The battle against Chinese models is heating up: OpenAI lowers prices by up to 80%
OpenAI has lowered the prices of its low- and mid-tier models amid growing competition from Chinese rivals. The cost for the Luna model has been reduced by 80%, while the Terra model saw a 20% price cut.
The artificial intelligence company OpenAI has lowered the prices of its low- and mid-tier models against the backdrop of growing competition from Chinese rivals offering cheaper alternatives, according to a report by Reuters. The company reduced the price of the GPT-5.6 Luna model by 80% and the price of the mid-tier Terra model by 20%, while the price of its largest model, Sol, remained unchanged.
This move means that companies using OpenAI's technology will pay less for every million "tokens" they purchase—the units used to measure AI consumption. Thus, the cost of sending text to the Luna model drops to 20 cents per million tokens compared to the previous price of $1, and the cost for Terra drops to $2 compared to $2.50.
Many companies have recently criticized the high prices of tokens, especially in light of Chinese alternatives. At the same time, the move is expected to increase competition with Anthropic, whose Claude models dominate among companies and developers but are considered among the most expensive on the market. Both companies are under pressure from open-source Chinese rivals such as the GLM-5.2 model from Z.ai, which shows similar performance but at a much lower cost.
According to analysts, the price reduction will increase the use of OpenAI and Anthropic technologies, but at the same time will hurt their financial stability ahead of planned IPOs. OpenAI stated that the price reduction was made possible, among other things, thanks to profits from the GPT-5.6 model and its improved programming capabilities.
