GPT-5.6 Luna vs Qwen3 Max
| Signal | GPT-5.6 Luna | Delta | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|---|
Capabilities | 100 | +50 | |
Benchmarks | 88 | +19 | |
Pricing | 97 | +1 | |
Context window size | 96 | +10 | |
Recency | 100 | +23 | |
Output Capacity | 85 | +10 | |
| Overall Result | 6 wins | of 6 | 0 wins |
Score History
89
current score
GPT-5.6 Luna
right now
67.4
current score
GPT-5.6 Luna
OpenAI
Qwen3 Max
Alibaba
GPT-5.6 Luna saves you $73.00/month
That's $876.00/year compared to Qwen3 Max at your current usage level of 100K calls/month.
| Metric | GPT-5.6 Luna | Qwen3 Max | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall Score | 89 | 67 | GPT-5.6 Luna |
| Rank | #22 | #128 | GPT-5.6 Luna |
| Quality Rank | #22 | #128 | GPT-5.6 Luna |
| Adoption Rank | #22 | #128 | GPT-5.6 Luna |
| Parameters | -- | -- | -- |
| Context Window | 1050K | 262K | GPT-5.6 Luna |
| Pricing | $0.50/$3.00/M | $0.78/$3.90/M | -- |
| Signal Scores | |||
| Capabilities | 100 | 50 | GPT-5.6 Luna |
| Benchmarks | 88 | 69 | GPT-5.6 Luna |
| Pricing | 97 | 96 | GPT-5.6 Luna |
| Context window size | 96 | 86 | GPT-5.6 Luna |
| Recency | 100 | 77 | GPT-5.6 Luna |
| Output Capacity | 85 | 75 | GPT-5.6 Luna |
Our score (0-100) is driven by benchmark performance (90%) from Arena Elo ratings, MMLU, GPQA, HumanEval, SWE-bench, and 15+ standardized evaluations. Capabilities and context window serve as tiebreakers (10%). Learn more about our methodology.
Scores 89/100 (rank #22), placing it in the top 93% of all 290 models tracked.
Scores 67/100 (rank #128), placing it in the top 56% of all 290 models tracked.
GPT-5.6 Luna has a 22-point advantage, which typically translates to noticeably stronger performance on complex reasoning, code generation, and multi-step tasks.
Choose GPT-5.6 Luna when you need:
- Processing long documents or large codebases (1050K token context)
- Multimodal workflows that require image understanding
- Step-by-step reasoning and chain-of-thought problem solving
Choose Qwen3 Max when you need:
- Budget-friendly applications with moderate quality requirements
GPT-5.6 Luna offers 25% better value per quality point. At 1M tokens/day, you'd spend $52.50/month with GPT-5.6 Luna vs $70.20/month with Qwen3 Max - a $17.70 monthly difference.
Both models have comparable response speeds. For most applications, the latency difference is negligible.
When latency matters most: Interactive chatbots, IDE code completion, real-time translation, and user-facing applications where response time directly impacts experience. For batch processing, background summarization, or offline analysis, latency is less critical.
Code generation & review
Based on overall model capabilities and architecture for coding tasks like generating functions, debugging, and refactoring
Customer support chatbot
Suitable for user-facing chat with competitive response times. GPT-5.6 Luna also offers lower per-token costs for high-volume support
Long document analysis
Larger context window (1050K tokens) can process longer documents, contracts, and research papers in a single pass
Batch data extraction
Lower output pricing ($3.00/M) reduces costs when processing thousands of records daily
Creative writing & content
Higher overall composite score (89/100) correlates with better nuance, coherence, and style in long-form content
Image understanding & OCR
Supports vision input - can analyze screenshots, diagrams, photos, and scanned documents directly
GPT-5.6 Luna clearly outperforms Qwen3 Max with a significant 21.599999999999994-point lead. For most general use cases, GPT-5.6 Luna is the stronger choice. However, Qwen3 Max may still excel in niche scenarios.
By Use Case
Best for Quality
GPT-5.6 Luna
Marginally better benchmark scores; both are excellent
Best for Cost
GPT-5.6 Luna
25% lower pricing; better value at scale
Best for Reliability
GPT-5.6 Luna
Higher uptime and faster response speeds
Best for Prototyping
GPT-5.6 Luna
Stronger community support and better developer experience
Best for Production
GPT-5.6 Luna
Wider enterprise adoption and proven at scale
by OpenAI
- Choose for Quality - Marginally better benchmark scores; both are excellent
- Choose for Cost - 25% lower pricing; better value at scale
- Choose for Reliability - Higher uptime and faster response speeds
- Choose for Prototyping - Stronger community support and better developer experience
- Choose for Production - Wider enterprise adoption and proven at scale
| Capability | GPT-5.6 Luna | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Vision (Image Input)differs | ||
| Function Calling | ||
| Streaming | ||
| JSON Mode | ||
| Reasoningdiffers | ||
| Web Searchdiffers | ||
| Image Output |
GPT-5.6 Luna
OpenAI
Qwen3 Max
Alibaba
GPT-5.6 Luna saves you $1.58/month
That's 26% cheaper than Qwen3 Max at 1,000 tokens/request and 100 requests/day.
Assumes 60% input / 40% output token ratio per request. Actual costs may vary based on your usage pattern.
| Parameter | GPT-5.6 Luna | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Context Window | 1.1M | 262K |
| Max Output Tokens | 128,000 | 32,768 |
| Open Source | No | No |
| Created | Jul 9, 2026 | Sep 23, 2025 |