Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) vs GPT-6 Luna (Medium)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) by Anthropic or GPT-6 Luna (Medium) by OpenAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) scores 8.3 points higher (38.2 vs 29.9) but costs 225× as much to run the benchmark ($6998 vs $31.2; flagship vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) when you need intelligence above 29.9, and GPT-6 Luna (Medium) when 29.9 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) | GPT-6 Luna (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 38.2 | 29.9 | −21.7% GPT-6 Luna (Medium) is 21.7% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $6,998.25 | $31.17 | −99.6% GPT-6 Luna (Medium) is 99.6% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 183.62s | 8.25s | −95.5% GPT-6 Luna (Medium) is 95.5% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $0.10 / $0.50 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-6 Luna (Medium) vs Claude Sonnet 5 (Max): 21.7% less intelligence, 99.6% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 95.5% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5 (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 (Medium) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
Claude Sonnet 5 (Max)GPT-6 Luna (Medium)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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