The Most Important Market in AI is the Middle
Yesterday, Anthropic released a new model & cut its price. Ninety minutes later, OpenAI did the same. Most business AI use is the messy middle: multi-step workflows that need a smart enough model at a price a company can afford. It is the most important part of the market today, & it is where the competition is fiercest. The price cuts are the evidence. In June, Anthropic set the frontier price at $10 & $50 per million tokens with Fable 5. In July, OpenAI answered with GPT-5.6 Sol at $5 & $30, matching that capability at a third of the cost per task. The Opus line had never moved. Opus 4.5, 4, 4.8 & 5 all listed at $5 & $25 per million tokens. Yesterday’s cut was the first. It is even more extreme at the low end. OpenAI cut Luna by 80% in July, then cut it another 50% yesterday. More than just closed source rivalry, open models deflate prices too. The generics on the AI grocery aisle run a majority of token volume on the gateways that publish data, at an 86% discount to the blende
