📋 Model Comparison Contents
🤖 AI Model Overview
ClawdBot is model-agnostic - you can use any supported AI provider. Each has different strengths, costs, and performance characteristics.
Supported Providers
Anthropic Claude
Best for: Coding, analysis
Cost: Medium
OpenAI GPT-4
Best for: General purpose
Cost: High
Google Gemini
Best for: Budget, multimodal
Cost: Low
Local (Ollama)
Best for: Privacy, offline
Cost: Free
Quick Decision Guide
- 💻 For coding: Claude 3.5 Sonnet
- ✍️ For writing: GPT-4 or Claude
- 💰 For budget: Gemini Flash or Ollama
- 🔒 For privacy: Local Ollama models
- ⚡ For speed: Claude Haiku or Gemini Flash
- 🎯 For accuracy: Claude 3.5 Sonnet or GPT-4
🧠 Anthropic Claude
Recommended by ClawdBot creator. Claude excels at coding, analysis, and following complex instructions.
Available Models
| Model | Context | Input Cost | Output Cost | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude 3.5 Sonnet | 200K tokens | $3/1M | $15/1M | Coding, complex tasks |
| Claude 3 Opus | 200K tokens | $15/1M | $75/1M | Highest quality (expensive) |
| Claude 3 Haiku | 200K tokens | $0.25/1M | $1.25/1M | Fast, cheap responses |
Strengths
- ✅ Exceptional coding ability - Best for software development
- ✅ Long context window - 200K tokens (entire codebases)
- ✅ Prompt caching - 90% cost reduction on repeated context
- ✅ Instruction following - Excellent at complex, multi-step tasks
- ✅ Safety - Strong resistance to prompt injection
- ✅ Reasoning - Great for analysis and problem-solving
Weaknesses
- ❌ More expensive than Gemini
- ❌ Occasionally overly cautious
- ❌ No native image generation
Real-World Performance
Coding Task (React component):
- Response time: 2-3 seconds
- Code quality: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Cost per request: ~$0.02
Configuration
# In config.yaml
providers:
anthropic:
apiKey: "your-api-key"
model: "claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022"
maxTokens: 4096
temperature: 0.7
enableCaching: true # Recommended!
See detailed guide: Using Claude with ClawdBot
✨ OpenAI GPT-4
The most well-known AI model. Great general-purpose performance.
Available Models
| Model | Context | Input Cost | Output Cost | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPT-4 Turbo | 128K tokens | $10/1M | $30/1M | General purpose, creative |
| GPT-4o | 128K tokens | $5/1M | $15/1M | Multimodal, faster |
| GPT-4o mini | 128K tokens | $0.15/1M | $0.60/1M | Budget option |
| GPT-3.5 Turbo | 16K tokens | $0.50/1M | $1.50/1M | Simple tasks, very cheap |
Strengths
- ✅ Versatile - Excellent at many tasks
- ✅ Creative writing - Best for content generation
- ✅ Multimodal - GPT-4o handles images natively
- ✅ Function calling - Great for tool use
- ✅ Well-documented - Extensive API docs
- ✅ Reliable - High uptime and stability
Weaknesses
- ❌ Expensive - Higher costs than Claude or Gemini
- ❌ Coding - Not as strong as Claude for complex code
- ❌ Context - Smaller window than Claude (128K vs 200K)
Real-World Performance
Creative Writing Task (blog post):
- Response time: 3-5 seconds
- Quality: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Cost per request: ~$0.04
Configuration
# In config.yaml
providers:
openai:
apiKey: "your-api-key"
model: "gpt-4-turbo"
maxTokens: 4096
temperature: 0.8
🌟 Google Gemini
Google's latest AI models. Best price-to-performance ratio.
Available Models
| Model | Context | Input Cost | Output Cost | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini 1.5 Pro | 2M tokens | $1.25/1M | $5/1M | Long context, multimodal |
| Gemini 1.5 Flash | 1M tokens | $0.075/1M | $0.30/1M | Ultra-budget, fast |
Strengths
- ✅ Extremely cheap - Flash is 40x cheaper than GPT-4
- ✅ Massive context - Up to 2M tokens (entire books)
- ✅ Fast - Quick response times
- ✅ Multimodal - Native image, video, audio support
- ✅ Good quality - Competitive with GPT-4 for many tasks
Weaknesses
- ❌ Coding - Not as strong as Claude
- ❌ Newer - Less battle-tested than GPT-4
- ❌ Availability - Some regions have limited access
Real-World Performance
General Q&A Task:
- Response time: 1-2 seconds
- Quality: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Cost per request: ~$0.001 (Flash)
Configuration
# In config.yaml
providers:
gemini:
apiKey: "your-api-key"
model: "gemini-1.5-flash"
maxTokens: 4096
temperature: 0.7
See detailed guide: Using Gemini with ClawdBot
🏠 Local Models (Ollama)
Run AI models completely free on your own hardware. Perfect for privacy and offline use.
