Amid Rising AI Costs and IPOs, OpenAI Slashes Prices for Customers
OpenAI cut prices on two GPT-5.6 models on July 30, slashing Luna by 80% and Terra by 20%, as businesses grow more cautious about ballooning AI bills.
The cuts land three weeks after GPT-5.6's launch. They reflect mounting pressure from cost-conscious enterprises. Cheaper Chinese rivals, including Moonshot AI's Kimi K3 and Z.ai's GLM-5.2, add to that pressure.
A Pricing Squeeze With High Stakes
Luna's input price fell to 20 cents per million tokens from $1. Its output price dropped to $1.20 from $6. Terra's rates fell to $2 and $12 per million tokens, down from $2.50 and $15. Sol, OpenAI's flagship model, kept its price.
The discounts follow years of unrestrained corporate AI spending. Workers called the trend tokenmaxxing, using AI freely without tracking cost. Finance teams now want clearer returns before approving new AI budgets.
