The short version: OpenAI released GPT-6.1 Sol, a model that performs close to its most expensive model but costs one-fifth as much through the API. This is not a new chatbot. It is a price drop, and price drops are what make AI automation affordable in Kenya.
What it is good at
- Reading difficult documents — PDFs with tables and charts, which is exactly what invoices, tender documents, bank statements and government forms look like.
- Writing and debugging code.
- Multi-step business tasks rather than single questions.
- Using a computer — clicking through screens and filling in forms.
- A faster version, up to 8× quicker, is promised but not out yet.
The prices, plainly
- API: $2 per million words-in, $10 per million words-out, and only $0.10 for repeated input it has already seen.
- In shillings, roughly KSh 260 per million tokens in and KSh 1,300 per million out (at KSh 129.80/$1, 6 Oct 2026).
- In ChatGPT: available to Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu users — but inside ChatGPT Work and Codex, not yet in the ordinary chat window.
What this actually means for a Kenyan business
- That cached-input price of $0.10 is the real story. If you send the same document, price list or instruction sheet over and over — which every automation does — you are now paying almost nothing for it.
- A worked example. An automation that reads 500 supplier invoices a month and extracts the fields into a spreadsheet is a project that used to cost real money in API fees. At these rates it is a few hundred shillings a month in model costs. That changes which automations are worth building.
- If you are paying someone to build you an AI workflow, ask which model it uses. A quote built on last year’s prices is a quote built on last year’s costs.
What it does not change
- Nothing changes for a normal ChatGPT user. If you use the chat window to write captions and emails, this is not for you yet. Do not upgrade your plan over it.
- Cheaper tokens do not mean a cheaper project. Most of the cost of an AI workflow is the thinking, the testing and the fixing — not the model bill.
- API access needs a card that works internationally. Confirm that before you plan around it.
Do this today
- If you only use ChatGPT to chat: do nothing. Note the name and move on.
- If you build automations or pay someone who does: list your three most expensive AI workflows and ask what each would cost on Sol instead.
- If you have been putting off an automation because the running cost looked too high — price it again this week. The answer may have changed.
- Make the paperwork job your first target. Invoices, receipts, delivery notes, M-Pesa statements. Boring, repetitive, and now cheap to automate.
Tool link: OpenAI: Introducing GPT-6.1 Sol