OpenAI and Anthropic reduce costs on flagship models amid competitive pressure from lower-cost Chinese systems, reshaping enterprise AI spending and expectations.
OpenAI and Anthropic have cut prices on several flagship AI models as cheaper Chinese systems put pressure on enterprise spending and reset expectations around value in the market.
According to OpenAI, its GPT-5.6 Luna model is now 80% cheaper, with input pricing reduced from $1 to $0.20 per million tokens and output pricing cut from $6 to $1.20. The company also lowered Terra prices by 20%, while keeping Sol’s pricing unchanged but adding faster processing.
Anthropic has responded with Claude Opus 5, which it has positioned as a lower-cost alternative to its top-tier offering. The model is priced at $5 per million input tokens and $25 per million output tokens, which Anthropic says gives customers near-flagship performance at about half the cost of Fable 5. The company also abandoned a planned September increase for Claude Sonnet 5, preserving its introductory rate.
The pricing moves come as businesses look harder at AI budgets and start shifting routine work to cheaper systems. Reuters reported that companies including DoorDash, Airbnb and Siemens are testing models from Chinese developers such as DeepSeek, Moonshot AI and Alibaba for tasks including coding and customer support.
Data from OpenRouter suggest the shift is already visible in usage patterns. Chinese models from DeepSeek and Z.ai have overtaken both Claude and ChatGPT in token use on the platform, with DeepSeek taking the lead by token share during the period reported.
The competitive pressure matters because token price alone does not determine real-world cost. A stronger model may complete a task with fewer tokens, fewer retries and less human oversight, so the more relevant measure for many enterprises is cost per successful outcome rather than headline pricing.
Even so, the direction of travel is clear. Chinese models are giving large buyers more leverage in negotiations, and the US leaders are being forced to compete on price as well as capability. For customers, that is broadening choice; for model vendors, it is turning pricing into a central part of the race.
Disclaimer: This content is intended for informational purposes only. Readers are advised to exercise their own judgement, conduct due diligence, or consult a qualified expert before acting on any information provided.
