Best AI for coding / head-to-head

GPT-5.6 Luna vs GPT-5.6 Solfor coding

The verdict

Dead heat: 93 each

Same 18 coding tasks, marked blind by three rival labs. Tested 16 Aug 2026.

Where they differed most

The task — Duration parser

Write a Python function parse_duration(s) that converts strings like '1h30m', '45s', '2h', '90m', '1h2m3s' into total seconds. Raise ValueError on anything malformed. Include three assert-based tests, one of which covers a malformed input.

```python
import re


def parse_duration(s):
    """Convert a duration such as '1h30m' to seconds."""
    if not isinstance(s, str):
        raise ValueError("duration must be a string")

    match = re.fullmatch(
        r"(?:(\d+)h)?(?:(\d+)m)?(?:(\d+)s)?",
        s,
    )

    if match is None or not any(match.groups()):
        raise ValueError(f"malformed duration: {s!r}")

    hours, minutes, seconds = (
        int(value or 0) for value in match.groups()
    )
    return hours * 3600 + minutes * 60 + seconds


# Tests
assert parse_durat…
```python
import re

_DURATION_PATTERN = re.compile(
    r"(?:(?P<hours>[0-9]+)h)?"
    r"(?:(?P<minutes>[0-9]+)m)?"
    r"(?:(?P<seconds>[0-9]+)s)?"
)


def parse_duration(s):
    if not isinstance(s, str) or not s:
        raise ValueError("Malformed duration")

    match = _DURATION_PATTERN.fullmatch(s)
    if not match:
        raise ValueError(f"Malformed duration: {s!r}")

    hours = int(match.group("hours") or 0)
    minutes = int(match.group("minutes") or 0)
    seconds = int(match.group("seconds") or 0)

    return hours * 3600 + minu…

Task by task

TaskGPT-5.6 LunaGPT-5.6 Sol
Duration parser910
Find the bug109
SQL without window functions1010
Infinite useEffect910
Typed debounce109
Leftmost binary search1010
Security review910
Safe migration89
Fix the code not the test1010
Race condition109
Retry with backoff98
Recursive type99
Bash one-liner99
Explain and cost99
Regex with limits89
Callback to async109
Diagnose from a trace89
Idempotency109

Full receipts: GPT-5.6 Luna, GPT-5.6 Sol · judges claude-sonnet-5, gemini-3.1-pro-preview, grok-4.5

Questions people ask

Which is better for coding: GPT-5.6 Luna or GPT-5.6 Sol?

They tied at 93/100 on our coding suite — for this job, pick on price or the product you already use.

How was this tested?

Both models answered the identical published coding tasks. Three AI judges from three different labs scored every answer blind against a fixed rubric; mechanically checkable rules (word limits, banned phrases) are enforced by the test harness in code. The raw outputs and judge verdicts are downloadable.

More coding head-to-heads: GPT-5.6 Luna vs GPT-5.6 Terra · GLM 5.2 vs GPT-5.6 Luna · GPT-5.3-Codex vs GPT-5.6 Luna · GPT-5.5 vs GPT-5.6 Luna · GPT-5.6 Luna vs Qwen3.7 Max · Claude Opus 4.8 vs GPT-5.6 Luna

Full ranking: Best AI for coding · model pages: GPT-5.6 Luna, GPT-5.6 Sol