OpenAI released GPT-5.6, a three-tier model suite priced competitively against rivals, but under restricted preview conditions imposed by the Trump administration due to cybersecurity concerns. The company says it cooperated with the US government to approve customers case-by-case, though it hopes this temporary oversight does not become standard for future releases. General availability is expected in the coming weeks.
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OpenAI unveiled GPT-5.6, a model suite with three tiers—Sol (flagship), Terra (medium-tier), and Luna (affordable)—priced at $5 input / $30 output per million tokens for Sol, roughly half the cost of Anthropic's Claude Fable 5. The preview is being monitored by the Trump administration, which will approve customers on a case-by-case basis.
Why it matters
The Trump administration requested OpenAI stagger the release for security review, reflecting concerns about dual-use AI capabilities like cybersecurity. OpenAI designed the preview period to test whether safeguards occasionally block legitimate work, particularly in areas where defensive and offensive activity look similar. The company says it cooperated with the US government but hopes this case-by-case approval does not become the long-term default for future releases.
What to watch
OpenAI says the model suite should be generally available in the coming weeks. Sol has the company's 'most robust safety stack to date' and dedicates approximately 700,000 A100e GPU hours to automated red-teaming, with third-party testers continuing to evaluate it for the next two weeks.
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