OpenAI cuts GPT-5.6 Luna price 80% to 20 cents per million tokens

OpenAI slashed prices for two of its GPT-5.6 AI models on July 30, 2026, roughly three weeks after their public release, as enterprises grow cost-conscious amid mounting competition.

Terra, the mid-tier model, now costs $2 per million input tokens and $12 per million output tokens, a 20% reduction. Luna, the fastest offering, saw an 80% cut to 20 cents per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens. Pricing for Sol, the most powerful, remains unchanged.

The price cuts reflect a broader shift. U.S. companies, which raced to adopt AI after ChatGPT arrived in 2022, now grapple with bills reaching billions of dollars and increasingly demand clear returns before deploying expensive models.

Competitors have intensified the pressure. Chinese startup Moonshot AI released an open-weight model, Kimi K3, in July 2026 that beat leading U.S. models on several benchmarks. Anthropic countered with Claude Opus 5, half the price of its June 2026 Claude Fable 5, with comparable performance.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella highlighted cost-effective models during an earnings call on July 29, following the launch of a low-cost cybersecurity offering. Google also introduced three new models in July 2026, with Gemini 3.6 Flash claiming to be cheaper per task than Kimi K3.