Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) vs GPT-5.6 Luna (Max)
Which is better for the money: Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) by Google or GPT-5.6 Luna (Max) by OpenAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) scores 2.5 points higher (39.8 vs 37.3) but costs 3.4× as much to run the benchmark ($1100 vs $320; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) when you need intelligence above 37.3, and GPT-5.6 Luna (Max) when 37.3 is enough.
| Metric | Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) | GPT-5.6 Luna (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 39.8 | 37.3 | −6.3% GPT-5.6 Luna (Max) is 6.3% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,100.06 | $319.93 | −70.9% GPT-5.6 Luna (Max) is 70.9% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | Not reported | 103.72s | — not comparable |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.75 / $3.75 | $0.20 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text, Image |
GPT-5.6 Luna (Max) vs Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium): 6.3% less intelligence, 70.9% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and end-to-end time not fully reported.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Gemini 3.8 Flash (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 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium)GPT-5.6 Luna (Max)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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