THE TICKER · HEAD-TO-HEAD · CHECKED DAILY · LAST CHANGE 2026-09-06
GPT-5.6 VS GPT-5.5
OpenAI vs OpenAI, in USD per million tokens, cross-checked daily against the public pricing dataset. Same jobs, both meters running.
THE VERDICT
1.5x
GPT-5.5 costs 1.5x more than GPT-5.6 for the same job — a 1,000-token prompt with a 3,000-token reply runs $0.10 vs $0.06. At 1,000 runs a day, that gap is $930.00 a month for identical traffic.
SIDE BY SIDE
SAME JOB, BOTH BILLS
| Scenario | GPT-5.6 | GPT-5.5 | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| A typical prompt | $0.02 | $0.03 | 1.5x |
| A 20-turn conversation | $0.10 | $0.14 | 1.5x |
| Summarizing a 10-page document | $0.10 | $0.14 | 1.4x |
| One agent run | $0.25 | $0.37 | 1.5x |
| A code review request | $0.08 | $0.12 | 1.5x |
Output sizes use the same editorial ratios as the Burn Calculator. Estimates, not invoices — and price is not a benchmark: the cheaper model is only a bargain if it does the job.
SETTLE IT WITH YOUR OWN PROMPT
Paste a real prompt into the Burn Calculator and see what it costs on GPT-5.6, GPT-5.5 and the other 23 models on the board — plus how much of it is waste either way.