GPT-5.6 Luna vs Gemini 3.6 Flash
GPT-5.6 Luna and Gemini 3.6 Flash tie at 52 on the Intelligence Index but split on economics and modality. Luna costs $0.20/$1.20 per million tokens — roughly a sixth of Flash's $1.50/$7.50 — while Flash reads audio and video natively and generates faster at 235 versus 204 tokens per second. Text workloads favor Luna decisively.
Side by side
| GPT-5.6 Luna | Gemini 3.6 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | OpenAI | |
| Released | 2026-07-09 | 2026-07-21 |
| Context window | 1M tokens | 1M tokens |
| Modalities in | text, image | text, image, audio, video |
| Input $/MTok | $0.2 | $1.5 |
| Output $/MTok | $1.2 | $7.5 |
| Open weights | No | No |
Benchmark deltas
| Benchmark | GPT-5.6 Luna | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 52 | 52 | 0 |
Δ is GPT-5.6 Luna minus Gemini 3.6 Flash, in points. Shaded cell wins the row. Dashed values are vendor-published, not yet reproduced — methodology.
Cost calculator
- GPT-5.6 Luna
- $22/mo
- Gemini 3.6 Flash
- $150/mo
- Difference
- $128/mo
List prices as of 2026-08-11; excludes caching, batch, and long-context tiers — see model pages for tier notes.
Verdict
Identical intelligence scores make this a pure economics-and-modality decision. For text and image workloads, Luna's pricing is dominant — six times cheaper on input against Flash's post-cut rates. Gemini 3.6 Flash justifies its premium only when native audio and video input or its throughput edge matter, and its multimodal pipeline is genuinely the best in the volume tier. High-volume text pipelines: Luna. Media-heavy products: Flash. Both should also price DeepSeek V4 Flash before committing.
Verdicts are analysis, not measurement, and are labeled as such per our editorial policy.
FAQ
- Is GPT-5.6 Luna cheaper than Gemini 3.6 Flash?
- Yes. GPT-5.6 Luna costs $0.2 input / $1.2 output per million tokens against $1.5 / $7.5 for Gemini 3.6 Flash (prices as of August 11, 2026).
- Which has the longer context window — GPT-5.6 Luna or Gemini 3.6 Flash?
- They match: both accept 1M tokens of context.
- Which is the more capable model, GPT-5.6 Luna or Gemini 3.6 Flash?
- They tie on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: both score 52 (measured August 11, 2026). Price, speed, and modality differences decide this pairing instead.
Comparison published August 11, 2026; underlying data last changed August 11, 2026.