GPT-5.6 Sol pricing in 2026
What one task costs on GPT-5.6 Sol
Per-million-token prices are hard to feel, so here are typical token counts for common jobs priced with GPT-5.6 Sol. Figures are USD at the rates above and exclude prompt caching and batch discounts.
| Task | Tokens (in / out) | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Code review of a 500-line pull request | 60,000 / 4,000 | $0.320 |
| Debug one failing test | 40,000 / 6,000 | $0.280 |
| Generate a landing page in one shot | 3,000 / 30,000 | $0.612 |
| Draft a 1,200-word article | 2,000 / 2,500 | $0.058 |
| Answer a question from a 20-page document | 25,000 / 800 | $0.116 |
| Multi-step agent run (10 tool calls) | 250,000 / 25,000 | $1.50 |
| All of the above, once | $2.89 |
Cheaper at the same or better capability: GLM-5.3 FlashX runs the same set of tasks for $0.226 instead of $2.89.
GPT-5.6 Sol by OpenAI costs $4 per 1M input tokens and $20 per 1M output tokens — about 62.5k tokens per $1. Prices last verified 2026-09-19.
The verdict
OpenAI's flagship workhorse, now one tier below GPT-6 Astra. At $4 input / $20 output per 1M tokens you're paying for the best all-rounder in the GPT-5.6 stack — an intelligence index of 47 on Artificial Analysis's current v4.3 scale, a 1M-token context window and the most mature ecosystem. It only makes sense when output quality, tooling and reliability matter more than budget; for volume work, GPT-5.6 Terra or a rival returns several times the tokens per dollar.
A concrete example: sending 100,000 input tokens and getting back 20,000 output tokens with GPT-5.6 Sol costs about $0.80 at current prices.
Who is GPT-5.6 Sol for?
GPT-5.6 Sol is the model you reach for when quality and reliability outrank budget. It's OpenAI's flagship for a reason: reasoning near the top of the GPT family — index 47, a few points behind the newer GPT-6 Astra — a 1M+ context window, and the most mature SDKs, agent frameworks and enterprise tooling of any provider. Teams already invested in the OpenAI stack rarely regret paying the premium.
Where it makes less sense is volume work. On a per-token basis Sol is several times more expensive than Terra or Luna, and far pricier than DeepSeek or Gemini for a similar class of output. If your workload is repetitive, high-volume or latency-sensitive, a cheaper member of the GPT-5.6 family — or another provider entirely — will stretch your budget much further. Use Sol when the last few points of quality genuinely matter to the end result.
Strengths & weaknesses
- Strength: The most mature ecosystem
- Best for: Backend, Bug-fixing, One-shot
- Weakness: Token-hungry — burns through subscription weekly limits fast, and needs close guidance for front-end design.
GPT-5.6 Sol key facts
| Provider | ChatGPT pricing |
|---|---|
| Input price | $4 / 1M tokens |
| Output price | $20 / 1M tokens |
| Tokens / $1 | 62.5k |
| Intelligence / $1 | 29,375 |
| Context window | 1.1M tokens |
| Tier | frontier |
| Speed | Average |
| Intelligence index | 47 / 100 |
| Released | 2026-07-09 |
| Last verified | 2026-09-19 |
What GPT-5.6 Sol delivers for your budget
For a coding workload, here is roughly what each monthly budget buys:
| Budget | Tokens / month | Months of workload |
|---|---|---|
| $20 | 2.6M | 4.0x |
| $50 | 6.5M | 10.0x |
| $100 | 13.0M | 20.0x |
Other ChatGPT models
How GPT-5.6 Sol compares to its closest rivals
Rather than repeating the full catalog on every page, here are the three current models nearest to GPT-5.6 Sol on the intelligence index — and why you might still pick one instead:
- Muse Spark 1.3 (Meta) — $1.25 input / $4.25 output per 1M tokens. Why you might pick it: Frontier index at roughly a tenth of the premium tiers' price.
- Qwen3.8 Max (Qwen) — $2 input / $6 output per 1M tokens. Why you might pick it: Multimodal frontier capability from Alibaba.
- GLM-5.3 (max) (GLM) — $1.40 input / $4.40 output per 1M tokens. Why you might pick it: Strong design at a frontier value price.
GPT-5.6 Sol — frequently asked questions
How much does GPT-5.6 Sol cost?
GPT-5.6 Sol by OpenAI costs $4 per 1M input tokens and $20 per 1M output tokens.
How many tokens per dollar does GPT-5.6 Sol give you?
On a typical 1:3 input-to-output mix, GPT-5.6 Sol delivers around 62.5k tokens per dollar — an intelligence-per-dollar score of 29375.
What is GPT-5.6 Sol's context window?
GPT-5.6 Sol supports a context window of 1.1M tokens.
Is GPT-5.6 Sol worth it in 2026?
GPT-5.6 Sol is ChatGPT's frontier tier model. Use the AI Intelligence Calculator to see how its value compares to every other model at your budget.