Small models have arrived: GPT-5.6 Luna runs complex tasks for cents

Small Models Have Arrived

Calvin French-Owen tested GPT-5.6 Luna on codebase search and email analysis, with API costs often landing in the tens of cents. For a personalized news site eval, Luna averaged ~$0.10 versus ~$1 on Sonnet-class models—making consumer AI unit economics viable for the first time. He also cites Segment co-founder Peter, who estimates 95% of company work is fast, multi-threaded execution, not deep breakthroughs. Cheap, good-enough small models fit that workload. The post does not disclose Luna's parameter count or architecture.

Why it matters: First-person experiment with gpt-5.6-luna and GLM 5.3, quantifying the cost drop to consumer-viable levels. Hits all three HKR axes, but the body is truncated mid-argument, so capped at 78 — right at the featured threshold.