GPT-5.6 Luna (Medium) vs Beam 1.0
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.6 Luna (Medium) by OpenAI or Beam 1.0 by Reflection? 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
Beam 1.0 scores 5.3 points higher (30.3 vs 25.0) but costs 7.2× as much to run the benchmark ($319 vs $44.3; mid-range vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Beam 1.0 when you need intelligence above 25.0, and GPT-5.6 Luna (Medium) when 25.0 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-5.6 Luna (Medium) | Beam 1.0 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 25.0 | 30.3 | +21.2% Beam 1.0 is 21.2% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $44.32 | $318.73 | +619.2% Beam 1.0 is 7.2× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 5.82s | 8.02s | +37.8% Beam 1.0 is 37.8% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.20 / $1.20 | $0.40 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Beam 1.0 vs GPT-5.6 Luna (Medium): 21.2% more intelligence, 619.2% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 37.8% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5.6 Luna (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Medium) scores 29.90 for $31.2.
- Beam 1.0 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
GPT-5.6 Luna (Medium)Beam 1.0Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-6-luna-medium/reflection-beam · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-6-luna-medium/reflection-beam?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill