Chat Latest vs GPT-5.6 Sol: price, context and capabilities

Choose Chat Latest for the most recent knowledge. Choose GPT-5.6 Sol for high-volume, cost-sensitive work, writing and code generation, reused prompts and documents (RAG, agents), very long inputs and the latest release.

In short

  • GPT-5.6 Sol is 29% cheaper than Chat Latest at the headline price ($8.00 / 1M tokens vs $11.25 / 1M tokens).
  • GPT-5.6 Sol reads more per request: 1.05M tokens against 400k.
  • GPT-5.6 Sol is the newer model (Jul 9, 2026, against May 5, 2026).
  • Only GPT-5.6 Sol offers reasoning.

Open in the full comparison table

What a month costsAt 20 million input and 5 million output tokens a month.
  1. Chat LatestOpenAI$250
  2. GPT-5.6 SolOpenAI$180

Try your own volumes in the calculator

Which should you choose?

Each answer below comes straight from the published prices, specifications and independent benchmark results.

High-volume, cost-sensitive work

Choose GPT-5.6 Sol

GPT-5.6 Sol costs 29% less on a typical mix of three input tokens for every output token ($8.00 against $11.25 per million tokens).

Writing and code generation

Choose GPT-5.6 Sol

GPT-5.6 Sol charges $20.00 per million output tokens, against $30.00 for Chat Latest. Output dominates the bill when answers are long.

Reused prompts and documents (RAG, agents)

Choose GPT-5.6 Sol

GPT-5.6 Sol charges $0.40 per million cached input tokens, against $0.50 for Chat Latest.

Very long inputs

Choose GPT-5.6 Sol

GPT-5.6 Sol reads up to 1.05M tokens per request, against 400k for Chat Latest.

Latest release

Choose GPT-5.6 Sol

GPT-5.6 Sol is the newer release (Jul 9, 2026, against May 5, 2026 for Chat Latest).

Most recent knowledge

Choose Chat Latest

Chat Latest was trained on data up to April 2026, against February 2026 for GPT-5.6 Sol.

Monthly cost at three volumes

VolumeChat LatestGPT-5.6 SolDifference
Prototype: 1M input, 250K output tokens $12.50 $9.00 GPT-5.6 Sol, $3.50 less
Production: 20M input, 5M output tokens $250.00 $180.00 GPT-5.6 Sol, $70.00 less
Scale: 500M input, 100M output tokens $5,500 $4,000 GPT-5.6 Sol, $1,500 less

Standard rates, without caching or batch discounts. Volumes are per month.

Specifications side by side

Chat LatestGPT-5.6 Sol
ProviderOpenAIOpenAI
CategoryLanguage modelsLanguage models
StatusGenerally availableGenerally available
Headline price$11.25 / 1M tokens$8.00 / 1M tokens
Input$5.00 / 1M tokens$4.00 / 1M tokens
Output$30.00 / 1M tokens$20.00 / 1M tokens
Cached input$0.50 / 1M tokens$0.40 / 1M tokens
Context window400k1.05M
Max output128k128k
ReleasedMay 5, 2026Jul 9, 2026
Knowledge cutoffApril 2026February 2026
LicenceProprietaryProprietary
CapabilitiesVision, Tool calling, Structured output, Prompt caching, Batch APIVision, Reasoning, Tool calling, Structured output, Prompt caching, Batch API
API model idchat-latestgpt-5.6-sol

Benchmarks side by side

Leader in bold.

BenchmarkChat LatestGPT-5.6 Sol
Intelligence Index No data 47
Terminal-Bench Hard No data 65.9%
SciCode No data 57.1%
GPQA Diamond No data 94.1%
Humanity's Last Exam No data 49.5%
IFBench (instruction following) No data 72.7%
τ²-Bench (agentic tool use) No data 85.1%
MMMU-Pro (visual reasoning) No data 83.4%
Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR) No data 84%

Independent evaluations by Artificial Analysis, run the same way for every model, at the reasoning setting shown. Percentages unless marked as an index.

Frequently asked questions

Should I choose Chat Latest or GPT-5.6 Sol?

Choose Chat Latest for the most recent knowledge. Choose GPT-5.6 Sol for high-volume, cost-sensitive work, writing and code generation, reused prompts and documents (RAG, agents), very long inputs and the latest release.

Which is cheaper, Chat Latest or GPT-5.6 Sol?

GPT-5.6 Sol is 29% cheaper than Chat Latest at the headline price ($8.00 / 1M tokens vs $11.25 / 1M tokens).

Which has the larger context window, Chat Latest or GPT-5.6 Sol?

GPT-5.6 Sol reads more per request: 1.05M tokens against 400k.

What is the difference between Chat Latest and GPT-5.6 Sol?

Chat Latest is made by OpenAI and GPT-5.6 Sol by OpenAI. GPT-5.6 Sol is 29% cheaper than Chat Latest at the headline price ($8.00 / 1M tokens vs $11.25 / 1M tokens). GPT-5.6 Sol reads more per request: 1.05M tokens against 400k. GPT-5.6 Sol is the newer model (Jul 9, 2026, against May 5, 2026). Only GPT-5.6 Sol offers reasoning.

How much do Chat Latest and GPT-5.6 Sol cost per month?

At 20 million input and 5 million output tokens a month, Chat Latest costs $250.00 and GPT-5.6 Sol costs $180.00, at standard rates.

Which is newer, Chat Latest or GPT-5.6 Sol?

GPT-5.6 Sol was released on Jul 9, 2026 and Chat Latest on May 5, 2026.