ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini: Which Is Best for Contractors
Difficulty: Apprentice — Choosing the right tool. No technical setup.
Three AI tools, all about $20/month, all promising to help with writing and research. You don't have time to test each one for a month to figure out which is worth paying for.
Here's the short version: they're all capable for most contractor tasks. The differences show up in specific situations. Pick based on what you actually do most.
The Quick Answer
ChatGPT if you want one tool that does everything and remembers your preferences across conversations.
Claude if you work with long documents—specs, contracts, submittals—and want cleaner writing output.
Gemini if your office runs on Google Workspace and you want AI connected to your email and Drive.
What Each One Does Best
ChatGPT
ChatGPT remembers things about you. Tell it once that you're a commercial GC who prefers direct emails, and it adjusts future responses. You don't re-explain your situation every conversation.
It also lets you build custom assistants. Create one for RFI responses in your format, another for safety documentation. These save and can be shared with your team.
For varied daily tasks—drafting emails, explaining a code requirement, summarizing meeting notes—ChatGPT handles them consistently well. It's rarely the absolute best at any single thing, but it's good across the board.
Claude
Claude handles long documents better than the others. Upload an entire spec book and ask "What does Division 9 say about paint prep for CMU walls?" It finds it.
For contract review, this matters. Upload a subcontract and ask Claude to flag unusual payment terms or indemnification clauses. It catches details you might miss on a quick read.
Writing output tends to be more polished. RFI responses and client updates often need less editing. The tone stays professional without veering into marketing speak.
Downside: Claude doesn't remember previous conversations on the standard plan. Every chat starts fresh.
Gemini
If your email, calendar, and files live in Google Workspace, Gemini connects to all of it. Ask it to find an email from the architect about the lobby finish schedule—it searches your Gmail directly.
Gemini handles images better than the others. Take a photo of a site condition and ask questions about it. Useful for field documentation.
Weakness: Gemini sometimes sounds confident about things that aren't quite right. Double-check facts, especially code requirements.
What It Costs
ChatGPT Plus: $20/month. Removes usage limits, adds memory, file uploads, image generation.
Claude Pro: $20/month. Higher limits, priority access, latest models.
Gemini Advanced: $20/month (included with Google One AI Premium, which adds 2TB storage).
All three have free tiers with limits. Try each for a week before committing.
Limitations
All three generate confident-sounding information that's sometimes wrong. Dangerous with building codes, OSHA requirements, and contract language. Use them to draft—not as authoritative sources.
Data privacy varies by plan. Free and paid consumer tiers may use your conversations to train their models unless you opt out. Check settings before pasting sensitive information.
None connect to your project management software or accounting system. They can't pull data from Procore, Sage, or your scheduling tool. You provide the information, they help process it.
Bottom Line
Pick ChatGPT for general daily use and memory features. Pick Claude for document-heavy work and cleaner writing. Pick Gemini if you're already deep in Google's ecosystem.
Or run two. At $20 each, two subscriptions cost less than an hour of a PM's time. Some contractors keep Claude for document review and ChatGPT for everything else.
Meta Description: ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini for contractors. Honest comparison of features, pricing, and which AI works best for construction work in 2026.