OpenAI Readies GPT-5.6 Launch as White House Lifts Restriction Request

OpenAI will publicly launch its GPT-5.6 Sol, Terra and Luna models Thursday (July 9) after initially limiting their release at the request of the U.S. government.

The artificial intelligence company announced its plans in a Wednesday (July 8) post on X, adding that it is already expanding preview access to the models globally.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a Wednesday post on X: “GPT-5.6 Sol launches Thursday! Happy building.”

Axios reported Wednesday that OpenAI’s broader launch of the GPT-5.6 models followed its receipt of approval for the move from the White House.

OpenAI said June 26 that it previewed the GPT-5.6 models’ capabilities as part of its ongoing engagement with the government, limited the release of the models at the government’s request, and shared with the government the identities of the small group of trusted partners to which it released the models.

The company said at the time that it would continue testing and coordinating with the partners, that it would work toward releasing the models more broadly and that it planned to make the models generally available within weeks.

OpenAI described the three GPT-5.6 models as follows: Sol is the flagship model that is the company’s strongest model yet in terms of agentic capabilities in coding, biology and cybersecurity; Terra is a balanced model for everyday work that performs similarly to GPT-5.5 at half the cost; and Luna is a fast and affordable model that brings strong capability at the lowest cost offered by the company.

PYMNTS noted Monday (July 6) that Politico reported June 25 that OpenAI initially had not planned to restrict access to the general-use model but hit pause on the rollout at the White House’s request and in consultation with the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Office of the National Cyber Director.

Rival AI company Anthropic said June 30 that it would begin restoring access to its Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models after the federal government lifted export controls on the models.

Anthropic had introduced Fable 5 and Mythos 5 on June 9, saying it had developed safeguards to keep them from being misused, but announced days later that it had disabled access to the models in response to a government export control directive that cited unspecified “national security authorities.”