GoKawiilOpenAI and Anthropic launch cheaper model tiers amid open-weight competition
OpenAI added two new GPT-6 tiers, Sol and Luna, cutting API prices by 50% versus GPT-5.6 promotional rates, with Sol built for complex coding tasks and Luna aimed at high-volume document work. Anthropic released Claude Opus 5.5, a more token-efficient model it says costs about 40% less to run than Opus 5.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
The releases arrive just after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, along with Sam Altman and Elon Musk, called for slowing advanced AI development amid safety concerns raised by a former Anthropic researcher's public resignation. Despite that rhetoric, both companies are still racing to ship products, which suggests commercial pressure from cheaper open-weight rivals like Alibaba, Moonshot AI and DeepSeek may be outweighing calls for caution.
- OpenAI cut GPT-6 API pricing by 50% with new Sol and Luna tiers.
- Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5 is about 40% cheaper to run than Opus 5.
- The launches follow public calls from AI leaders to slow development, highlighting tension between safety concerns and competitive pressure from cheaper open-weight models.
Source: cnbc.com — Cj Haddad, 2026-09-22
Published there as: “Anthropic and OpenAI roll out cheaper models in first release since call for slowdown”
Read the original report → The summary and analysis above are GoKawiil's own, written from reporting by the source above. Facts and quotes belong to the original publisher.