ChatGPT responses causing real harm to vulnerable users – responses that were encouraging rather than flagging serious concerns. It made me feel uncomfortable, especially as a Mum to two children who will be bought up in the AI era and all the can of worms that can open.
Anthropic, the company behind Claude, was built specifically around AI safety – it’s literally baked into how the model is trained. That matters to me.
I started hearing about Claude everywhere
A few blog posts caught my eye. Conversations in communities I’m part of kept coming back to it. Some really interesting podcasts.
People were talking about using Claude in ways that sounded genuinely different to anything I’d seen with ChatGPT – not just generating content, but actually doing things. Taking tasks off people’s plates entirely.
I got curious enough to try it properly.
Where I’m At With Claude Right Now (And Why Efficiency Matters More Than Ever)
Let me be honest about why Claude arrived at exactly the right time for me.
I planned ahead for mat leave using the strategies I teach inside Out of Office. Scheduled content, 5 minute setup collabs, automated sequences & evergreen funnels doing their thing in the background. It worked. Income held steady.
But I’m in a different phase now – the bit nobody really talks about.
I’m back, but I’m not reliably back. Childcare keeps falling through at the last minute. I’m being pulled in about fourteen directions at once.
If I want any childcare for Grace (my seven-month-old), I have to do a two-hour commute so my parents can look after her – which eats up a huge chunk of the working hours I was banking on. Nathan, my two-and-a-half-year-old, has (strong) opinions about everything! I’m dealing with a new autoimmune diagnosis that’s affecting my energy in ways I’m still figuring out.
My scheduled content had run its course. The evergreen Strategy Sunday emails were keeping things ticking over – at least one email going out each week regardless (that’s the system I teach inside Series to Superfans) – but I wasn’t emailing anywhere near as often as normal, and I could feel it in my engagement when I did show up.
Even established business owners have seasons where things are just harder. This is one of mine. And what I needed wasn’t more to-do lists or better morning routines. I needed ways to get more done in less time, with less mental effort. Claude felt like a potential answer to that.
The Moment I Knew Claude Was Different
I’ll be honest – I expected Claude to be helpful in the same way ChatGPT was helpful. Give me ideas, help me brainstorm, speed up the thinking.
What I didn’t expect was for it to just… do the thing.
I’d thrown together a waitlist page for my Money Metrics Data Engine in a hurry because I’d noticed a bit of buzz building about it inside Facebook groups. It was the best thing I’d ever created and yet I knew my hastily created page wasn’t doing it justice, but I hadn’t had the time to go back and fix it.
I asked Claude to help me improve it, fully expecting to get some copy suggestions I’d then have to go and implement myself.
Instead, Claude built me a full, properly designed HTML page I could drop straight in. It looked significantly better than what I’d put together in a rush. And I’m fussy. I almost always end up rewriting what AI gives me because it doesn’t quite sound like me or doesn’t hit the mark. This time I didn’t need to. I actually sat there and thought “Oh. This is different.”
That was the moment I realised I wasn’t just getting a thinking partner. I was getting things taken off my plate entirely.
The second moment came when I was working on pre-launch content for the same product. I gave Claude a detailed breakdown of how the tool worked and asked it to calculate realistic figures for how much time and money it could save the average business owner.
What came back wasn’t a vague “It could save you hours!” – it was a beautifully structured report with specific, realistic & grounded figures, referencing real values and real use cases.
Something I could actually share as pre-launch social proof. ChatGPT might have given me a list of ideas. Claude gave me the finished asset.
How Claude Actually Works (And How Claude is Different from ChatGPT)
If you’ve only used Claude like a fancier version of ChatGPT – opening a new chat each time, typing a prompt, hoping for the best – you’re not getting anywhere near what it can do. The real power is in the structure.
Projects – your persistent workspace
Projects are Claude’s equivalent of a folder that Claude actually remembers. You set up a project, add context files, give it instructions, and every conversation you have inside that project carries that context automatically. No more explaining who you are and what your business does every single time.
For me, I’m sgtill building but so far I’ve got projects set up for different areas of my business
Content Creation (e.g. turning my written lessons into scripts, ready to hit record on)
Blog posts (Claude has access to my affiliate links, blog post library, freebie library, offer library and a style guide built around articles I wrote already. It handles the keyword research, interviews me and helps me create the content I usually don’t have time to write.)
Airtable Projects (Claude knows how I structure things, how I use autom,ations, record linking and interfaces and is there to help me out whenever I get stuck with a formula or workflow.)
The Money Metrics Data Engine. (My big project right now, it’s helping me trim the fat, problem solving issues & stress testing the product! Eventually all my offers will have their own project to help me navigate promotions, improvements, live rounds etc)
Strategy Planning (I dump all my problems on Claude, it helps me figure out a solution based on my specific circumstances and skill sets.)
Each one knows the relevant context without me having to re-brief it constantly.
