I Switched from ChatGPT to Claude and Haven't Looked Back

The hardest part about switching from ChatGPT to Claude was not the model difference. It was losing two years of conversation history. All those threads where I had explained my codebase, my preferences, my project context.

Then I discovered something: all that accumulated context was not actually useful. Scrolling through old conversations to re-find information is a terrible retrieval system. The model does not remember previous conversations anyway - you are just searching your own notes in a clunky interface.

Claude Projects Changed Everything

Claude Projects with a well-written CLAUDE.md file replaced the need for conversation history entirely. Instead of hoping the model remembers something from three months ago, you write down your project context once and every new conversation starts with full awareness.

A good CLAUDE.md includes your tech stack, coding conventions, architecture decisions, and the specific things you have tried that did not work. The model reads this at the start of every session and understands your project better than it would from any amount of chat history.

The Model Difference

Beyond the workflow improvement, Claude's reasoning on complex code problems feels more reliable. ChatGPT often gives confident but subtly wrong answers. Claude is more likely to say when it is uncertain, which saves time in the long run. You spend less effort verifying its output.

The writing quality is also noticeably better. Less corporate filler, more direct communication.

What I Miss

Honestly, not much. ChatGPT's image generation is still better. The mobile app was slightly more polished for a while. But for actual work - writing code, analyzing documents, thinking through problems - Claude wins by a wide margin.

If you are on the fence about switching, just try it for a week. Write a proper CLAUDE.md file and see how it compares.

Fazm is an open source macOS AI agent. Open source on GitHub.