OpenAI has officially released its GPT-5.6 family of AI models — Sol, Terra, and Luna — marking a major leap in artificial intelligence capability. The announcement, made on July 9, 2026, introduces three distinct tiers designed to serve everything from enterprise-grade workloads to budget-conscious developers.
Meet the Trio: Sol, Terra, and Luna
The GPT-5.6 series is OpenAI’s most ambitious model release to date, coming in three variants:
- GPT-5.6 Sol — The flagship “workhorse” model built for frontier reasoning, long-horizon agentic tasks, advanced coding, scientific research, and cybersecurity. It’s OpenAI’s most powerful model ever.
- GPT-5.6 Terra — A balanced everyday model delivering GPT-5.5-competitive performance at 2x lower cost, ideal for most business applications.
- GPT-5.6 Luna — The fastest and most affordable member of the family, priced for high-volume and budget-sensitive use cases.
Breakthrough Performance
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told CNBC that Sol is 54% more token-efficient on AI coding tasks compared to previous models. According to the Artificial Analysis Coding Agent Index, Sol achieves a state-of-the-art score of 80 — outperforming Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5 by 2.8 points while using less than half the output tokens, taking less than half the time, and costing about one-third less.
OpenAI also claims that GPT-5.6 is its “strongest cybersecurity model yet,” achieving frontier performance in threat modeling, code review, patching, and blue-team operations.
Pricing & Availability
The models are available now across ChatGPT, Codex, and the OpenAI API at the following per-million-token pricing:
- Sol: $5 input / $30 output
- Terra: $2.50 input / $15 output
- Luna: $1 input / $6 output
GPT-Live: Real-Time Voice AI
Alongside GPT-5.6, OpenAI introduced GPT-Live, a new generation of voice models capable of listening and speaking simultaneously. Two versions — GPT-Live-1 and GPT-Live-1 Mini — are rolling out to ChatGPT users globally, offering what the company describes as “much more like having a real conversation.”
ChatGPT Work: Your New Office Companion
OpenAI also launched ChatGPT Work, a desktop, web, and mobile tool designed as a workplace companion for enterprise teams. It handles daily clerical tasks like drafting documents, creating spreadsheets, and building presentations.
Government Collaboration
The GPT-5.6 rollout initially faced restrictions after the U.S. government requested limits due to national security concerns. OpenAI initially limited access to trusted partners but has now made the models publicly available worldwide. The company stated it doesn’t believe “this kind of government access process should become the long-term default.”
Frequently Asked Questions
When was GPT-5.6 released?
GPT-5.6 Sol, Terra, and Luna were publicly released on July 9, 2026. GPT-Live voice models began rolling out on July 8, 2026.
How does GPT-5.6 compare to Anthropic’s Claude?
According to OpenAI’s benchmarks, Sol outperforms Claude Fable 5 on the Coding Agent Index (80 vs 77.2) while being faster, cheaper, and more token-efficient. Terra performs just above Fable 5, and Luna outperforms Opus 4.8.
What is GPT-Live?
GPT-Live is OpenAI’s new real-time voice AI model that can listen and speak simultaneously, making conversations feel more natural and human-like.