Connecting the dots: There are usually few better ways of attracting new users than dropping prices. OpenAI has just slashed what it charges for two GPT-5.6 models, a move announced one day before the company revealed that its models now reach more than one billion active users.
On July 30, OpenAI cut the price of GPT-5.6 Luna by 80%. It now costs $0.20 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens, down from $1 and $6, respectively. GPT-5.6 Terra received a smaller 20% reduction, taking its prices from $2.50 and $15 to $2 and $12. The price of Sol, OpenAI's flagship and highest-capability model, remains unchanged.
OpenAI also introduced Fast mode for Sol, which delivers up to 2.5 times the speed of standard processing at twice the price. The company says there is no reduction in intelligence when using the faster option.
The lower Luna and Terra prices are also reflected in how usage is counted against paid subscriptions in Codex and ChatGPT Work, meaning the models now consume fewer credits. Subscription prices and quota budgets remain unchanged.
OpenAI says the reductions were enabled by efficiency improvements across its models and serving systems. Within a human-led process, GPT-5.6 Sol autonomously rewrote and optimized production GPU kernels, work that helped reduce its end-to-end serving costs by 20%. Experiments designed to improve speculative decoding also increased token-generation efficiency by more than 15%.
"Better intelligence drives broader adoption. Broader adoption supports more investment. More investment improves intelligence and efficiency," wrote OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar.
Friar disclosed the next day that OpenAI's models now reach more than one billion active users and more than two million businesses. The company didn't specify whether the latest figure represents weekly or monthly users, but given its previous announcement that ChatGPT had more than 900 million weekly users, it's likely the former.
OpenAI says engagement also increases over time. Six months after signing up, people send around 50% more messages each day and use ChatGPT for about twice as many kinds of work.
All those users have yet to translate into profitability. OpenAI generated $13.07 billion in revenue during 2025 but lost $21 billion, while only around 50 million of its then-900 million weekly users paid for a subscription. It was also reported how flat-rate AI subscriptions can become unprofitable under heavy use. Lower prices could encourage even wider adoption, though analysts warn they could place further pressure on margins as the company continues spending heavily on computing infrastructure.
OpenAI reaches one billion active users as it cuts GPT-5.6 prices by up to 80%
