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OpenAI Opens GPT-5.6 to All, Stressing Cost Per Task

July 9, 2026 at 17:01 EDT

Foundation Models
Sales & Business
Software Dev & Coding

OpenAI moved its GPT-5.6 lineup, including the flagship "Sol," to general availability on July 9, 2026, with CEO Sam Altman saying the company focused on improving cost per task in response to enterprise concerns over AI spending.

July 9, 2026 · OpenAI

GPT-5.6 "Sol" Goes Live — Built to Cut the Cost per Task

OpenAI moved its three-tier GPT-5.6 lineup to general availability, betting on cost-performance for ROI-conscious enterprises. Flagship Sol cuts output tokens by up to 54% on agentic coding while matching or beating rival models.

54%

Fewer output tokens on agentic coding tasks

Coding Agent Index score — top spot (Codex env.)

90%

Discount on cache reads for repeated prompts

Nearly the Intelligence — a Third of the Cost

Sol (max) trails Claude Fable 5 by one point on the Intelligence Index, but its cost per task runs far lower.

$2.75

Claude Fable 5
60 pts

$1.04

GPT-5.6 Sol
59 pts

Each block = ~$0.25 cost per task · Intelligence gap: just 1 point

Three Tiers, Clearly Priced (per 1M tokens)

Sol

Flagship

Input $5

Output $30

Terra

Mid / everyday

Input $2.50

Output $15

Luna

Low-cost, fast

Input $1

Output $6

Developers praise

Strong at agentic coding, complex tasks and computer use
Token efficiency could sharply cut inference costs at scale
Route hard work to Sol, everyday jobs to Terra / Luna

Open questions

Still pricier than some Chinese and rival models
Criticism of the Sol / Terra / Luna renaming and tiering
Do benchmark scores hold up as real-world efficiency?

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