A class acts as a blueprint, defining methods and attributes that abstract a concept. It can model real-world entities or serve as a helper to delegate responsibilities, following patterns like pure fabrication in GRASP. The class itself exists only in code, providing the template for creating instances.

An object is the concrete instance of a class in memory. When instantiated, the runtime reserves heap space to store its state variables consecutively. A pointer (or reference) holds the memory address of this object, allowing the program to access its state and invoke the methods defined by its class.

Understanding this distinction is fundamental to object-oriented programming. Classes provide reusable templates, while objects are the working entities that consume memory and execute logic. This model underpins major languages like Java, C#, and Python, influencing how developers structure applications for maintainability and scalability.