OpenAI unveiled its newest family of models on Thursday, introducing GPT-5.6 in three variants — Sol, Terra, and Luna — alongside a new workplace AI agent called ChatGPT Work, in what analysts are calling the company’s most aggressive platform pivot to date.
GPT-5.6 comes in three tiers: Sol, positioned as the flagship workhorse model; Terra, an intermediate option; and Luna, a budget-friendly alternative. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has promised the new models are “orders of magnitude” more efficient and cost-effective than previous versions, telling CNBC that Sol is 54% more token-efficient for AI coding tasks.
OpenAI calls GPT-5.6 its “strongest cybersecurity model yet,” noting that it achieves frontier performance with significantly fewer tokens. The model supports defensive activities including threat modeling, code review and patching, and blue teaming — simulating attacks on one’s own systems to identify vulnerabilities before real hackers do.
Using the Artificial Analysis Coding Agent Index, a notable industry benchmark, OpenAI claims Sol “sets a new state of the art at 80, 2.8 points above Anthropic’s Fable 5, while using less than half the output tokens, taking less than half the time, and costing about one-third less.” Terra performs just above Fable 5, while Luna outperforms Opus 4.8.
ChatGPT Work, the headline product launch alongside GPT-5.6, transforms ChatGPT from a question-and-answer tool into an autonomous work platform. The agent can execute complex, multi-step tasks across users’ email, calendars, code repositories, and messaging apps — gathering context from connected applications to produce finished documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and reports.
The launch comes amid heightened tension in the AI industry. Apple filed a separate lawsuit against OpenAI on Friday, and the company is simultaneously navigating a leadership shakeup following the departure of No. 2 executive Fidji Simo. GPT-5.6 is now available across ChatGPT, Codex, and the OpenAI API, with pricing at $5/$30 per million tokens for Sol, $2.50/$15 for Terra, and $1/$6 for Luna (input/output).
