Comment by bakugo
5 hours ago
> GPT‑5.6 Luna, our fastest and most affordable model, will cost 80% less
Looks like the Chinese models are really making a dent. Having 3 different price categories with the "most affordable" one still costing more than GLM 5.2 never made sense.
I thought the chinese models were cheaper per token, but about the same or more expensive on tasks because they used more tokens for reasoning. Cutting even further, seems like a really big leap.
It all comes back to electricity cost. China has cheaper electricity so as long as China keeps pace there is no way for American companies to undercut them. Each boolean operation in China is cheaper than the one in America.
> China: Household rates average around $0.08 / kWh (¥0.53/kWh).
vs
> US: Household rates average around $0.16 / kWh, though regional variation is massive—ranging from ~$0.10/kWh in low-cost states (like Washington or Louisiana) to $0.30–$0.45+/kWh in high-cost areas like California or Hawaii.
This doesn't seem correct.
Estimated final electricity price for large industrial customers in energy-intensive industries:
USA 50 USD/MWh
China 68 USD/MWh
https://www.iea.org/reports/electricity-2026/prices
I don't know, non of the chinese models I use are served from China. And they are still cheap.