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Van Data Team

text model comparison

Gemini 3.6 Flash vs GPT-5.6 Luna

Gemini 3.6 Flash and GPT-5.6 Luna are both current text models, from Google and OpenAI. GPT-5.6 Luna is 87% cheaper per 1M input tokens than Gemini 3.6 Flash, $0.20 vs $1.50. On Arena Text, Gemini 3.6 Flash scores 1482 Elo and GPT-5.6 Luna 1452 Elo (Arena, measured October 8, 2026). Both accept about 1.05M tokens of context (1,050,000 and 1,048,576).

Higher Arena Text
Gemini 3.6 Flash1482 Elo against 1452 Elo
Lower price per 1M input tokens
GPT-5.6 Luna$0.20 against $1.50
Longer context window
GPT-5.6 Luna1.05M tokens against 1.05M tokens
Newer release
Gemini 3.6 FlashJul 2026 against Jul 2026

Data verified October 12, 2026 · Dataset 2026-10-28

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Side by side

Gemini 3.6 Flash and GPT-5.6 Luna, line by line

Prices in effect today, compared at the same tier wherever both list one. The better value in each row is highlighted.

FactGemini 3.6 FlashGPT-5.6 Luna
Price
Price per 1M input tokens$1.50$0.20 (better)
Price per 1M output tokens$7.50$1.20 (better)
Independent benchmarks
Arena Text1482 Elo (#14 of 49) (better)1452 Elo (#34 of 49)
GPQA Diamond94.1% (#8 of 40) (better)91.6% (#20 of 40)
FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)58.9% (#29 of 40)82.1% (#12 of 40) (better)
SimpleQA Verified66.2% (#11 of 36) (better)41% (#27 of 36)
Specs
ProviderGoogleOpenAI
Release dateJuly 21, 2026July 9, 2026
AccessAPI onlyAPI only
Context window1,048,576 tokens1,050,000 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens128,000 tokens
Inputtext, image, audio, videotext, image
Outputtexttext

Scores:Arena · 2026-10-12Epoch AI · 2026-10-12

Open both in the interactive comparison

Charts

Against every current text model

Where Gemini 3.6 Flash and GPT-5.6 Luna land among the current models of their task, on every independent benchmark, on price and on context.

Where each stands

On Arena Text, Gemini 3.6 Flash ranks #14 and GPT-5.6 Luna #34 of 49 current models. Each bar is the share of current models it beats: on score, price and context.

Gemini 3.6 Flash and GPT-5.6 Luna among the current text models, one row per benchmark, price and context window.

Independent benchmarks

Arena Text

Gemini 3.6 Flash:#14of 49

1,482 Elo · ahead of 71%

GPT-5.6 Luna:#34of 49

1,452 Elo · ahead of 31%

GPQA Diamond

Gemini 3.6 Flash:#8of 40

94.1% · ahead of 82%

GPT-5.6 Luna:#20of 40

91.6% · ahead of 51%

FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)

Gemini 3.6 Flash:#29of 40

58.9% · ahead of 28%

GPT-5.6 Luna:#12of 40

82.1% · ahead of 72%

SimpleQA Verified

Gemini 3.6 Flash:#11of 36

66.2% · ahead of 69%

GPT-5.6 Luna:#27of 36

41% · ahead of 23%

Price and context

Price per 1M input tokens

Gemini 3.6 Flash:#27of 51

$1.50 · cheaper than 48%

GPT-5.6 Luna:#7of 51

$0.20 · cheaper than 84%

Price per 1M output tokens

Gemini 3.6 Flash:#31of 51

$7.50 · cheaper than 40%

GPT-5.6 Luna:#10of 51

$1.20 · cheaper than 78%

Context window

Gemini 3.6 Flash:#11of 66

1.05M tokens · longer than 65%

GPT-5.6 Luna:#1of 66

1.05M tokens · longer than 86%

Scores fromArena · 2026-10-12Epoch AI · 2026-10-12

Quality against price

Arena Text · measured October 8, 2026

Gemini 3.6 Flash scores 1,482 at $3; GPT-5.6 Luna scores 1,452 at $0.45 (blended price per 1M tokens). The line joins the current models no other beats on both price and Arena Text score; hover any point to name it.

Quality against priceArena Text score against price for 41 text models, Gemini 3.6 Flash and GPT-5.6 Luna marked.1,2501,3001,3501,4001,4501,5001,550$0.30$1$3$10MOST ATTRACTIVE QUADRANTMedian price $3Median 1,475Blended price per 1M tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scaleArena Text (Elo)Gemini 3.6 FlashGPT-5.6 Luna
Quality against price: the data
Arena Text score against price for 41 text models, Gemini 3.6 Flash and GPT-5.6 Luna marked.
ModelProviderBlended price per 1M tokensArena Text (Elo)
Gemini 4 ArgonGoogle$41,525
Claude Opus 5.5Anthropic$81,507
Claude Fable 5Anthropic$201,504
Claude Fable 5.1Anthropic$201,501
Gemini 3.8 FlashGoogle$1.501,497
Muse Spark 1.3Meta$21,494
Claude Opus 5Anthropic$101,490
Kimi K3Moonshot Kimi$61,488
Gemini 3.7 FlashGoogle$1.501,486
GPT-5.6 SolOpenAI$81,485
GPT-6.1 SolOpenAI$41,484
Qwen3.8-MaxAlibaba Qwen$31,483
GPT-5.5OpenAI$111,482
Gemini 3.6 FlashGoogle$31,482
Claude Opus 4.8Anthropic$101,481
MiMo-V2.6-ProXiaomi MiMo$0.541,480
GLM-5.3Z.ai$2.151,478
Claude Sonnet 5.5Anthropic$41,476
GPT-5.4OpenAI$5.631,475
GPT-6 AstraOpenAI$201,475
DeepSeek-V4.1-FlashDeepSeek$0.521,475
GLM-5.3-FlashZ.ai$0.241,475
Gemini 3 Flash PreviewGoogle$1.131,473
Grok 4.20xAI$1.561,472
GPT-5.6 TerraOpenAI$4.501,466
Grok 4.5xAI$31,466
DeepSeek-V4-ProDeepSeek$1.981,465
Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic$41,461
GPT-6 SolOpenAI$41,456
Gemini 3.5 Flash-LiteGoogle$0.851,455
Grok 4.6xAI$31,454
GPT-5.6 LunaOpenAI$0.451,452
MiMo-V2.6-FlashXiaomi MiMo$0.181,451
GPT-6 LunaOpenAI$0.201,443
Grok 4.7xAI$31,443
Grok 4.3xAI$1.561,442
Mistral Large 4Mistral AI$2.061,429
GPT-4.1OpenAI$3.501,415
Solar Pro 4Upstage$0.521,386
GPT-4.1 miniOpenAI$0.701,383
GPT-4.1 nanoOpenAI$0.181,322

