GPT-6 Luna vs NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

OpenAI · US  |  NVIDIA · US · Updated June 2026

Quick verdict

Pick GPT-6 Luna for openai's cheapest gpt-6 tier — $0.10/$0.50 per million tokens, optimized for fast responses at high volume or available to free and go plan users in the chatgpt desktop app, not gated to paid tiers. Pick NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super for high-throughput agentic reasoning (up to 2.2x gpt-oss-120b) or 1m-token context with strong long-context retrieval (91.6% ruler @ 1m). Choose NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super if you need self-hosting or data privacy; GPT-6 Luna if you want a managed API.

GPT-6 Luna (OpenAI) and NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super (NVIDIA) are two of the models people most often weigh against each other in 2026. GPT-6 Luna is openAI's cheapest GPT-6 tier, released September 22, 2026 alongside GPT-6 Sol — $0.10/$0.50 per million tokens, built for speed over depth. NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super is nVIDIA's open 120B-total/12B-active hybrid Mamba-Transformer MoE built for high-throughput agentic reasoning at 1M-token context. They diverge most on price, context window and open vs. closed weights — each quantified below from the models' real specs.

Key differences at a glance

Side-by-side specs

SpecGPT-6 LunaNVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super
ProviderOpenAI (US) NVIDIA (US)
ReleasedSeptember 22, 2026 March 11, 2026
Context window1.05M tokens (~1,575 pages) 1M (~1,500 pages)
Price (in/out)$0.1/$0.5 per 1M tokens Open weight (self-host / free)
Open weight?No — API only Yes — self-hostable
Modalitiestext, image text, code
SWE-Bench VerifiedNot published 60.47%
MRCR v2 @ 1MNot published Not published

Who wins what

OpenAI's cheapest GPT-6 tier — $0.10/$0.50 per million tokens, optimized for fast responses at high volume

GPT-6 Luna

OpenAI's cheapest GPT-6 tier, released September 22, 2026 alongside GPT-6 Sol — $0.10/$0.50 per million tokens, built for speed over depth — and it is the newer of the two.

Available to Free and Go plan users in the ChatGPT desktop app, not gated to paid tiers

GPT-6 Luna

GPT-6 Luna lists available to Free and Go plan users in the ChatGPT desktop app, not gated to paid tiers among its strengths; NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super does not.

Cache reads at $0.01/MTok — a 90% discount, the cheapest in the GPT-6 family

GPT-6 Luna

GPT-6 Luna lists cache reads at $0.01/MTok — a 90% discount, the cheapest in the GPT-6 family among its strengths; NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super does not.

High-throughput agentic reasoning (up to 2.2x GPT-OSS-120B)

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

GPT-6 Luna is comparatively weak here — less reasoning capability than sibling GPT-6 Sol — built for speed and volume, not hard problems

1M-token context with strong long-context retrieval (91.6% RULER @ 1M)

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

NVIDIA's open 120B-total/12B-active hybrid Mamba-Transformer MoE built for high-throughput agentic reasoning at 1M-token context — and its weights are open while GPT-6 Luna is API-only.

Strong math reasoning (90.21% AIME 2025)

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super lists strong math reasoning (90.21% AIME 2025) among its strengths; GPT-6 Luna does not.

Lowest cost at scale

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

Its weights are open, so at volume you pay for your own hardware instead of GPT-6 Luna's $0.1/$0.5 per 1M tokens.

Which should you pick?

A cost-sensitive startup shipping high volume

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

At Open weight (self-host / free) it undercuts GPT-6 Luna, and on millions of tokens that margin decides the monthly bill.

Someone analysing very long documents or codebases

GPT-6 Luna

Larger 1.05M tokens window fits more in one prompt.

A team with data-privacy or self-hosting needs

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

Open weights let you run it on your own hardware; GPT-6 Luna is API-only.

