GPT-5.6 Luna API pricing
OpenAI · Budget price tier · Proprietary · released 2026-07. Prices in USD per 1 million tokens. Data snapshot: 2026-11-12.
A support ticket workload of 100K requests a month costs $90.00 on GPT-5.6 Luna; the next cheaper model in the Budget price tier for this workload, Step 3.7 Flash, does it for $87.50. GPT-5.6 Luna has held the same list price since 2026-08-17 and is the 125th cheapest of 160 models in the Budget price tier. None of its 3 hosts undercuts the price we quote. It is rated a stable release but does not meet all four criteria of the FinOps Friendly badge.
- Input: $0.20 per 1M tokens
- Output: $1.20 per 1M tokens
- Batch API (in/out): $0.10 / $0.60 per 1M tokens
- Prompt-cache read: $0.02 per 1M tokens
- Context window: 1M tokens
- Arena ELO: 1431 as of 2026-11-08
Available on
Direct API, AWS Bedrock, Azure AI Foundry, OpenRouter
AWS Bedrock regions: ap-northeast-1, ap-southeast-1, eu-central-1, eu-west-1, us-east-1, us-east-2, us-west-2
Curated by hand; check with the provider before committing.
Market position
On blended price ($0.90 per 1M tokens at 30% input, 70% output) it is cheaper than 21% of models in the Budget price tier: 125th cheapest of 160, tied with one other. Across every price tier it is cheaper than 59% of priced text models in the catalogue: 125th cheapest of 303, tied with one other. Its Arena ELO of 1431 ranks 65th of the 160 models that carry one, above 60% of them. With an Arena score of 1431, GPT-5.6 Luna clears OptimNow's Standard working quality threshold: Standard (Arena 1420+), used for meeting summary, invoice processing and call summary. Each threshold is a distance below the best ranked model, which scores 1530 on Arena scores as of 8 Nov 2026.
Licence, size and capabilities
GPT-5.6 Luna is recorded here as proprietary: access is through an API, priced by the token. Its parameter count is not published. Listed capabilities: Text, Vision, Reasoning, Agents. Filling its 1M context window once costs $0.20 in input tokens at list price.
Pricing by host
A host is a company that runs the model and sells it by the token: the model maker, a cloud platform like Amazon Bedrock, Azure or Vertex, or an independent host. One model, several hosts, and often several prices. This model is sold by 3 different hosts. The price we quote elsewhere on this page is marked. We quote one host's rate so that models stay comparable; it is not a recommendation to buy there.
The price we quote is already the cheapest of the 3 hosts: OpenAI at $0.20 input / $1.20 output per 1M tokens. All of them charge within 10% of one another.
| Host | Input $/1M | Output $/1M |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI (model maker, price we quote) | $0.20 | $1.20 |
| Amazon Bedrock (price we quote) | $0.20 | $1.20 |
| Azure (price we quote) | $0.20 | $1.20 |
List prices as published on 2026-11-12, via OpenRouter. Negotiated rates, committed-use discounts and provisioned capacity are not shown.
Monthly cost at 100K requests, by business use case
From the after-discounts figure (prompt caching on the cached input share, batch API for async workloads, only where OpenAI publishes those rates), which assumes you implement both, to the list price. One figure means no discount is published.
| Use case | Tokens (in/out) | Monthly (after discounts – list) |
|---|---|---|
| Support Ticket | 1,500 / 500 | $75 – $90 |
| Knowledge Q&A | 2,000 / 800 | $112 – $136 |
| Meeting Summary | 10,000 / 1,200 | $167 – $344 |
| Marketing Content | 2,500 / 1,800 | $258 – $266 |
| Coding Task | 3,000 / 2,000 | $275 – $300 |
| Invoice Processing | 1,500 / 600 | $49 – $102 |
| Call Summary | 2,000 / 700 | $61 – $124 |
| Agent Workflow | 6,000 / 3,000 | $409 – $480 |
Price history
GPT-5.6 Luna has been in our daily price archive since 2026-08-15. Its price series starts on 2026-08-17 at $0.20 input / $1.20 output per 1M tokens, because the earlier snapshots carried a data error that was corrected afterwards. No list price change since 2026-08-17. Last checked against the 2026-11-12 snapshot.
