OpenAI, Anthropic cut flagship API prices by up to 80%
Flagship ChatGPT and Claude API rates fell by up to 80% since June as DeepSeek and Moonshot undercut costs — good news for Pakistani freelancers and coding tools that burn cached tokens.
OpenAI and Anthropic have cut flagship AI model prices by as much as 80% over about four months starting in June.
OpenAI cut GPT-5.6 Luna API rates by 80% by 30 July; Anthropic later locked in Claude Sonnet 5 discounts and cut Claude Opus 5.5 by 40% to 60%.
API usage costs have fallen 75% or more in some cases; cache-heavy coding tools such as Codex and Claude Code see effective savings near 70% to 75%.
Cheaper open-weight rivals from DeepSeek and Moonshot AI, widely listed on OpenRouter, are adding competitive pressure.
Average cost per token tracked via Vercel’s AI gateway has fallen to 43.3% of its April 2026 level, even as total spending rises with heavier use.