OpenAI reduced the prices of its GPT-5.6 Luna model by 80%, making it the fastest and most affordable model on the market. The input token price dropped from $1 to $0.20 per million tokens, and the output token price fell from $6 to $1.20 per million tokens [1, 2, 3]. Anthropic introduced its Claude Opus 5 model, priced at about half the cost of its top-tier Fable 5, charging $5 per million input tokens and $25 per million output tokens [1, 2, 3].

These price cuts come amid rising competition from Chinese AI developers such as Moonshot (月之暗面) and DeepSeek, which have launched cheaper models narrowing the performance gap with US AI leaders [4, 1, 2, 3]. Since mid-July, prices customers pay for US leading AI models have dropped approximately 25%, according to Silicon Data’s token price index [4, 1, 2, 3].

Some US companies including DoorDash and Airbnb have started using Chinese AI models to manage costs [4, 1, 2, 3]. US AI providers are shifting some enterprise customers from fixed-subscription billing to usage-based billing, increasing cost pressure [4, 1, 2, 3].

Artificial Analysis notes that Anthropic’s Opus 5 offers cost and performance at medium compute levels comparable to Moonshot’s Kimi K3 model at highest intensity [1, 2]. OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Luna performs similarly to DeepSeek’s V4 Flash at highest intensity but Luna’s single-task cost is nearly double [1, 2]. US price reductions mainly target mid-tier products to stay competitive with Chinese models [1, 2, 3].

Anthropic canceled a planned price increase for its Sonnet 5 model scheduled for September due to the ongoing price war [1, 2, 3]. Mantas Lukauskas, Hostinger AI chief, said the pricing battle is the first real test of whether US providers can maintain prices on their most advanced models. He noted, "US AI has lowered prices for mid-tier products; next will be to see if top-tier prices can hold" [1].

Price reductions for leading US AI models started around July 15, leading to a roughly 25% drop for customers by mid-August [4, 1, 2, 3]. Reports on August 13 highlighted the launches of cheaper models and significant price cuts by OpenAI and Anthropic following Chinese competition [1, 2].

Anthropic’s reversal on Sonnet 5 price hikes shows the market pressure persists going into September [1, 2, 3].