Cost

What each costs

Example workloads at each provider's listed rates, then every other rate either one lists. The cheaper figure in each row is highlighted.

The same work, priced

For 10M input and 2M output tokens, Gemini 3.6 Flash costs 6.8 times as much as GPT-5.6 Luna, at each provider's listed rates.

What Gemini 3.6 Flash and GPT-5.6 Lunacost for the same work, at each provider's listed rates.

  • 10M input and 2M output tokens

    Gemini 3.6 Flash costs 6.8× as much

    Gemini 3.6 Flash
    $30
    GPT-5.6 Luna
    $4.40
Workload or rateGemini 3.6 FlashGPT-5.6 Luna
Example workloads
10M input and 2M output tokens$30$4.40 (better)
The same, with 9M of the input tokens cachedNot listed$2.78
Other listed rates
1M input tokens, cachedNot listed$0.02

Verdict

When to choose each

Gemini 3.6 Flash

Where it leads

  • Higher Arena Text score, 1482 Elo vs 1452 Elo
  • Higher GPQA Diamond score, 94.1% vs 91.6%
  • Higher SimpleQA Verified score, 66.2% vs 41%
  • Accepts audio and video input

Best for

  • Current multimodal agentic evaluations balancing speed and capability

Watch out for

  • Not in the pinned LiveBench snapshot; its independent scores here come from Epoch AI's own GPQA Diamond, FrontierMath and SimpleQA Verified runs
Full Gemini 3.6 Flash profile

GPT-5.6 Luna

Where it leads

  • Lower input and output prices, $0.20 and $1.20 vs $1.50 and $7.50 per 1M tokens
  • Higher FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2) score, 82.1% vs 58.9%
  • Longer responses, up to 128,000 vs 65,536 output tokens
  • A cached-input rate, $0.02 per 1M tokens

Best for

  • High-volume API evaluation with published low token prices
  • Subagents and batch reasoning where cost per call dominates

Watch out for

  • Not in the pinned LiveBench snapshot; its independent scores here come from Epoch AI's own GPQA Diamond, FrontierMath and SimpleQA Verified runs
Full GPT-5.6 Luna profile

From benchmark to production

Building on Gemini 3.6 Flash or GPT-5.6 Luna?

Public scores rarely hold on your own data. We test both models on your real tasks, then build the agent or pipeline around the one that wins.

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FAQ

Gemini 3.6 Flash vs GPT-5.6 Luna FAQ

Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.6 Flash or GPT-5.6 Luna?

GPT-5.6 Luna is 87% cheaper per 1M input tokens than Gemini 3.6 Flash, $0.20 vs $1.50. For 10M input and 2M output tokens, Gemini 3.6 Flash costs $30 and GPT-5.6 Luna $4.40 at standard rates.

Do Gemini 3.6 Flash and GPT-5.6 Luna discount cached input?

GPT-5.6 Luna lists a cached-input rate of $0.02 per 1M tokens, 90% below its standard input rate. No cached-input rate is listed for Gemini 3.6 Flash.

Which scores higher on independent benchmarks, Gemini 3.6 Flash or GPT-5.6 Luna?

Gemini 3.6 Flash leads on Arena Text, 1482 Elo to 1452 Elo; Gemini 3.6 Flash leads on GPQA Diamond, 94.1% to 91.6%; GPT-5.6 Luna leads on FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2), 82.1% to 58.9%. Scores are independent evaluations, not either vendor's launch figures.

Which has the larger context window, Gemini 3.6 Flash or GPT-5.6 Luna?

Both accept about 1.05M tokens of context (1,050,000 and 1,048,576). GPT-5.6 Luna returns up to 128,000 tokens per response, Gemini 3.6 Flash 65,536.

How do Gemini 3.6 Flash and GPT-5.6 Luna differ in features?

Gemini 3.6 Flash takes text, image, audio and video input; GPT-5.6 Luna takes text and image.

Further reading

More on Gemini 3.6 Flash and GPT-5.6 Luna

Articles on Gemini 3.6 Flash and GPT-5.6 Luna

Related comparisons

Production evaluation

Choosing between Gemini 3.6 Flash and GPT-5.6 Luna?

Public benchmarks narrow the shortlist. We run both on your own tasks, data and cost limits, then build the routing and review controls to run the winner in production.

  • A head-to-head evaluation on your real workload
  • Routing between models by cost and difficulty
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