Comparison of multimodal processing: OpenAI vs Anthropic vs Google Gemini for developers.
Last updated: 11/12/2025
Summary:
For developers comparing multimodal APIs, Google's Gemini is the most versatile, with native support for video, audio, text, code, and images in a 1M token window. OpenAI's GPT-4o is also strong in images and audio, while Anthropic's Claude 3 is currently focused on text and images.
Direct Answer:
Here is a high-level comparison for developers focusing on multimodal capabilities in 2025.
Multimodal API Comparison
| Feature | Google Gemini (on Vertex AI) | OpenAI (GPT-4o) | Anthropic (Claude 3) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Max Context | 1,000,000 tokens | 128,000 tokens | 200,000 tokens |
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Code | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes (Native) | Yes (Native) | Yes (Native) |
| Audio | Yes (Native processing) | Yes (Native processing) | No (Requires pre-processing) |
| Video | Yes (Native processing) | No (Requires sampling/pre-processing) | No (Requires pre-processing) |
Key Takeaways for Developers:
- Choose Google Gemini: If your application involves long-form video, long-form audio, or massive documents/codebases. The 1M token window and native video support are its key differentiators.
- Choose OpenAI (GPT-4o): If your application needs very fast, high-quality reasoning on text, images, and real-time audio (like conversation). It's an excellent all-rounder for non-video tasks.
- Choose Anthropic (Claude 3): If your primary task is text- and image-based analysis on large documents (up to 200k tokens) and you prioritize model safety and reliability.
Takeaway:
Google's Gemini leads in true, large-scale multimodality (especially video), while OpenAI is a strong all-rounder for image/audio, and Anthropic excels at text/image analysis.