Alternatives to GPT-5.6 Luna
2 of the 4 comparable models below cost less than GPT-5.6 Luna: Gemma 4 26B A4B undercuts it by 90%, and scores 3 Arena points higher.
- Next cheaper model in the Budget price tier: Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct (Alibaba) at $0.898 blended, under 1% less.
- Next more expensive: LongCat 2.0 (meituan) at $0.93 blended, 3% more.
The nearest models in the Budget price tier on Arena ELO, each with its blended price and score difference against GPT-5.6 Luna.
- DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423 (DeepSeek): $0.09 in / $0.18 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1432 (83% cheaper, 1 ELO point higher)
- Mistral Large 3 2512 (Mistral): $0.50 in / $1.50 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1429 (33% more expensive, 2 ELO points lower)
- Gemma 4 26B A4B (Google): $0.08 in / $0.10 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1434 (90% cheaper, 3 ELO points higher)
- MiniMax M3 (MiniMax): $0.30 in / $1.20 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1428 (3% more expensive, 3 ELO points lower)
- Cheapest within 15 Arena points: Gemma 4 26B A4B (Google), 90% cheaper, 3 ELO points higher, out of 44 models in that band.
- Highest Arena ELO within 20% of this price: MiMo-V2.6-Pro (Xiaomi), 18% cheaper, 61 ELO points higher, out of 21 models in that price band.
GPT-5.6 Luna head to head
Other models from OpenAI
The 8 nearest to GPT-5.6 Luna in price, of 48 other OpenAI models in the catalogue. Prices per 1M tokens, input then output.
- GPT-6 Luna: $0.10 / $0.50
- GPT-6 Luna Pro: $0.10 / $0.50
- GPT-4o-mini: $0.15 / $0.60
- gpt-oss-120b: $0.15 / $0.60
- GPT-5.6 Luna Pro: $0.20 / $1.20
- GPT-5.4 Nano: $0.20 / $1.25
- GPT-4.1 Mini: $0.40 / $1.60
- GPT-5 Mini: $0.25 / $2.00
All 49 OpenAI models and prices
Common questions about GPT-5.6 Luna pricing
- How much does GPT-5.6 Luna cost?
- GPT-5.6 Luna costs $0.20 per 1M input tokens and $1.20 per 1M output tokens. That is the model maker's own rate (OpenAI). Prices as listed on 2026-11-12.
- Which host is cheapest for GPT-5.6 Luna?
- The price we quote is already the cheapest of the 3 hosts: OpenAI at $0.20 input / $1.20 output per 1M tokens. All of them charge within 10% of one another. Host rates as listed on 2026-11-12.
- Does GPT-5.6 Luna offer batch or cached pricing?
- Yes, both. Batch API pricing is $0.10 per 1M input tokens and $0.60 per 1M output tokens, and prompt-cache reads cost $0.02 per 1M tokens, as listed on 2026-11-12.
- What would GPT-5.6 Luna cost per month?
- With the Support Ticket profile (1,500 input and 500 output tokens per request), 100,000 requests a month cost about $90 on GPT-5.6 Luna at the list price quoted on 2026-11-12.
- Can GPT-5.6 Luna be self-hosted?
- No, as far as this site records. GPT-5.6 Luna is recorded here as proprietary: access is through an API, priced by the token.
- Has the price of GPT-5.6 Luna changed?
- GPT-5.6 Luna has been in our daily price archive since 2026-08-15. Its price series starts on 2026-08-17 at $0.20 input / $1.20 output per 1M tokens, because the earlier snapshots carried a data error that was corrected afterwards. No list price change since 2026-08-17. Last checked against the 2026-11-12 snapshot.
It publishes a batch rate, and that discount is conditional: when the batch discount applies.
These are list prices. Your real cost also depends on caching and batching, negotiated discounts, marketplace agreements, and the contracts you already have. OptimNow audits exactly that.
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