GPT-5.6 Luna (Max) vs GPT-6 Astra (Max)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.6 Luna (Max) by OpenAI or GPT-6 Astra (Max) by OpenAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-27.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-6 Astra (Max) scores 15.4 points higher (52.7 vs 37.3) but costs 17× as much to run the benchmark ($5324 vs $320; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-6 Astra (Max) when you need intelligence above 37.3, and GPT-5.6 Luna (Max) when 37.3 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-5.6 Luna (Max) | GPT-6 Astra (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 37.3 | 52.7 | +41.3% GPT-6 Astra (Max) is 41.3% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $319.93 | $5,324.10 | +1564.1% GPT-6 Astra (Max) is 17× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 135.46s | 369.90s | +173.1% GPT-6 Astra (Max) is 173.1% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.20 / $1.20 | $10.0 / $50.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-6 Astra (Max) vs GPT-5.6 Luna (Max): 41.3% more intelligence, 1564.1% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 173.1% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5.6 Luna (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
- GPT-6 Astra (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
GPT-5.6 Luna (Max)GPT-6 Astra (Max)Today's Pareto 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/gpt-6-astra · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-6-luna/gpt-6-astra?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill