Claude Opus 4.8 (Max) vs GPT-6 Luna (Non-reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 4.8 (Max) by Anthropic or GPT-6 Luna (Non-reasoning) by OpenAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 4.8 (Max) scores 23.3 points higher (41.8 vs 18.5) but costs 359× as much to run the benchmark ($6874 vs $19.2; flagship vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 4.8 (Max) when you need intelligence above 18.5, and GPT-6 Luna (Non-reasoning) when 18.5 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 4.8 (Max) | GPT-6 Luna (Non-reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 41.8 | 18.5 | −55.7% GPT-6 Luna (Non-reaso… is 55.7% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $6,873.86 | $19.16 | −99.7% GPT-6 Luna (Non-reaso… is 99.7% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 51.76s | 5.06s | −90.2% GPT-6 Luna (Non-reaso… is 90.2% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $5.00 / $25.0 | $0.10 / $0.50 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-6 Luna (Non-reasoning) vs Claude Opus 4.8 (Max): 55.7% less intelligence, 99.7% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 90.2% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 4.8 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
- GPT-6 Luna (Non-reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
Claude Opus 4.8 (Max)GPT-6 Luna (Non-reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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