We deduce asymptotic formulas for the alternating sums and , where f is one of the following classical multiplicative arithmetic functions: Euler's totient function, the Dedekind function, the sum-of-divisors function, the divisor function, the gcd-sum function. We also consider analogs of these functions, which are associated to unitary and exponential divisors, and other special functions. Some of our results improve the error terms obtained by Bordellès and Cloitre. We formulate certain open problems.