OpenAI blinks in face-off with Chinese rivals, drops pricing for some models up to 80%Dramatic move makes GPT-5.6 Luna the ‘most attractive’ in intelligence-per-dollar rankings, above Zhipu AI’s GLM-5.2 and MiniMax’s M32-MIN READ2-MIN4ListenPublished: 7:00pm, 31 Jul 2026In a bid to defend its market share against rapidly advancing, lower-cost Chinese rivals, US Artificial Intelligence firm OpenAI has launched an aggressive price war, slashing prices for its latest GPT-5.6 model line-up by up to 80 per cent.In a post on social media platform X on Thursday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced an 80 per cent drop in developer pricing for its lightweight GPT-5.6 Luna model, bringing application programming interface (API) costs down to US$0.20 per million input tokens and US$1.20 per million output tokens.API fees are what developers pay to integrate AI features directly into their own apps and services.Select VoiceSelect Speed0.8x0.9x1.0x1.1x1.2x1.5x1.75x00:0000:001.00x
SRCSouth China Morning Post
LANGEN
LEANCenter-Right
WORDS140
ENT8
FRI · 2026-07-31 · 11:00 GMTBRIEF NSR-2026-0731-97831
NSR-2026-0731-97831News Report·EN·Technology
OpenAI blinks in face-off with Chinese rivals, drops pricing for some models up to 80%
OpenAI has significantly reduced prices for some of its AI models, including an 80% drop for its GPT-5.6 Luna model. This move, announced by CEO Sam Altman on X, aims to compete with lower-cost Chinese rivals and defend OpenAI's market share.
Richard ChenSouth China Morning PostFiled 2026-07-31 · 11:00 GMTLean · Center-RightRead · 1 min
South China Morning PostFIG 01
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140words
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Briefing Summary
AI-generatedNEWSAR · AI
OpenAI has significantly reduced prices for some of its AI models, including an 80% drop for its GPT-5.6 Luna model. This move, announced by CEO Sam Altman on X, aims to compete with lower-cost Chinese rivals and defend OpenAI's market share. The price cuts make GPT-5.6 Luna more competitive in terms of intelligence per dollar compared to models from Zhipu AI and MiniMax. Developer pricing for the GPT-5.6 Luna model's API now stands at US$0.20 per million input tokens and US$1.20 per million output tokens. This aggressive pricing strategy is a direct response to the rapid advancements and cost-effectiveness of Chinese AI competitors.
Confidence 0.85Sources 1Claims 5Entities 8
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Article analysis
Model · rule-basedFraming
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Key claims
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API costs for GPT-5.6 Luna are now US$0.20 per million input tokens and US$1.20 per million output tokens.
statisticOpenAI
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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced an 80% drop in developer pricing for its GPT-5.6 Luna model.
quoteSam Altman
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OpenAI has dropped pricing for some models by up to 80%.
statisticOpenAI
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OpenAI is in a bid to defend its market share against Chinese rivals.
factualarticle
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The price drop makes GPT-5.6 Luna the ‘most attractive’ in intelligence-per-dollar rankings.
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1 min read · 140 words§ 05
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9 termschinese rivals
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openai
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price war
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gpt-5.6 luna
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artificial intelligence
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api pricing
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market share
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developer pricing
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sam altman
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