GPT-5.6 Luna Pro is $1.8 cheaper per 1M input tokens (90% lower; 10x difference).
API cost decision in 10 seconds
Qwen3.8 Max vs GPT-5.6 Luna Pro
Pick GPT-5.6 Luna Pro when budget and context both matter.
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Data confirmed:
Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens
Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output
Budget verdict
Pick GPT-5.6 Luna Pro when budget and context both matter.
On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, GPT-5.6 Luna Pro is estimated at $0.8 vs $5 for Qwen3.8 Max, saving $4.2 (84% lower).
Cost-first pickGPT-5.6 Luna Pro
Context-first pickGPT-5.6 Luna Pro
Sample savings$4.284%
10x traffic gap$42
GPT-5.6 Luna Pro is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $42. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.
Cost sensitivity
Workload Sensitivity
GPT-5.6 Luna Pro stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.
| Workload shape | Token mix | Better pick | Qwen3.8 Max | GPT-5.6 Luna Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Input-heavy / RAG | 5M input + 500K output | GPT-5.6 Luna Pro | $13 | $1.6 |
| Balanced workload | 1M input + 1M output | GPT-5.6 Luna Pro | $8 | $1.4 |
| Output-heavy chatbot | 1M input + 5M output | GPT-5.6 Luna Pro | $32 | $6.2 |
GPT-5.6 Luna Pro is $4.8 cheaper per 1M output tokens (80% lower; 5x difference).
GPT-5.6 Luna Pro has 50K more context (1.05x larger).
GPT-5.6 Luna Pro is $4.2 cheaper on the standard workload (84% lower).
Estimate your workload cost
Your Workload Cost
This estimate uses normalized public API pricing per 1M tokens. It is a planning aid, not a billing quote. Verify provider pricing, limits, and terms before production use.
Quick Decision
GPT-5.6 Luna Pro has the lower input price; GPT-5.6 Luna Pro has the lower output price; GPT-5.6 Luna Pro offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, GPT-5.6 Luna Pro is cheaper for the standard workload.
For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $5 for Qwen3.8 Max and $0.8 for GPT-5.6 Luna Pro.
Choose Qwen3.8 Max when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.
Choose GPT-5.6 Luna Pro when you care most about lower input-token price, lower output-token price, and larger context window.
- On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, GPT-5.6 Luna Pro is estimated at $0.8 vs $5 for Qwen3.8 Max, saving $4.2 (84% lower).
- GPT-5.6 Luna Pro is $4.2 cheaper on the standard workload (84% lower).
- GPT-5.6 Luna Pro is $1.8 cheaper per 1M input tokens (90% lower; 10x difference).
- GPT-5.6 Luna Pro is $4.8 cheaper per 1M output tokens (80% lower; 5x difference).
- GPT-5.6 Luna Pro has 50K more context (1.05x larger).
| Feature | Qwen3.8 Max (Qwen) | GPT-5.6 Luna Pro (OpenAI) |
|---|---|---|
| Input Price prompt tokens per 1M | $2 | $0.2 |
| Completion Price per 1M tokens | $6 | $1.2 |
| Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output | $5 | $0.8 |
| Context Window | 1M | 1.05M |
| Release Date |
Use-Case Decision Matrix
| Use case | Better pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Budget-constrained production | GPT-5.6 Luna Pro | On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, GPT-5.6 Luna Pro is estimated at $0.8 vs $5 for Qwen3.8 Max, saving $4.2 (84% lower). |
| High-volume input processing | GPT-5.6 Luna Pro | Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill. |
| Long responses and chatbots | GPT-5.6 Luna Pro | Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens. |
| RAG or long-document work | GPT-5.6 Luna Pro | A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files. |
Related Alternatives
- Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct (free) can replace Qwen3.8 Max when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B (free) can replace Qwen3.8 Max when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- Qwen3.7 Flash can replace Qwen3.8 Max when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.1.
- Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507 can replace Qwen3.8 Max when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.14.
- Grok 4.20 Multi-Agent offers 2M context with $2.5 sample workload cost.
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- DeepSeek V4 Flash Latest offers 1.31M context with $0.11 sample workload cost.
- DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 · DeepSeek · #1
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Open OpenAI modelsQwen3.8 Max is the flagship model in Alibaba's Qwen3.8 series, the general-availability successor to the Qwen3.8 Max Preview. It is a multimodal reasoning model intended for complex reasoning, visual understanding,...
GPT-5.6 Luna Pro is the same underlying model as [GPT-5.6 Luna](https://openrouter.ai/openai/gpt-5.6-luna), served with `reasoning.mode` set to `pro` for higher-quality responses on complex tasks. Learn more in OpenAI's docs: https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/guides/reasoning#reasoning-mode