GPT-6.1 Terra vs. GPT-6 Astra: One sacrifices accuracy for lower cost and higher speed at high effort

OpenAI released GPT-6.1 Terra on October 26, marketing it as a cheap, fast model for high-volume everyday work, priced at a tenth of its GPT-6 Astra flagship. As the mid-priced model in its GPT-6 family, OpenAI lists Terra at $1 per million input tokens and $5 per million output tokens, a mere tenth of Astra’s $10 and $50. The AI giant also reports that Terra completes tasks more than three times faster than Astra in its Agents’ Last Exam benchmark. Those computer-use results are not directly comparable to the three tests below. Early benchmarks showed some limitations, alongside gains. Plotly reported that Terra caught three of five planted patterns in its analytics test and passed 40 of 43 questions overall.