Anyone whose priority is openai's cheapest gpt-6 tier — $0.10/$0.50 per million tokens, optimized for fast responses at high volume

GPT-6 Luna

It is specifically built for that.

Anyone whose priority is high-throughput agentic reasoning (up to 2.2x gpt-oss-120b)

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

That is its strongest area.

GPT-6 Luna: where it fits

OpenAI's cheapest GPT-6 tier, released September 22, 2026 alongside GPT-6 Sol — $0.10/$0.50 per million tokens, built for speed over depth. Released September 22, 2026 by OpenAI, it is built for openAI's cheapest GPT-6 tier — $0.10/$0.50 per million tokens, optimized for fast responses at high volume, available to Free and Go plan users in the ChatGPT desktop app, not gated to paid tiers, cache reads at $0.01/MTok — a 90% discount, the cheapest in the GPT-6 family, and 1.05M-token context window carried down from the flagship tier.

Its trade-offs are real: less reasoning capability than sibling GPT-6 Sol — built for speed and volume, not hard problems, and as the entry-level tier, expect it to be the first model swapped out when OpenAI ships the next cost-tier refresh. At $0.1 in / $0.5 out per million tokens, it sits in the budget price band.

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super: where it fits

NVIDIA's open 120B-total/12B-active hybrid Mamba-Transformer MoE built for high-throughput agentic reasoning at 1M-token context. Released March 11, 2026 by NVIDIA, it is built for high-throughput agentic reasoning (up to 2.2x GPT-OSS-120B), 1M-token context with strong long-context retrieval (91.6% RULER @ 1M), strong math reasoning (90.21% AIME 2025), and fully open weights, datasets, and recipes for self-hosting.

Its trade-offs: text-only; no image, audio, or video input, and requires roughly 8x H100-80GB GPUs to self-host at BF16. As an open-weight model, its running cost is your own hardware rather than a per-token fee.

The bottom line for this matchup

The defining split here is open vs. closed. NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super gives you weights you control — self-host it, fine-tune it, keep data in-house, pay only for hardware. GPT-6 Luna gives you a managed, always-updated API with no infrastructure to run. Teams with GPUs, privacy requirements, or huge volume often favour the open model; teams that want zero ops and the latest capabilities favour the closed one. Capability is close enough that this operational question, not the benchmark, usually decides it.

Want both GPT-6 Luna and NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super without two subscriptions? LumiChats gives you these plus 40+ models under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day) — draft with one, cross-check with the other.

See pricing

Frequently asked questions

Is GPT-6 Luna or NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super better for coding?

Public SWE-Bench figures are not available for GPT-6 Luna, so the honest test is your own repository — run an identical real bug through both. By design, GPT-6 Luna leans toward openai's cheapest gpt-6 tier — $0.10/$0.50 per million tokens, optimized for fast responses at high volume while NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super leans toward high-throughput agentic reasoning (up to 2.2x gpt-oss-120b), and that positioning usually predicts which feels better on your codebase.

Which is cheaper, GPT-6 Luna or NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super?

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super is open-weight, so self-hosting means no per-token fee (you pay for hardware instead), while GPT-6 Luna is API-metered at $0.1/$0.5 per 1M tokens. For most teams without GPUs, the API model is cheaper to start; at very high volume, self-hosting can win.

Which has the bigger context window?

Effectively neither — 1.05M tokens vs 1M is a difference of a few percent. Remember advertised ≠ usable: recall typically degrades before the ceiling.

Can I use both GPT-6 Luna and NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super together?

Yes — a multi-model platform like LumiChats gives you GPT-6 Luna, NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super and 40+ others under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day), so you can draft with one and cross-check with the other instead of buying two subscriptions.

Which is newer, GPT-6 Luna or NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super?

GPT-6 Luna — released September 22, 2026, about 7 months after NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super.

Related comparisons

Specifications and benchmarks reflect publicly reported figures as of June 2026 and may change as providers release updates. Always verify on your own workload.