GPT-4o, Claude, and Gemini Each Require a Different Base64 Image Payload Format
Developers sending images to OpenAI's GPT-4o, Anthropic's Claude, and Google's Gemini via API often encounter image-processing errors due to subtle differences in how each provider expects Base64-encoded data to be structured. GPT-4o requires the image to be passed as a full data URL — including the 'data:image/png;base64,' prefix — inside an image_url field. Claude, by contrast, expects raw Base64 with no prefix, placing the MIME type in a separate media_type field within a source object. Gemini follows a similar pattern to Claude, using an inline_data object with raw Base64 and a dedicated mime_type field, though its JavaScript SDK uses camelCase keys instead of snake_case. OpenAI is the only provider that requires the full data URL format, while Claude and Gemini both reject the prefix and handle MIME type as a standalone field.
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