OpenAI, Meta, SpaceXAI compete for more cost-efficient AI models

OpenAI, Meta, and SpaceXAI released new AI models this week, each promising greater cost efficiency through reduced token usage. OpenAI's GPT-5.6, SpaceXAI's Grok 4.5, and Meta's Muse Spark 1.1 all emphasize lower pricing for customers.

Three prominent artificial intelligence developers released new models over the past week. They all promise to be more advanced, but their biggest immediate selling point may not be what they can do, but how little they charge to do it. OpenAI said its most advanced offering, GPT-5.6, is designed to complete more work while using significantly fewer tokens, a unit of data processed by AI models. This will make the software far more cost efficient for customers. Grok 4.5, from Elon Musk’s SpaceXAI, is billed as having twice the token efficiency as comparable models from other firms. And Meta Platforms is making the pricing for its Muse Spark 1.1 very “attractive,” Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg told Bloomberg.