OpenAI and Anthropic Cut AI Model Prices Amid Chinese Competition

Leading U.S. artificial intelligence laboratories OpenAI and Anthropic have implemented significant price reductions for several of their models, a move aimed at retaining enterprise customers who are increasingly turning to cheaper alternatives from Chinese developers. The price cuts, which have reduced what customers pay for models from these top U.S. labs by nearly 25% since mid-July, come as companies become more cost-conscious and Chinese AI systems gain market share.

OpenAI recently announced an 80% price cut for its GPT-5.6 Luna model, reducing the cost from $1 to $0.20 per million input tokens. The company also trimmed the price of its mid-tier GPT-5.6 Terra model by 20%. Anthropic launched its new Claude Opus 5 model at half the price of its previous flagship, Fable 5, pricing it at $5 per million input tokens and $25 per million output tokens. Additionally, Anthropic canceled a planned September price increase for its Sonnet 5 model, maintaining its lower introductory rate.

These strategic pricing adjustments are a direct response to growing competition from Chinese AI firms such as DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, and Alibaba. These companies have released increasingly capable...