GPT-5.6 Luna vs o4-mini

    Comparison

    As of August 20, 2026, GPT-5.6 Luna is 75% cheaper per million tokens than o4-mini. GPT-5.6 Luna is $0.20 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens versus o4-mini at $1.10 / $4.40. Source: https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing

    Source: OpenAI API pricing (https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing)

    Better value

    GPT-5.6 Luna

    OpenAI

    $1.40blended / 1M

    Input

    $0.20

    Output

    $1.20

    1.1M ctx|Proprietary
    75%
    cheaper

    o4-mini

    OpenAI

    $5.50blended / 1M

    Input

    $1.10

    Output

    $4.40

    200K ctx|Proprietary
    Save $4.10 per million tokens by choosing GPT-5.6 Luna over o4-mini.

    GPT-5.6 Luna vs o4-mini comparison

    Token pricing, specs, and benchmarks side by side

    Metric
    GPT-5.6 Luna
    o4-mini
    Provider
    Provider
    OpenAI
    OpenAI
    License
    Proprietary
    Proprietary
    Release Date
    2026-07-09
    2025-04-16
    Pricing (per 1M tokens)
    Input Price-82%
    $0.20
    $1.10
    Output Price-73%
    $1.20
    $4.40
    Blended (1M + 1M)
    $1.40
    $5.50
    Model Details
    Context Window
    1.1M
    200K
    Max Output Tokens
    128K
    100K
    Knowledge Cutoff
    2026-02-16
    2024-05-31
    Throughput
    48.45216448188169 tok/s
    115 tok/s
    Benchmarks
    14.7%
    92.3%
    81.4%
    63.6%
    81.4%
    67.2%
    67.2%
    52.5%
    1522.94
    83.3%
    51.5%
    41.7%
    21.9%
    59.5%
    6.1%
    68.1%
    53.4%
    78.4%
    72%
    25.3%
    78.6%
    10.7%
    50%
    40%
    92.7%
    93.4%
    94.2%
    53.2%
    85.0%
    81.6%
    97.8%
    0.2%
    63.1%
    64.2%
    59.0%
    20.6%
    0.6%
    83.9%
    67.1%
    33.2%
    12.4%
    39.8%
    22.7%
    55.8%
    72.9%
    4.8%
    22.4%
    51.2%
    84.3%
    30.4%
    42.4%
    33.8%
    96.0%
    84.4%
    69.1%
    93.4%
    86.0%
    80.6%
    41.3%
    1.7%
    45.6%
    41.9%
    44.2%
    41.1%
    46.8%
    38.7%
    60.5%
    76.2%
    74.8%
    Benchmark Wins
    GPT-5.6 Luna 17|2 o4-mini

    Verdict

    GPT-5.6 Luna vs o4-mini: the bottom line

    GPT-5.6 Luna offers both lower pricing and stronger benchmark performance across the board, making it the clear value leader in this comparison.

    GPT-5.6 Luna vs o4-mini FAQ

    Which is cheaper, GPT-5.6 Luna or o4-mini?

    As of August 20, 2026, GPT-5.6 Luna is 75% cheaper on blended LLM API pricing. GPT-5.6 Luna costs $0.20 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens ($1.40 blended 1M-in + 1M-out). o4-mini costs $1.10 / $4.40 per million tokens ($5.50 blended). Sources: https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing and https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing. The cheapest LLM for your app still depends on how many output tokens you generate.

    How much does GPT-5.6 Luna vs o4-mini cost per million tokens?

    GPT-5.6 Luna OpenAI API pricing is $0.20 input and $1.20 output per million tokens via OpenAI. o4-mini OpenAI API pricing is $1.10 input and $4.40 output per million tokens via OpenAI. Use those four numbers, not ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro subscription prices, when you are comparing APIs.

    Which is better for coding, GPT-5.6 Luna or o4-mini?

    GPT-5.6 Luna leads on SWE-bench Verified: GPT-5.6 Luna at 93% vs o4-mini at 68.1%. SWE-bench measures real GitHub fixes; LiveCodeBench measures contest programming.

    What is the context window for GPT-5.6 Luna vs o4-mini?

    GPT-5.6 Luna supports a 1M token context window, while o4-mini supports 200K tokens. GPT-5.6 Luna offers a larger context window. Filling a larger window bills more input tokens, so the cheaper-per-million model can still cost more on long documents.

    Which model performs better on benchmarks, GPT-5.6 Luna or o4-mini?

    GPT-5.6 Luna leads on 17 of 19 shared benchmarks versus o4-mini's 2 wins. Check the comparison table for GPQA Diamond, SWE-bench, MMLU, HLE, and the other evals we track. Token price and benchmark score together are the usual LLM comparison, not either number alone.

    Is GPT-5.6 Luna or o4-mini better for production use?

    Both GPT-5.6 Luna and o4-mini are production API models. For cost-sensitive production traffic, GPT-5.6 Luna has better economics on the blended 1M-in + 1M-out scale. For maximum capability, weight the benchmark table for your domain. Many production stacks route cheap models for drafts and a frontier model for the hard turn, which is usually cheaper than sending everything to the expensive API.

    Can I switch between GPT-5.6 Luna and o4-mini in my app?

    Yes. Call GPT-5.6 Luna through OpenAI and o4-mini through OpenAI with separate API keys, or through a gateway that already wraps both. Keep prompts in tokens, not characters, when you estimate the invoice. AnotherWrapper templates can swap providers without rewriting auth and billing.

    How accurate is this GPT-5.6 Luna vs o4-mini pricing data?

    List rates are the latest published OpenAI API pricing and OpenAI API pricing, quoted per million tokens. Official rate sheets: https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing and https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing. Prompt caching, batch APIs, and committed-use discounts can change the invoice. Benchmark scores are from official publications and independent evals, updated as new numbers land.

    What is the output token limit for GPT-5.6 Luna and o4-mini?

    GPT-5.6 Luna supports up to 128K output tokens per request, while o4-mini supports up to 100K output tokens. Output tokens are usually the expensive half of API pricing, so a higher max output cap is a capability, not a discount.

    Which model has better throughput, GPT-5.6 Luna or o4-mini?

    GPT-5.6 Luna runs at approximately 48.45216448188169 tokens/second while o4-mini runs at 115 tokens/second. o4-mini is faster in raw throughput. Throughput (tokens per second) and time-to-first-token are why two models with the same per-million-token price can still feel different in chat and agents.

    How do I switch the models in this GPT-5.6 Luna vs o4-mini comparison?

    Use the model pickers at the top of this LLM comparison. Search any model in the index and the URL updates. Open GPT-5.6 Luna or o4-mini from the sidebar for the single-model API pricing page, or go back to the LLM pricing table to sort by cheapest blended cost.

    GPT-5.6 Luna vs o4-mini pricing

    This comparison covers API pricing, context window, throughput, and benchmark scores. GPT-5.6 Luna costs $0.20/M input and $1.20/M output. o4-mini costs $1.10/M input and $4.40/M output.

    Rank both on the LLM leaderboard, SWE-bench, and Humanity's Last Exam.

    The index

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