By the toolist.ai editors. Researched from public sources, not hands-on tested by toolist.ai. Updated October 27, 2026; prices checked October 21, 2026.

GPT-6.1 Terra vs GPT-6 Astra

Verdict

Pick GPT-6.1 Terra for most work. It costs a tenth of GPT-6 Astra per token ($1 and $5 per million against $10 and $50), and it is faster, at 91.0 against 59.0 output tokens a second at medium effort. Astra scores higher: 57 against 51 on the Intelligence Index at max effort, and 51 against 38 at medium effort.

Verdict based on published prices, limits and benchmarks, not on our own tests.

Choose GPT-6.1 Terra if

  • Cost matters most: Terra's $1 and $5 per million tokens against Astra's $10 and $50
  • You want speed: 91.0 against 59.0 output tokens a second at medium effort
  • You build visual or computer-use work, which OpenAI says Terra is built for

Choose GPT-6 Astra if

  • You want the top model in the GPT-6 line, which OpenAI's guide calls its highest-intelligence model
  • Your work is the hardest reasoning: the gap is 13 points at medium effort (51 against 38) and 6 at max (57 against 51)

Price

Input costs 10 times as much on GPT-6 Astra as on GPT-6.1 Terra. Output costs 10 times as much on GPT-6 Astra as on GPT-6.1 Terra.

Per million tokensGPT-6.1 TerraGPT-6 Astra
Input$1 source$10 source
Cached input$0.05 source$1 source
Output$5 source$50 source

GPT-6.1 Terra: Prompts over 272,000 input tokens cost twice the input and cache rates and 1.5 times the output rate for the whole request. Batch and Flex cost half; Fast mode costs double. Cache writes cost $1.25 per million tokens with 30-minute retention and $2.50 with 12-hour retention.

GPT-6 Astra: Prompts over 272,000 input tokens are billed at twice the input rate and 1.5 times the output rate for the whole request. Batch and Flex cost half; Fast mode costs double and Ultrafast six times.

Worked example: what a month costs

We priced three monthly workloads at the standard rates. The provider does not publish these figures.

WorkloadGPT-6.1 TerraGPT-6 Astra
Support chatbot
100,000 replies, each 3,000 input and 400 output tokens, no caching (300M in, 40M out)		 $500$5,000
Document Q&A
5,000 questions over the same 60,000-token document set (90% cache hits), 800 output tokens each (300M in, 4M out)		 $63.50$770
Coding agent
200 tasks, each 1.5 million input tokens (90% cache hits) and 50,000 output tokens (300M in, 10M out)		 $93.50$1,070

Price your own workload

ModelCost a month
GPT-6.1 Terra $75.00
GPT-6 Astra $750

Standard API prices, no batch or priority discounts. Cached input is billed at the cache-read price; cache-write charges are not included. Reasoning models bill their thinking as output tokens.

Limits and release dates

GPT-6.1 TerraGPT-6 Astra
ReleasedOctober 26, 2026 sourceSeptember 3, 2026 source
Context window1,050,000 tokens source1,050,000 tokens source
Maximum output128,000 tokens source128,000 tokens source
Knowledge cutoffJune 1, 2026 sourceApril 30, 2026 source
Input and outputText and images in; text out sourceText and images in; text out source
API model namegpt-6.1-terragpt-6-astra

Benchmarks

Scores as published by the provider or measured by Artificial Analysis; higher is better. A dash means no score was published.

BenchmarkGPT-6.1 TerraGPT-6 Astra
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index
max effort		 51.0 source57.0 source
Intelligence Index at everyday effort 38.0 (medium effort, the API default) source51.0 (medium effort; OpenAI publishes no default) source
Terminal-Bench 4.0 –59.0% (max effort) source
HLE-Diamond –64.0% (max effort) source
Terminal-Bench-Science 0.1 –63.0% (max effort) source
Output speed 91 tokens/s (medium effort, Artificial Analysis) source59 tokens/s (medium effort, Artificial Analysis) source

Benchmark and speed data from Artificial Analysis where linked.

Read more

Sources