In our recent showdown between ChatGPT-5 and Gemini 2.5 Pro, we put both AI models through five real-world coding prompts that covered everything from building a coffee shop website to generating interactive charts. All of the prompts are valuable for professionals or hobbyists interesting in getting started with vibe coding.
I was really shocked that ChatGPT-5 consistently produced more polished, user-friendly and visually appealing solutions than Gemini on almost every contest. It's proof that ChatGPT-5 is pulling ahead for casual coders and developers alike. Let's take a deeper dive into what set it apart.
1. A more polished design
With each prompt ChatGPT-5 showed an eye for design with cleaner layouts, better styling and thoughtful details like a ‘remember me’ checkbox in the prompt to design a user-friendly website sign-in.
ChatGPT also excelled at properly aligning hero sections for a better user experience. While Gemini's output was satisfactory and worked, it often didn't look like the completed project and more like a proof of concept.
2. Better user experience
When tasked with creating a browser game, ChatGPT-5 went beyond the basics: it added onboarding instructions and made sure the game started immediately, giving it the feel of a real playable demo. Gemini’s version launched static and lacked that polish that otherwise would have made it stand out.
3. Smarter interactivity
When I asked ChatGPT-5 for a more complicated graph such as an exercise tracker, it included an adjustable goal. This proved that the chatbot not only understood the prompt but also the context behind it, making it far more practical for real use.
Gemini's chart displayed fine, but stopped short of offering something more meaningful. With each prompt, Gemini did the bare minimum while ChatGPT consistently went above and beyond.
4. Clearer instructions and feedback
With each prompt, ChatGPT-5 seemed to understand the context behind it. The latest model from OpenAI is said to have better reasoning capabilities, which became evident in pronpts that required more, such as coding a form for a website that required users to log in. ChatGPT built in contextual feedback that guided users step-by-step.
It's hard to believe that with a simple prompt, ChatGPT was able to tackle the request and create something immediately available to use. Time after time, the extra clarity and the way GPT-5 nailed the prompt gave it the edge.
5. More consistent across tasks
Gemini did win one category, which was a CSS animation with a bouncing ball, yet, ChatGPT-5’s version included extra context (a square bouncing off a platform like a trampoline) that made it feel more complete. Gemini’s version was correct, but bare-bones by comparison.
ChatGPT also consistently produced solid work, unlike Gemini that was more hit or miss. I could always count on ChatGPT to get the job done, whereas with Gemini, I never knew if the outcome would be worth using on my website or as an app.
Bottom line
ChatGPT-5’s underlying architecture gives it an advantage. It's real-time model routing means faster responses while a massive 256K token context window and improvements in reasoning have helped to reduce errors and hallucinations. All of that translates into results that feel closer to production-ready code.
Gemini 2.5 Pro remains strong, especially in reasoning-heavy or multilingual tasks, and it's brilliant at image generation. But when it came to hands-on coding, ChatGPT-5 delivered polished, usable and well-designed solutions each time.
More from Tom's Guide
- I tried the '3-word rule' with ChatGPT-5 and I got way better responses — 7 prompts to try now
- I tested ChatGPT-5 vs Gemini 2.5 Pro with 11 AI image prompts — here's the winner
- I use Gemini every day — here are 11 mind-blowing prompts I can’t live without
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