What a 10x price cut did to GPT-5.6 token demand

Heavy discounts on OpenAI's GPT-5.6 models coincided with sharply higher usage on OpenRouter. Its retrospective reports that average daily token volume during the July 27 to August 14 program rose 13.8 times for Luna and 5.6 times for Terra, each compared with the July 8 to 26 period before it. The 13.8 figure therefore belongs to Luna alone, not to both models together as the thread's headline could suggest. The earlier pricing announcement covers the rates, not these results. This is an observational company analysis and does not by itself prove the discounts caused the rise.

The company also reports that about 32% of the customers who used the models during the program used them again in the roughly six days after it ended, counted by customer rather than by volume. Daily average volume after the program was higher than during it, which the thread attributes mostly to a few very large accounts. That separates two outcomes: a minority of customers returned, yet their traffic sustained substantial volume. The follow-up window is short and may be incomplete.