OpenAI cuts GPT-5.6 Sol API prices to $4 input and $20 output per million tokens

Archive entry: this covers an event from August 21, 2026, and we published it on November 8, 2026. The details come from sources dated at the time and may have changed since.

On August 21, 2026, OpenAI lowered GPT-5.6 Sol API pricing to $4 per million input tokens and $20 per million output tokens, as the OpenAI API changelog records in its entry on the price reduction. The cut was 20% on input and 33% on output, and the changelog described the lower prices as promotional pricing.

What changed in GPT-5.6 Sol pricing

• Input tokens: the price fell by 20%, to $4 per million.
• Output tokens: the price fell by 33%, to $20 per million.
• The API changelog called the lower prices promotional pricing that applied at least through November 21, 2026.
• The same changelog day added per-request regional processing.

What it meant for builders

For apps and agents running on GPT-5.6 Sol, the change was a direct cost cut, though a temporary one. Both token types became cheaper, and because the output cut (33%) was larger than the input cut (20%), workloads that generated long outputs saw the bigger relative saving. The price was labeled promotional, so teams budgeting around it needed to track the end date.

Two different end dates

The API changelog said the promotional price applied at least through November 21, 2026, while the OpenAI API pricing page gave the promotion's end date as November 30, 2026. The changelog's date was a minimum, so a longer promotion fit its wording, but the two official pages named different dates, and the pricing page was undated.

Sources

• OpenAI API changelog: GPT-5.6 Sol price reduction (OpenAI, August 21, 2026, official)
• Pricing | OpenAI API (OpenAI, official)

Written with AI assistance, strictly from the sources listed above. Before it went live, automated checks verified its dates, sources and every language edition.