This paper is devoted to the study of Φ-moments of sums of independent/freely independent random variables. More precisely, let be a sequence of positive (symmetrically distributed) independent random variables and let Φ be an Orlicz function with Δ2-condition. We provide an equivalent expression for the quantity in term of the sum of disjoint copies of the sequence . We also prove an analogous result in the setting of free probability. Furthermore, we provide an equivalent characterization of bb94534156f61d"> for positive freely independent random variables and also present some new results on free Johnson–Schechtman inequalities in the quasi-Banach symmetric operator space.