Popular Ollama Models
| Model | Size | RAM Needed | Speed | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Llama 3.1 (8B) | 4.7GB | 8GB | Fast | General use, budget hardware |
| Llama 3.1 (70B) | 40GB | 48GB+ | Slow | High quality, powerful hardware |
| Mistral (7B) | 4.1GB | 8GB | Fast | Balanced performance |
| CodeLlama (13B) | 7.3GB | 16GB | Medium | Coding tasks |
| Phi-3 (3.8B) | 2.3GB | 4GB | Very fast | Lightweight, simple tasks |
Strengths
- ✅ 100% Free - No API costs ever
- ✅ Complete privacy - Data never leaves your machine
- ✅ Offline capable - Works without internet
- ✅ No rate limits - Use as much as you want
- ✅ Customizable - Fine-tune models for your needs
Weaknesses
- ❌ Slower - 5-15 seconds vs 1-3 for cloud APIs
- ❌ Hardware requirements - Needs powerful computer
- ❌ Lower quality - Not as capable as GPT-4/Claude
- ❌ Setup complexity - More technical to configure
Installation
# Install Ollama
curl -fsSL https://ollama.ai/install.sh | sh
# Download a model
ollama pull llama3.1
# Test it
ollama run llama3.1 "Hello!"
Configuration
# In config.yaml
providers:
ollama:
baseUrl: "http://localhost:11434"
model: "llama3.1"
temperature: 0.7
Hardware Recommendations
- 8B models: M1 Mac, 16GB RAM PC
- 13B models: M2 Pro, 32GB RAM PC
- 70B models: Mac Studio, High-end PC with 64GB+ RAM
📊 Side-by-Side Comparison
Performance Comparison
| Metric | Claude 3.5 | GPT-4 Turbo | Gemini Flash | Llama 3.1 (8B) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ |
| Creative Writing | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ |
| Analysis | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ |
| Speed | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐ |
| Cost | ⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Context Window | 200K | 128K | 1M | 128K |
| Avg Response Time | 2-3s | 3-5s | 1-2s | 8-12s |
Cost Comparison (1000 Messages/Month)
| Model | Light Use | Moderate Use | Heavy Use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude 3.5 Sonnet | $8 | $15 | $30 |
| GPT-4 Turbo | $12 | $25 | $50 |
| Gemini Flash | $0.50 | $2 | $5 |
| Ollama (Local) | $0 | $0 | $0 |
🎯 Recommendations by Use Case
For Software Developers
Best: Claude 3.5 Sonnet
Why: Superior code generation, debugging, and refactoring. Understands complex codebases.
Alternative: GPT-4 Turbo for general coding + creative tasks
For Content Creators
Best: GPT-4 Turbo
Why: Excellent creative writing, storytelling, and content generation.
Alternative: Claude 3.5 for analytical content, Gemini Flash for budget
For Budget-Conscious Users
Best: Gemini 1.5 Flash
Why: 40x cheaper than GPT-4, still very capable for most tasks.
Alternative: Ollama (free) if you have powerful hardware
For Privacy Advocates
Best: Ollama (Llama 3.1)
Why: 100% local, data never leaves your machine, works offline.
Alternative: Any cloud model with ClawdBot's local memory (still private)
For General Use
Best: Claude 3.5 Sonnet or GPT-4 Turbo
Why: Versatile, high quality, reliable.
Alternative: Mix of Gemini Flash (cheap tasks) + Claude (complex tasks)
For Research & Analysis
Best: Claude 3.5 Sonnet
Why: Excellent reasoning, long context for processing documents.
Alternative: Gemini 1.5 Pro for massive context (2M tokens)
🔄 How to Switch Models
Method 1: Configuration File
# Edit ~/.clawdbot/config.yaml
providers:
default: "anthropic" # Change to: openai, gemini, ollama
anthropic:
model: "claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022"
openai:
model: "gpt-4-turbo"
gemini:
model: "gemini-1.5-flash"
Method 2: Runtime Switching
# In your chat
You: Switch to GPT-4
Bot: Now using GPT-4 Turbo
You: Use Claude for this coding task
Bot: Switched to Claude 3.5 Sonnet
You: Back to Gemini
Bot: Now using Gemini 1.5 Flash
Method 3: Multi-Model Setup
Use different models for different tasks automatically:
# In config.yaml
routing:
rules:
- pattern: "code|debug|refactor"
provider: "anthropic"
model: "claude-3-5-sonnet"
- pattern: "write|story|blog"
provider: "openai"
model: "gpt-4-turbo"
- pattern: "quick|simple"
provider: "gemini"
model: "gemini-1.5-flash"
Testing Models
# Test connection to each provider
clawdbot test claude
clawdbot test openai
clawdbot test gemini
clawdbot test ollama