Skills – teaching Claude to work exactly your way
Skills are markdown files – essentially documents with detailed instructions – that you load into your project to make Claude behave in a very specific way.
I’ve built skills that teach Claude my exact email voice, my blog post process, my gamification style, how to extract offer ideas from my day to day conversations and more.
When I use those skills, I don’t need to prompt carefully each time – the skill does that work for me.
Those skills work across all projects and Claude prompts me to use them – I don’t have to remember they exist. I could be strategising a launch and Claude will say ‘want to brainstorm some prelaunch blog posts for this? Lets use your blog post planning skill!’
It does take some upfront setup. But the payoff when it’s done properly is significant.
Claude Cowork – the bit that changes everything
This is where it gets really interesting. Claude Cowork (available in the desktop app – more on that in a second) doesn’t just generate text. It can actually do things. Access your files, analyse your inbox, take actions on your behalf.
I’ve set up a weekly briefing through Cowork that analyses my inbox for affiliate opportunities, flags things that need actioning, pulls news and trends from my industry and makes suggestions for the week ahead.
It’s like having a very organised, very thorough assistant who’s done your Monday morning reading before you’ve even sat down.
That’s not ChatGPT territory. That’s something genuinely different.
Web version vs desktop app – and the setup thing to watch out for
Quick practical note: Claude Cowork lives in the desktop app, not the web version. When I first set up Claude, I couldn’t find it anywhere – turns out my laptop software needed updating before the desktop app would work properly. Once I updated it, everything clicked into place. If you’re having the same issue, that’s probably the fix.
Custom GPTs vs Skills – What’s the Difference?
If you’ve used ChatGPT’s custom GPTs, you’ll find Claude’s skills feel familiar but work differently. Worth knowing the key differences before you dive in.
Custom GPTs live inside ChatGPT’s ecosystem. You build them with instructions and knowledge files, and you can share them via the GPT Store – either publicly or with specific people.
The system prompt is hidden from users, which gives you a bit of protection over your intellectual property if you’re selling them as products.
Claude skills are markdown files that live inside your Claude project. They’re more flexible and – when set up well – the output quality is noticeably better.
But they’re open files, which means if you share a skill with someone, they can see exactly what’s in it. Your prompts, your structure, your logic. All visible.
Does that matter? It depends on what you’re building.
If you’re using skills for your own workflow, not at all. If you’re planning to sell them as products, it’s worth thinking about.
Some people don’t mind – the value is in the know-how and the setup, not the file itself. Others would prefer their IP was a bit more protected. Neither approach is wrong.
You absolutely can sell Claude skills – and I’m in the process of packaging some of mine up as a product right now (more on that soon). Just worth going in with your eyes open about the difference.
Where ChatGPT Is Still Winning (My Honest Takes)
I want to be really clear about this: I’m not telling you to cancel ChatGPT and never look back. There are things it genuinely does better right now.
Image generation
Claude’s image generation is poor. Not “okay but not quite right” – genuinely poor, at least for realistic or photographic-style images.
I asked Claude to help me plan my garden – I wanted to visualise where a garden office and a climbing frame might go without making things too cramped. ChatGPT created a really useful visual mockup that let me actually picture it. Claude produced something that looked like Nathan (my 2 year old) had drawn it!
That said – Claude does produce decent design-style output for things like slide layouts and diagrams. It’s the photo-realistic stuff where it falls flat. If you regularly need image generation as part of your workflow, keep ChatGPT around for that.
Pricing and usage limits
ChatGPT Plus at $20/month has no usage limits. Claude’s $20/month plan does have limits – and if you’re a heavy user without adjusting how you work, you’ll hit them.
The good news is that once you understand what eats credits (long chats, heavy file uploads, vague prompts that require lots of back and forth), you can manage it really well.
Shorter conversations, leaner files, more specific upfront instructions – I’ve barely been hitting my limits since I started being smarter about it. There’s also a higher plan at $100/month if you need it. I can see myself moving to that eventually, but right now I’m fine on the lower plan.
And if I have to move to that plan, I’m ok with that because my output is way more than 5X what I was achieving with Chat GPT!
One other thing I’ve noticed is that I’m in the UK, and using Claude in the mornings or evenings (when US usage is lower) seems to mean credits go a bit further. Small thing, but worth knowing.
Memory and setup
Out of the box, ChatGPT’s memory is simpler. You start chatting, it remembers things, you build up a picture over time without much effort.
Claude’s memory requires more intentionality. You need to set up projects, load context files, build skills. If you use it like ChatGPT – just opening new chats without any structure – the output will be disappointing and you’ll wonder what the fuss is about.
The first time I used Claude I actually asked in a Facebook group ‘Claude doesn’t remember your conversations? If that’s the case what’s all the fuss about?!’ Luckily I stuck with it and now it’s a non-issue.
Once you’ve done the work to set things up properly, Claude’s output is in a completely different league. The learning curve is real. The payoff is worth it.
How to Actually Make the Switch
Here’s what I did, in case it’s useful.
