Hi everyone,
OpenAI has just confirmed that GPT‑5.6 (Sol, Terra, and Luna) will be publicly released this Thursday, July 9. The US Department of Commerce has approved wider deployment, and OpenAI is expanding preview access globally.
As a reminder, the three variants are:
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Sol – flagship, for complex reasoning, research, and full‑stack development
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Terra – balanced, offering performance close to GPT‑5.5 at 2× lower cost
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Luna – lightweight, optimised for speed and cost‑efficiency
Now that the gates are opening, I’d like to ask the Cursor team (or anyone with insider knowledge) a few practical questions for us Legacy users:
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Will we need Max Mode to manually select any GPT‑5.6 model?
I recall that Legacy users have to use Max Mode (and pay per token) to manually pick frontier models. Does this rule still apply to GPT‑5.6, even after the public release? -
Will Auto mode automatically include GPT‑5.6 in its routing pool?
The team previously mentioned that Auto mode continuously updates its model pool and introduces new models when older ones are retired. Will Legacy users see GPT‑5.6 via Auto mode without extra cost? -
Could the three variants have different access tiers?
Since Sol, Terra, and Luna have very different cost profiles, is there a possibility that the cheaper variants (e.g., Luna or Terra) might be made available for manual selection to Legacy users, while Sol remains behind Max Mode? -
What happens when GPT‑5.5 is phased out?
If GPT‑5.6 requires Max Mode and GPT‑5.5 is gradually deprecated, will Legacy users be left without a suitable default model? Is there a migration plan?
It would be great to get some official clarity on these points ahead of the release. Also, feel free to share your own thoughts and expectations below.
Thanks in advance!