# GPT-5.6 Luna cut 80%, Terra 20% — OpenAI drops API prices three weeks after launch

> OpenAI drops GPT-5.6 Luna 80% and Terra 20% three weeks after launch, passing on 20% serving-cost gains.

- Org: OpenAI
- Date: 2026-07-30
- Category: model, ecosystem
- Source: https://openai.com/index/advancing-the-price-performance-frontier-with-gpt-5-6/
- Canonical page: https://ai-tldr.dev/releases/openai-gpt-5-6-price-cut-jul30/

## In short

OpenAI cut GPT-5.6 Luna to $0.20 / $1.20 per million input and output tokens (80% off) and GPT-5.6 Terra to $2 / $12 (20% off) on July 30, 2026. Sol pricing is unchanged. Serving costs fell 20% and token efficiency rose 15%.

## What it is

GPT-5.6 Luna is now $0.20 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens on the OpenAI API — an 80% cut. GPT-5.6 Terra, the balanced tier, drops to $2 in / $12 out — 20% cheaper. Sol, the flagship, keeps its old price. All three ship as part of the GPT-5.6 family that OpenAI launched July 9, 2026.

## How it works

OpenAI attributes the cut to infrastructure work done since launch: the company says end-to-end serving costs for the GPT-5.6 family fell 20% and token-generation efficiency climbed more than 15%. Those gains land on the two cheaper tiers first — Luna at 80% off, Terra at 20% off — with Sol pricing held so the flagship keeps funding continued frontier training.

## Why it matters

At $0.20 / $1.20, GPT-5.6 Luna is now cheaper than most open-weight-hosted models on OpenRouter and clearly undercuts Anthropic's Haiku 4.5 and Google's Gemini 3.6 Flash on paper. That reshapes the cheap-tier pricing race: high-throughput classifiers, routers, and background workflows that were the natural home of open-source models suddenly have a hosted OpenAI option at a similar unit cost.

## Who it's for

API builders running high-volume, cost-sensitive workloads on Luna or Terra

## Try it

gpt-5-6-luna and gpt-5-6-terra on the OpenAI API — new prices billed automatically

## Quick facts

- Maker: OpenAI
- Models repriced: GPT-5.6 Luna, GPT-5.6 Terra
- Luna price: $0.20 / 1M in · $1.20 / 1M out (was $1 / $6)
- Terra price: $2 / 1M in · $12 / 1M out (was $2.50 / $15)
- Sol price: Unchanged
- Effective date: July 30, 2026
- How they cut it: 20% lower serving cost, 15% better token efficiency

## FAQ

### How much does GPT-5.6 Luna cost now?

GPT-5.6 Luna now costs $0.20 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens on the OpenAI API, down from $1 and $6 — an 80% price cut. It is OpenAI's fastest and cheapest model in the GPT-5.6 family and is meant for high-throughput classification, routing, and small edits.

### How much does GPT-5.6 Terra cost now?

GPT-5.6 Terra is now $2 per million input tokens and $12 per million output tokens, down from $2.50 and $15 — a 20% cut. Terra is OpenAI's balanced GPT-5.6 tier, priced to sit between the cheap Luna and the flagship Sol tier while keeping GPT-5.5-class quality.

### Did GPT-5.6 Sol get cheaper too?

No. OpenAI kept GPT-5.6 Sol pricing unchanged on July 30, 2026. Only Luna and Terra were repriced. Sol Ultra with max reasoning stays at the top of OpenAI's coding-agent leaderboard and still costs less than half of Claude Fable 5 on the Artificial Analysis Coding Agent Index, per OpenAI.

### Why is OpenAI cutting GPT-5.6 prices so soon after launch?

OpenAI said serving-cost improvements dropped the end-to-end cost of running the GPT-5.6 family by 20% and lifted token-generation efficiency by more than 15% in the three weeks since launch. The company is passing those gains on to Luna and Terra customers to expand adoption on cheaper tiers.

### When does the new GPT-5.6 pricing take effect?

The new GPT-5.6 Luna and Terra prices are live on the OpenAI API pricing page as of July 30, 2026 — the same day OpenAI announced the cut. No opt-in or contract change is required; every API call from that day forward is metered at the lower rate.

## Links

- [Announcement](https://openai.com/index/advancing-the-price-performance-frontier-with-gpt-5-6/)
- [API pricing page](https://openai.com/api/pricing/)
- [GPT-5.6 launch post](https://openai.com/index/gpt-5-6/)
- [Efficiency deep-dive](https://openai.com/index/gpt-5-6-frontier-intelligence-efficiency/)
- [Yahoo Finance coverage](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/openai-cuts-gpt-5-6-173045044.html)