Step 1: Get ChatGPT to do the heavy lifting first. Before I set up Claude, I asked ChatGPT to help me create a pack of summary documents about my business – my voice, my offers, my stories, key context it should know. It was already familiar with me, so this was quick. I then used those documents as the foundation for my Claude projects and skills.
Step 2: Get your head around Claude’s structure. Spend a bit of time understanding how projects, skills, and Cowork fit together before you dive into real tasks. It’s not complicated, but it is different – and knowing the structure upfront means you build things strategically rather than having to redo everything later.
Step 3: Build skills with the future in mind. The temptation is to use AI for whatever you need right now and move on. The smarter play is to build skills that will serve you on an ongoing basis – your email voice, your content workflow, your launch process. Invest that setup time once and it pays back every time you use it.
Step 4: Install the desktop app and update your software. Especially if you want to use Cowork. The web version is great for most things, but the desktop app unlocks the features that make Claude genuinely agentic.
What I’ve Actually Been Using Claude For
Here are just a few of the ways I’ve been using Claude – I’ll share more soon in another blog post.
Strategic planning during a tricky season. When I came back from mat leave and needed to get my head around what to prioritise with very limited hours, I had a big brain dump session with Claude. It helped me turn a messy situation into a structured 10-week action plan – with priorities, sequencing, and realistic timelines. That kind of clear thinking used to take me a full day with a notebook and too much coffee.
Airtable planning. I asked Claude to build out an action plan directly inside my Airtable base – tasks, weekly structure, launch sequencing. It actually connected to my live Airtable account and built it. Not suggested it. Built it.
Gamification ideas. I’ve been thinking about adding more gamification into my business – for summits, launches, affiliate promotions. Claude generated a load of tailored ideas across different event types, scored by difficulty and uniqueness, with actual setup instructions. Instantly usable. I then turned it into a skill so it’ll actually prompt me with ideas whemever I’m in plan mode!
The Cowork weekly briefing. Every week, Claude analyses my inbox, flags affiliate opportunities, pulls industry news, and gives me a suggested focus for the week. It’s become something I genuinely rely on.
Email support. I want to be clear about this one – I still write most of my own emails because I love copywriting and it’s a skill I actively want to keep developing. But for anyone who finds writing emails hard, time-consuming, or something they dread? Claude is genuinely brilliant at it. It can capture voice, structure sequences, and produce copy that doesn’t feel generic. That’s rare.
Things I Haven’t Done Yet (But Am Looking Forward To)
This is very much a journey, not a destination. Things on my Claude to-do list:
Turning my written course lessons into video scripts
Creating Pinterest pins and descriptions for my whole content library (this is going to save me SO much time & help me being more consistent with Pinterest)
Getting Claude to help me optimise my website structure for SEO and AI search
Using Cowork to reorganise and label files on my laptop – yes, it can do that
The fact that I can even write a list like this and feel excited rather than overwhelmed is telling. Claude has given me back a sense that there’s actually headspace to experiment again. And that matters a lot when you’re in a season where everything feels like it’s pulling at you.
Is Claude Right for You?
Honestly? It depends on where you’re at.
Claude is probably a great fit if:
You want AI that does things, not just ideates
You work on complex, ongoing projects where context matters
Ethics and data privacy matter to you
You’re willing to put in some upfront setup time for better long-term output
You write, plan, or create as a core part of your business
You might want to stick with (or also keep) ChatGPT if:
Image generation is a regular part of your workflow
You want unlimited usage without thinking about it
You’re very time-poor right now and can’t face a learning curve
You only ever need quick one-off answers rather than ongoing project work
And honestly? Running both isn’t a bad call. They cost the same at the base level. Use Claude for the deep, complex, ongoing stuff. Keep ChatGPT for images and quick hits. Plenty of people I know are doing exactly that.
One More Thing Before You Go
If you’re in a season that looks anything like mine – back from leave, juggling childcare chaos, trying to be efficient with limited hours – here are a few things that have genuinely helped me…
The mat leave planning side of things? That worked because of the strategies I teach inside Out of Office – a course I built specifically for online business owners who want income to hold steady while they step back. If you’re heading into a period like that, it’s worth a look.
The evergreen email strategy that kept things ticking while I wasn’t fully present? That’s the Strategy Sunday system – automated, set-and-forget, goes out every week whether I’m at my desk or doing a two-hour commute to drop Grace at my parents’. I teach exactly how to build it inside Series to Superfans.
And if you want to use Claude the way I’ve been describing – with properly built skills for your voice, your business, your workflow – I’m packaging some of my best ones up as a product very soon. Keep an eye out for that.
Have you made the switch to Claude yet? Or are you sitting on the fence like I was for months? Would you like me to create a full training on how I did the switch, what setup documents I cerated and how I organised everything?
Drop a comment below – I’d love to know where you’re at with it.
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PS. Yes these images with side by side comparisons were cerated with the help of Claude! Cool aren’t they?!
