Claude Sonnet 5 (Medium) vs GPT-5.6 Luna (Non-reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5 (Medium) by Anthropic or GPT-5.6 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 Sonnet 5 (Medium) scores 12.6 points higher (28.1 vs 15.5) but costs 53× as much to run the benchmark ($1218 vs $23.0; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Sonnet 5 (Medium) when you need intelligence above 15.5, and GPT-5.6 Luna (Non-reasoning) when 15.5 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 (Medium) | GPT-5.6 Luna (Non-reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 28.1 | 15.5 | −44.8% GPT-5.6 Luna (Non-rea… is 44.8% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,218.17 | $22.97 | −98.1% GPT-5.6 Luna (Non-rea… is 98.1% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 9.30s | 5.06s | −45.6% GPT-5.6 Luna (Non-rea… is 45.6% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $0.20 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-5.6 Luna (Non-reasoning) vs Claude Sonnet 5 (Medium): 44.8% less intelligence, 98.1% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 45.6% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5 (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- GPT-5.6 Luna (Non-reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
Claude Sonnet 5 (Medium)GPT-5.6 Luna (Non-reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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