LLM families are like car brands; each has unique features but shares core tech. GPT (from OpenAI) excels in generation, like writing stories. Llama (Meta) is open-source, ideal for customization. Claude (Anthropic) focuses on safety.
GPT models, like GPT-4, are closed-source but powerful for chat. Llama offers variants like Llama 2 for fine-tuning on local data. Claude emphasizes ethical AI.
Here is a comparison of the latest version of these models as at the time this course was written:
| Model | Primary Strength | Source Type | Cost |
| Open AI GPT-5 | Best all-rounder; advanced reasoning & ecosystem. | Closed | High |
| Claude 4.5 | Best for coding & complex writing; highest “safety.” | Closed | Very High |
| Gemini 3 | Massive context (2M+ tokens); deep Google integration. | Closed | Moderate |
| Llama 4 | Industry standard for open performance; massive community. | Open-Weight | Free (self-host) |
| Mistral Large 2 | Efficiency; excellent performance for its size. | Open-Weight | Moderate |
| DeepSeek R1/V3 | Extreme reasoning & math; best price-to-performance. | Open-Weight | Ultra-Low |
| Grok 4 | Real-time info from X (Twitter); “unfiltered” personality. | Open-Weight | Low |
Key Insights & Recommendations
- For Enterprise & High Security: Claude and Gemini lead the pack. Claude’s focus on “Constitutional AI” makes it a favorite for regulated industries (legal/finance), while Gemini’s ability to “read” entire codebases at once (due to its 2M context window) is unmatched.
- For Developers & Privacy: Llama 4 and Mistral are the top choices. Because you can host them on your own servers, your data never leaves your infrastructure, and you can fine-tune the model’s “brain” directly.
- For Budget-Conscious Power: DeepSeek has disrupted the market by offering reasoning capabilities that rival GPT-4o and o1 at a fraction of the cost. It is currently the “math and coding” champion for those on a budget.
- For Real-Time Events: Grok is the only model with a direct, real-time pipeline to the conversations happening on social media, making it the best for trend analysis and news.