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TL;DR
OpenAI and Anthropic have cut several model prices since June 2026, and reporting describes OpenAI offering discounts to win enterprise customers. Some large savings figures refer to a customer’s expected total costs, not a discount off list prices; plan limits, credits and seat minimums also affect what buyers pay.
OpenAI and Anthropic have cut prices on several AI models since June, while a report published October 24 says OpenAI is also offering discounts to attract large customers from Anthropic. The changes could lower bills for companies and individual users, but list prices do not tell the whole story: reported savings vary by customer and workload, and subscription limits and contract terms can change separately from monthly fees.
Based on vendors’ pricing pages and announcements checked by ThorstenMeyerAI.com on October 26, OpenAI’s Sol model pricing moved from $5 input and $30 output per million tokens in June to $2 and $10 for GPT-6.1 Sol in September. Its smaller Luna model moved from $1 and $6 to $0.10 and $0.50 per million tokens. These are comparisons across different model releases, not simply price cuts to an unchanged model.
Anthropic also reduced prices. Its Opus model moved from $5 input and $25 output per million tokens for Opus 5 in July to $4 and $20 for Opus 5.5. The source says cache reads for the newer model are 60% cheaper. Anthropic has also said its newer models can cost less on typical or agent-heavy workloads; those workload savings are the company’s estimates, not independent measurements supplied in the source.
The Information reported October 24 that OpenAI was using discounts to pursue Anthropic customers. The reported examples vary: Replit was offered a discount of more than 30% on a contract valued at over $100 million annually, according to a person cited in the report. A U.S. bank reportedly secured 500 ChatGPT seats at no extra charge, up from 250. These are reported contract terms, not public, standard offers available to every buyer.
Infographic 01 · The price slide
Four months, a fraction of the price.
What a million output tokens cost on each vendor’s price list, from the June previews to today. Bars show the price; shorter is cheaper.
OpenAI · output price per 1M tokens
List prices, standard tier
Anthropic · output price per 1M tokens
List prices, standard tier
Same scale in both panels. Fable 5.1 kept its $50 output price and cut cache reads instead.
The quieter cut: cache reads
matters most for agents
Cache-read price per 1M tokens, same scale in all three.
Woolf estimates cached tokens make up 96–99% of token spend in agentic coding. Anthropic says Opus 5.5 costs 40% less than Opus 5 and Fable 5.1 about 25% (up to about 45%) less than Fable 5 on typical workloads; those are vendor claims. Most rows compare a successor model with its predecessor. Anthropic’s newer tokenizer produces about 30% more tokens for the same text, so per-token prices are not directly comparable across vendors.
Sources: OpenAI API pricing (26 Oct 2026); OpenAI announcements (26 Jun–29 Sep 2026); Anthropic API pricing (26 Oct 2026); Anthropic announcements (30 Jun–22 Sep 2026); Vercel AI Gateway index (Oct 2026); Max Woolf (25 Oct 2026).
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Lower Prices, More Contract Leverage
For organizations already spending heavily on AI, lower prices and competing vendor offers may give procurement teams room to renegotiate contracts or test alternatives. The reported customer changes suggest price can affect which models developers use: Rippling CEO Parker Conrad said OpenAI’s share of his company’s coding work rose from 16% in May to 52%, while Anthropic’s share fell from 57% to 18%. Those figures describe one company’s use, not a broader market trend.
For individual subscribers, a cheaper model or unchanged monthly fee does not necessarily mean the same amount of service. The source reports that OpenAI reduced usage included with new $200 Pro subscriptions while keeping the price unchanged. Anthropic added capped, expiring API credits to its Max and Team plans. Buyers should compare expected usage, limits, credit expiration, seat counts and model performance alongside token prices.
That distinction matters because a quoted saving may compare a whole customer’s expected bill with its previous setup, rather than show a discount from a vendor’s published rate. A company’s actual costs depend on its workload, contract and model choices. Total cost and suitability are more informative than a headline percentage alone.
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How the Price Cuts Accumulated
The changes described in the source occurred over several months in 2026. OpenAI previewed GPT-5.6 Sol and Luna pricing in June, then cut Luna’s price in July and Sol’s in August. Anthropic launched Sonnet 5 at an introductory price in June and made that price permanent in August. September brought new OpenAI and Anthropic model releases and further price changes, including a reduction in OpenAI’s cache price.
Model pricing often separates input tokens, output tokens and cached input. Those categories can matter differently across tasks. Data scientist Max Woolf, who tracks large language model pricing, estimated that cached tokens account for 96% to 99% of token spending in agentic coding. That is his estimate, as reported in the source; the proportion will not necessarily apply to every customer or use case.
Pricing changes also coincide with changing subscription terms. The source says Anthropic’s Enterprise plan requires a 20-seat minimum, which may put it out of reach for smaller firms. It also reports new caps and expiration rules for some Anthropic API credits. Those conditions can alter the effective cost even when a headline model rate or monthly plan price appears attractive.
Contract Terms and Savings Vary
The reported enterprise offers are based on accounts cited by The Information and other reporting; the source does not provide full contract documents or a complete account of eligibility, duration and conditions. The reported 80% to 90% DataCamp saving is an executive’s estimate of total costs against an existing setup, and its calculation has not been independently verified in the source material.
It is also unclear how broadly the reported discounts are available or whether they will persist. Replit’s relationship with OpenAI is described differently across accounts: Masad called OpenAI its preferred partner while saying Replit remained model agnostic, and a person familiar with the partnership told TechCrunch it was still in place. A newer model’s lower price also does not establish that it performs as well as its predecessor on a particular task. Buyers need their own workload tests before treating the price difference as a comparable saving.
Check Offers Against Real Workloads
Companies considering a switch can compare vendor quotes against current bills and test candidate models on representative tasks before committing. They should ask vendors to spell out discount duration, usage caps, seat minimums, credit expiration and charges for input, output and cached tokens. Routing different tasks across more than one provider may also help buyers compare performance and costs rather than rely on a single headline rate.
For individual subscribers, the next practical step is to review the plan’s current usage allowance and any changes to included features before signing up or renewing. The source does not identify a specific next pricing announcement or date; vendor prices and plan terms remain subject to change.
Key Questions
Did OpenAI cut prices by 90%?
Not according to the figures in the source. The 80% to 90% figure is DataCamp CEO Jonathan Cornelissen’s estimate of expected savings on total costs against his company’s existing setup. It is not a stated 90% discount from OpenAI’s list prices.
Which OpenAI prices changed?
The source says Sol moved from $5 input and $30 output per million tokens in June to $2 and $10 for GPT-6.1 Sol in September. Luna moved from $1 and $6 to $0.10 and $0.50. These comparisons involve different model releases.
How did Anthropic’s prices change?
Anthropic’s Opus pricing moved from $5 input and $25 output per million tokens for Opus 5 to $4 and $20 for Opus 5.5. The source also reports a 60% reduction in cache-read pricing for the newer model.
What should buyers check beyond the token price?
Compare input, output and cached-token charges, then check usage caps, included allowances, credit expiration, seat minimums and contract length. Test models on your own work: a lower price for a successor model does not by itself establish equivalent performance.
Source: ThorstenMeyerAI.com
