The free energy for QCD at high temperature \(T\) is calculated to order \(g^5\) using effective-field-theory methods to separate the contributions from the momentum scales \(T\) and \(gT\). The effects of the scale \(T\) enter through the coefficients in the effective lagrangian for the 3-dimensional effective theory obtained by dimensional reduction. The perturbation series for these coefficients seem to be well-behaved if the running coupling constant is sufficiently small: \(\alpha_s(2 \pi T) \ll 1\). For the contribution to the free energy from the scale \(gT\), the perturbation series is well-behaved only if \(\alpha_s(2 \pi T)\) is an order of magnitude smaller. The implication for applications of perturbative QCD to the quark-gluon plasma are briefly discussed.