OpenAI formally announced Thursday that it is cutting prices on two of its low- and mid-tier AI models, potentially increasing competition in the industry as U.S. companies vie with cheaper Chinese rivals for customers increasingly wary of rising technology costs.
Sam Altman’s artificial intelligence company has lowered the prices of its newly launched GPT-5.6 models (Luna and Terra) to ease increasing financial pressure on enterprise customers and increase its competitiveness in the increasingly aggressive enterprise AI market.
The ChatGPT manufacturer has reduced the cost of its smaller GPT-5.6 Luna model by 80% and its mid-range Terra model by 20%, while keeping the price of its largest and flagship Sol model unchanged.
The reduction shows that increased cost scrutiny from companies facing significant AI-related costs is forcing U.S. research institutions to rethink pricing.
Many tech company CEOs have also said in recent months that cheaper AI options are key to the technology’s adoption.
OpenAI’s new pricing is making Anthropic even more interesting. Anthropic’s Claude model dominates enterprise and developer usage, but is among the most expensive on the market.
Both companies are under pressure from open source Chinese rivals, such as Z.ai’s GLM-5.2, which offers nearly identical performance at a lower cost.
Analysts say the price cuts could increase the use of OpenAI and Anthropic’s technology, but could strain the company’s finances ahead of its much-anticipated initial public offering.
Additionally, OpenAI has confirmed that these lower costs for Luna and Terra are also directly integrated into how usage is counted against paid subscriptions when leveraging agent tools such as Codex and ChatGPT Work.
