OpenAI Slashes GPT-5.6 Luna Prices by 80% to Beat Anthropic
OpenAI slashes GPT-5.6 Luna prices by 80% and Terra by 20%, adds 2.5x faster Sol mode just three weeks after launch
- Luna drops 80%: GPT-5.6 Luna now costs $0.20/$1.20 per million tokens (was $1/$6), effective immediately.
- Terra drops 20%: GPT-5.6 Terra falls to $2/$12 per million tokens; Sol price unchanged at $5/$30.
- Fast mode for Sol: New API option delivers 2.5x speed at 2x standard price, with no intelligence change.
- Auto-review upgrade: Codex CLI and ChatGPT Auto-review upgrade from GPT-5.4 to GPT-5.6 Luna, cutting cost ~10x.
- Competitive pressure: Cuts arrive just 3 weeks after GPT-5.6 GA launch, driven by efficiency gains and rivalry with Anthropic and DeepSeek.
- Agentic focus: Lower Luna/Terra prices directly reduce unit economics for high-volume agentic workflows in Codex and ChatGPT Work.
OpenAI just made its newest model family significantly cheaper, and it did so faster than almost anyone expected. Just three weeks after the general availability of GPT-5.6, the company is cutting prices for two of the family's three tiers, passing along efficiency gains it credits largely to GPT-5.6 Sol itself.
The numbers that matter
The cuts are not incremental. GPT-5.6 Luna, the fastest and lowest-cost tier, drops by roughly 80% -- it now costs $0.20 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens. That is a dramatic fall from its launch price of $1/$6. Terra, the mid-range tier, gets a 20% reduction, landing at $2 per million input tokens and $12 per million output tokens. The most powerful version, GPT-5.6 Sol, won't see a price cut.
Here is how the updated pricing stacks up against launch prices and the competition:
| Model | Input (old) | Input (new) | Output (old) | Output (new) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPT-5.6 Luna | $1.00/M | $0.20/M | $6.00/M | $1.20/M |
| GPT-5.6 Terra | $2.50/M | $2.00/M | $15.00/M | $12.00/M |
| GPT-5.6 Sol | $5.00/M | $5.00/M | $30.00/M | $30.00/M |
A new gear for Sol
Sol is not getting cheaper, but it is getting faster. OpenAI is introducing a Fast mode for GPT-5.6 Sol in the API, which delivers up to 2.5x the speed of standard processing at 2x the standard price. The company says there is no change in intelligence -- you are paying for throughput, not a smarter model. For latency-sensitive pipelines, that trade-off will be worth it for some teams.