# Pi 0.80.6: max thinking level and input-based pricing tiers

> Adds an opt-in `max` thinking level above `xhigh` (natively supported on GPT-5.6 and adaptive Claude models) across CLI, SDK, RPC, and model selection, plus request-wide input-token pricing tiers for accurate long-context cost accounting, configurable for custom models. Notable for builders tracking long-context costs or wanting more reasoning headroom.

| | |
|---|---|
| **Tool** | Pi |
| **Version** | v0.80.6 |
| **Kind** | release |
| **Published** | 2026-07-09 |
| **Observed** | 2026-08-21 |
| **Significance** | 3/5 |
| **Breaking** | no |
| **Categories** | feature, capability, pricing, fix, model-support |

## What changed


- New opt-in `max` thinking level above `xhigh`; supported natively on GPT-5.6 and adaptive Claude models; available via CLI (`--thinking max`), SDK, RPC, and model selection. Custom themes can define `thinkingMax`, falling back to `thinkingXhigh`.
- Request-wide input-token pricing tiers for accurate long-context cost accounting (e.g. GPT-5.4/5.5/5.6 long-context rates); configurable for custom models in `models.json` and `modelOverrides`.
- Added `~` (home directory) expansion for the `shellPath` setting.
- Fixed inherited post-compaction output-token budgeting ignoring stale pre-compaction assistant usage.
- Fixed GPT-5.4/5.5 long-context cost accounting while keeping the intentional 272K default context limit.
- Fixed GPT-5.6 metadata (272K short-context tier for direct OpenAI requests, 372K via Codex backend with long-context pricing) and removed the nonexistent bare `gpt-5.6` alias.
- Fixed Anthropic message conversion to preserve thinking blocks with empty thinking text but a valid signature.


## Sources

- [github_release](https://github.com/earendil-works/pi/releases/tag/v0.80.6) — retrieved 2026-08-21


## Community

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Canonical: https://changelogs.info/pi/v0-80-6
Entity: https://changelogs.info/pi
Event ID: `evt_2026-07-09_pi_v0-80-6`
Licence: event synthesis © changelogs.info, CC BY 4.0. Linked sources belong to their vendors.