Skip to content
Articles

OpenAI Decisions API price starts at $0.10 per million uncached tokens on GPT-6 Luna

The OpenAI Decisions API charges $0.10 per million uncached input tokens. It delivers up to 10x lower latency than the Responses API for classification, routing, and scoring tasks.

Rating 4.6 22 votes
Neo-brutalist 2D illustration of OpenAI Decisions API and GPT-6 Luna pricing at ten cents

The OpenAI Decisions API price stands at $0.10 per million uncached input tokens when using GPT-6 Luna. Cached input tokens cost $0.01 per million. The endpoint launched in general availability on October 22, 2026, after a two-week beta period.

Cache writes follow standard GPT-6 Luna rates of $0.125 per million for a 30-minute window or $0.25 per million for a 12-hour window. Requests exceeding 272,000 input tokens incur a 2x multiplier on all input and cache charges. Regional processing in the US or EU adds a 10 percent premium.

OpenAI Decisions API price details and caching mechanics

Input tokens qualify for caching only when a shared prompt prefix reaches at least 1,024 tokens. Output tokens carry no separate charge. The API accepts text, base64 images or public URLs (maximum 128 images per request), and native JSON payloads. File uploads, audio, and function-calling tools remain unsupported.

Developers report typical per-request costs of $0.00004 for a 400-question batch at average prefix lengths. This pricing favors high-volume micro-decisions such as content classification or next-action scoring inside agent loops. Long-context workloads above 272K tokens double the effective rate, so teams often split prompts to stay under the threshold.

Organization tier determines rate limits. Build, Launch, and Grow plans each publish separate RPM and TPM caps for GPT-6 Luna. Usage appears in the organization endpoint but carries no Decisions-specific override. Teams should test against their current tier before scaling production traffic.

GPT-6 Luna latency limits and bounded question performance

OpenAI states the Decisions endpoint runs up to ten times faster than the same model called through the Responses API. Early adopters record median latencies of 100–180 ms and p95 values below 280 ms on Sierra and Speak workloads. Independent public benchmarks remain limited.

Neo-brutalist flat vector graphic displaying GPT-6 Luna latency metrics and 10x speed boost
GPT-6 Luna delivers 10x faster execution with median latencies between 100 and 180 ms.

Each request supports up to 400 questions, an increase from the beta limit of 200. Supported answer formats include predicate probabilities, single-choice selections with probability distributions, and score outputs weighted by rubric levels. The 1.05-million-token context window allows long shared prefixes that improve cache hit rates.

MetricDecisions APIResponses API
Input price (uncached)$0.10 / M tokens$0.125 / M tokens
Median latency100–180 ms1–2 s
Max questions per call4001
Image support128 per requestvaries
Output token charge$0standard

Zero Data Retention and HIPAA options exist for qualifying accounts. Inference residency remains restricted to US and EU regions for now. Asia capacity expansions are expected but not yet confirmed.

Bounded decision use cases and comparison with alternatives

Common production patterns include routing support tickets, scoring loan risk attributes, selecting next agent actions, and classifying user intent in voice flows via GPT-Live integration. Box, Datadog, Ramp, and internal OpenAI teams have cited reduced cost attribution overhead and faster interactive loops compared with full Responses calls.

Teams evaluating alternatives often benchmark against TypeSafe Jev, which lists lower input pricing but restricts output to text only and lacks native image handling. Direct comparison on identical workloads shows the Decisions API ahead on latency and image support while remaining competitive on price once cache hits are factored in.

Before rollout, validate cache hit rates on representative prefixes and measure p95 latency under expected concurrency. Monitor the OpenAI changelog for any future adjustments to regional premiums or context multipliers.

Frequently asked questions

What is the exact OpenAI Decisions API price for cached tokens?

Cached input tokens cost $0.01 per million. Cache writes are billed separately at GPT-6 Luna standard rates of $0.125 or $0.25 per million depending on the window length.

How many questions can one Decisions API request contain?

The limit is 400 questions per request. This doubled from the 200-question cap during the October 2026 beta.

Does the Decisions API support images?

Yes. Up to 128 images can be included per request via base64 or public URLs. Audio files and file_id references are not supported.

Are there published rate limits specific to the Decisions endpoint?

No separate Decisions limits exist. Limits follow the organization's GPT-6 Luna tier caps for RPM and TPM.

How does latency compare to the standard Responses API?

OpenAI reports up to 10x improvement. Production reports show median response times of 100–180 ms and p95 values under 280 ms.

Comments 11

Mia L
ten cents per million tokens is actually pretty cheap for the latency they promise
Tom
nice move if you need fast routing instead of full answers
Nadia
agreed, but i wish they mentioned the output token pricing too
Sara K
wonder how much caching actually saves in real workloads
jake92
will they ever publish a comparison chart against the Responses API?
Priya
this seems perfect for our tagging pipeline
Luis
i tried the same idea with claude functions last month and latency was still 3× slower
Mira Patel
does gpt-6 luna support the same system prompt length?
Dave
might be interesting to see the uncached vs cached ratio on prod traffic
Owen T
i usually pay around $1.20 on the regular endpoint for this task, so the saving is huge
Samir
do they give any guarantees on the classification accuracy or is that up to us?

Leave a comment