The key difference between respiration and photosynthesis is that respiration is a biochemical process that utilizes oxygen and converts food into energy while photosynthesis is a process that produces carbohydrates and releases oxygen into the atmosphere.
Respiration and photosynthesis are two of the most important processes of life. These two fascinating processes are different from each other in many ways as discussed in this article. Primarily, one of these processes converts the unusable energy into food while the other process makes a serviceable form of energy from that stored food. In addition, carbon dioxide is involved in both these processes, but at different places.