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AIQuiet 4d · day 4

Anthropic, OpenAI race to undercut each other on AI model prices and performance

Hours after Anthropic released Opus 5.5, OpenAI deployed GPT-6 Sol and Luna at half the price, escalating a high-speed rivalry.

newest coverage 3d agosummary written 3d ago2 pieces Newswires

What to know

  • Anthropic and OpenAI unleashed competing model releases and price cuts on the same day, directly contradicting their stated commitment to 'pacing the frontier' made 10 days earlier.
  • Anthropic's Opus 5.5 ($4/$20 per million tokens) was undercut by OpenAI's GPT-6 Sol ($2/$10) within hours, with Sol's cached reads matching Anthropic's at $0.20 per million tokens.
  • Performance claims diverge: Anthropic claims Opus 5.5 scores 40.0% on AutomationBench and outperforms GPT-6 Astra on agentic tasks; OpenAI benchmarks Sol against the older Opus 5 (26.9% vs 33.2%) and questions Fable 5.1's reliability.
  • The rapid escalation signals an AI pricing and capability race is accelerating despite industry leaders' recent public calls for measured development.

“Anthropic says the new model "performs at the level of Claude Fable 5.1 for most tasks" and costs 40% less to run than Opus 5”

Anthropic · ZeroHedge News ↗

Anthropic AI lab releasing Opus 5.5OpenAI AI lab releasing GPT-6 modelsDario AmodeiDario Amodei CEO of Anthropic

Anthropic, OpenAI race to undercut each other on AI model prices and performance
ZeroHedge

How it unfolded 1 development · click the chart to see its coverage articles

Peak 2 pieces in one hour at Sep 22, 1 PM; 2 pieces over 4 days (2 articles) Sep 22, 1 PM — 2 pieces · 2 articles — Newswires 2Sep 22, 2 PM — quietSep 22, 3 PM — quietSep 22, 4 PM — quietSep 22, 5 PM — quietSep 22, 6 PM — quietSep 22, 7 PM — quietSep 22, 8 PM — quietSep 22, 9 PM — quietSep 22, 10 PM — quietSep 22, 11 PM — quietSep 23, 12 AM — quietSep 23, 1 AM — quietSep 23, 2 AM — quietSep 23, 3 AM — quietSep 23, 4 AM — quietSep 23, 5 AM — quietSep 23, 6 AM — quietSep 23, 7 AM — quietSep 23, 8 AM — quietSep 23, 9 AM — quietSep 23, 10 AM — quietSep 23, 11 AM — quietSep 23, 12 PM — quietSep 23, 1 PM — quietSep 23, 2 PM — quietSep 23, 3 PM — quietSep 23, 4 PM — quietSep 23, 5 PM — quietSep 23, 6 PM — quietSep 23, 7 PM — quietSep 23, 8 PM — quietSep 23, 9 PM — quietSep 23, 10 PM — quietSep 23, 11 PM — quietSep 24, 12 AM — quietSep 24, 1 AM — quietSep 24, 2 AM — quietSep 24, 3 AM — quietSep 24, 4 AM — quietSep 24, 5 AM — quietSep 24, 6 AM — quietSep 24, 7 AM — quietSep 24, 8 AM — quietSep 24, 9 AM — quietSep 24, 10 AM — quietSep 24, 11 AM — quietSep 24, 12 PM — quietSep 24, 1 PM — quietSep 24, 2 PM — quietSep 24, 3 PM — quietSep 24, 4 PM — quietSep 24, 5 PM — quietSep 24, 6 PM — quietSep 24, 7 PM — quietSep 24, 8 PM — quietSep 24, 9 PM — quietSep 24, 10 PM — quietSep 24, 11 PM — quietYesterday, 12 AM — quietYesterday, 1 AM — quietYesterday, 2 AM — quietYesterday, 3 AM — quietYesterday, 4 AM — quietYesterday, 5 AM — quietYesterday, 6 AM — quietYesterday, 7 AM — quietYesterday, 8 AM — quietYesterday, 9 AM — quietYesterday, 10 AM — quietYesterday, 11 AM — quietYesterday, 12 PM — quietYesterday, 1 PM — quietYesterday, 2 PM — quietYesterday, 3 PM — quietYesterday, 4 PM — quietYesterday, 5 PM — quietYesterday, 6 PM — quietYesterday, 7 PM — quietYesterday, 8 PM — quietYesterday, 9 PM — quietYesterday, 10 PM — quietYesterday, 11 PM — quietToday, 12 AM — quietToday, 1 AM — quietToday, 2 AM — quietToday, 3 AM — quietToday, 4 AM — quietToday, 5 AM — quietToday, 6 AM — quietToday, 7 AM — quiet ◂ 1 earlier
Sep 23Sep 24yesterdaynow · 8:30 AM ET
  1. 1

    OpenAI benchmarks Sol against Opus 5 in comparison charts

    OpenAI published performance comparisons pitting GPT-6 Sol against Opus 5 (not the newer Opus 5.5), showing Sol achieving 33.2% on AutomationBench at 27 cents per task versus Opus 5's 26.9% at 11 times the cost. OpenAI also included a footnote claiming Fable 5.1 fell back to Opus 5 on roughly 40% of tasks. Anthropic countered that Opus 5.5 (which scored 40.0% on the same test) needs fewer tokens to complete jobs.

    “Opus 5.5 is our first model since we called for pacing the frontier. As with previous models, it was tested by external evaluators before release, including METR and Frontier Design.”
    — Anthropic · source
    1. 1 outlet Anthropic “Paces The Frontier” By Unleashing Its Most Powerful Opus Yet, And Slashing Prices Up To 60%

      first by ZeroHedge News, 3d ago

  2. background

    OpenAI deploys GPT-6 Sol and Luna, cutting prices by half — Hours after Anthropic's Opus 5.5 launch, OpenAI released GPT-6 Sol priced at $2/$10 per million tokens (half Anthropic's $4/$20 rate) and GPT-6 Luna at $0.10/$0.50. OpenAI's Sol features 90% discounts on cached input reads ($0.20 per million tokens). GPT-6 Astra remains the premium tier at $10/$50.

  3. background

    Anthropic releases Claude Opus 5.5 with steep price cuts — Anthropic unveiled Opus 5.5, claiming it performs at the level of Fable 5.1 for most tasks but costs 40% less to run than Opus 5. The model is priced at $4/$20 per million input/output tokens, with cache reads at $0.20 per million (60% cheaper than prior pricing). Anthropic says Opus 5.5 scores 66.4% on Terminal-Bench 4.0 versus 57.9% for GPT-6 Astra, and generates output 30% faster than Opus 5.

  4. background

    Dario Amodei calls for pacing AI frontier development — Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei made a public call for the industry to "pace the frontier" of AI development, suggesting a deliberate slowdown in deployment.