OpenAI and Anthropic introduced lower-priced models Tuesday, slashing API costs by 40 to 50 percent in a direct response to competition from open-weight alternatives and enterprise pushback on spending.
OpenAI released GPT-6 Sol and GPT-6 Luna, reducing prices 50 percent versus GPT-5.6 promotional rates. Sol targets complex workloads like coding; Luna handles high-volume tasks such as data extraction and summarization. Both are available through ChatGPT Work and Codex for Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise users.
Anthropics Claude Opus 5.5 cuts inference costs by approximately 40 percent through token efficiency improvements. The model is available via Claude, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure.
Dianne Penn, head of product management, research and labs at Anthropic, said the company is "continuing to innovate on making model thinking and answering more efficient, allowing for fewer token uses based on specific effort settings."
The timing reflects intensifying margin pressure on both labs. Enterprise customers—including AT&T—are deploying chea open-weight models to control costs, while competitors like DeepSeek, Alibaba, and Moonshot AI are gaining traction with lower-priced offerings. By cutting prices on inference-optimized variants, OpenAI and Anthropic are attempting to retain volume in a market where the premium-performance moat has narrowed.
