GPT-6 Luna being half the price of GPT-5.6 Luna is a really big deal.
Here's GPT-6 Luna pelicans: <a href="https://tools.simonwillison.net/markdown-svg-renderer?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgist.github.com%2Fsimonw%2F40d129fc140faca378b9c9f4f16c6ec2" rel="nofollow">https://tools.simonwillison.net/markdown-svg-renderer?url=ht...
And GPT-6 Sol: <a href="https://tools.simonwillison.net/markdown-svg-renderer?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgist.github.com%2Fsimonw%2Fbe7ae25af2634b68bc34b7b7aaf02cb2" rel="nofollow">https://tools.simonwillison.net/markdown-svg-renderer?url=ht...
Scroll to the bottom for the GPT-6 Sol max one: <a href="https://tools.simonwillison.net/markdown-svg-renderer?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgist.github.com%2Fsimonw%2Fbe7ae25af2634b68bc34b7b7aaf02cb2#response-5" rel="nofollow">https://tools.simonwillison.net/markdown-svg-renderer?url=ht...
For comparison, here are the pelicans I got for GPT-6 Astra: <a href="https://tools.simonwillison.net/markdown-svg-renderer?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgist.github.com%2Fsimonw%2Ff789d2784fc6c5b870cc80f0b7cd9d01" rel="nofollow">https://tools.simonwillison.net/markdown-svg-renderer?url=ht... - I still like the Astra Max one best.
Here's a comparison grid showing all of the GPT-6 and GPT-5.6 pelicans at all effort levels: <a href="https://static.simonwillison.net/static/2026/gpt-6-and-5.6.html" rel="nofollow">https://static.simonwillison.net/static/2026/gpt-6-and-5.6.h...
The grid is actually really interesting, because it shows that the 5.6 family default to brighter colors than the 6 family.
6-luna is at the pareto for most of the tasks! I dont know how they make money here but its insane value from a closed source model. I'd go further and say it makes no sense (privacy, sovereignty etc aside) to use many other models as its not only expensive but also many providers don't have that much GPUs to serve at a significant volume. <a href="https://openrouter.ai/rankings?view=month#top-models" rel="nofollow">https://openrouter.ai/rankings?view=month#top-models 5.6 luna is already the most used model this month.
Approx $40 worth of usage across DeepSeek V4 Flash + MuseSpark Contributor 1.3. And a bit of both the GLM models. This is covered in a $10 subscription.
If I were to use Luna's API pricing:
$0.02 x 6,500 = $130
$0.20 x 150 = $30
$1.20 x 20 = $24
So $184. And this is assuming smaller coding sessions (<272K) beyond which Luna pricing doubles.
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Cost wise, these models are nice for small stuff. Translations etc. Any model that does not provide multiple Mtoks of cached reads per cent is not very useful to me for coding workflows.
Maybe your numbers are right, but that's not been my experience. My typical workflow is Astra coordinating with Luna Max (5.6 back then) as both implementer and reviewer and sometimes Astra review as well when I've some distrust with Luna .. A day, I've been trying to replace Luna Max by Deepseek v4.1 flash and I've been burning about $7 worth of tokens in Fireworks in a single day. More than what my 20x OpenAI sub costs me, including Astra usage. And that was when Luna 5.6 was less capable and more expensive than Luna 6.0.
I have written about my experience. I have also mentioned the kind of code I write. It is not react/js/css heavy stuff that I see a lot of people write. So the code bases are typically in the 5-50KLOC range. Freestanding C, Python, or maybe some TypeScript. And fairly modular. I can thus run models on specific modules without having them read everything into context.
So the workflows I mention work for this kind of stuff.
simonw · · focus · HN ↗
Here's GPT-6 Luna pelicans: <a href="https://tools.simonwillison.net/markdown-svg-renderer?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgist.github.com%2Fsimonw%2F40d129fc140faca378b9c9f4f16c6ec2" rel="nofollow">https://tools.simonwillison.net/markdown-svg-renderer?url=ht...
And GPT-6 Sol: <a href="https://tools.simonwillison.net/markdown-svg-renderer?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgist.github.com%2Fsimonw%2Fbe7ae25af2634b68bc34b7b7aaf02cb2" rel="nofollow">https://tools.simonwillison.net/markdown-svg-renderer?url=ht...
Scroll to the bottom for the GPT-6 Sol max one: <a href="https://tools.simonwillison.net/markdown-svg-renderer?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgist.github.com%2Fsimonw%2Fbe7ae25af2634b68bc34b7b7aaf02cb2#response-5" rel="nofollow">https://tools.simonwillison.net/markdown-svg-renderer?url=ht...
For comparison, here are the pelicans I got for GPT-6 Astra: <a href="https://tools.simonwillison.net/markdown-svg-renderer?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgist.github.com%2Fsimonw%2Ff789d2784fc6c5b870cc80f0b7cd9d01" rel="nofollow">https://tools.simonwillison.net/markdown-svg-renderer?url=ht... - I still like the Astra Max one best.
Here's a comparison grid showing all of the GPT-6 and GPT-5.6 pelicans at all effort levels: <a href="https://static.simonwillison.net/static/2026/gpt-6-and-5.6.html" rel="nofollow">https://static.simonwillison.net/static/2026/gpt-6-and-5.6.h...
The grid is actually really interesting, because it shows that the 5.6 family default to brighter colors than the 6 family.
gizmodo59 · · focus · HN ↗
sieve · · focus · HN ↗
Cached Read: ~6,500M
Input: ~150M
Output: ~20M
Approx $40 worth of usage across DeepSeek V4 Flash + MuseSpark Contributor 1.3. And a bit of both the GLM models. This is covered in a $10 subscription.
If I were to use Luna's API pricing:
$0.02 x 6,500 = $130
$0.20 x 150 = $30
$1.20 x 20 = $24
So $184. And this is assuming smaller coding sessions (<272K) beyond which Luna pricing doubles.
--
Cost wise, these models are nice for small stuff. Translations etc. Any model that does not provide multiple Mtoks of cached reads per cent is not very useful to me for coding workflows.
WinstonSmith84 · · focus · HN ↗
sieve · · focus · HN ↗
So the workflows I mention work for this kind of stuff.