OpenAI Says GPT-6.1 Terra Matches Astra at a Tenth the Price

OpenAI released GPT-6.1 Terra on 26 October 2026 and said the model performs on par with GPT-6 Astra on Agents’ Last Exam, a test of how well agents use software at work, at one-tenth Astra’s price per token. OpenAI set standard API pricing at $1 per million input tokens and $5 per million output tokens.

OpenAI said Terra’s standard API prices are 50% lower than those of GPT-5.6 Terra and GPT-6.1 Sol. The model is rolling out to Plus, Pro, Enterprise and Edu users in ChatGPT Work and Codex, and to developers through the API as gpt-6.1-terra, OpenAI said in its announcement and on X.

Business Pill · BENCHMARKS

A short Business Engineer explainer on benchmarks: why a test score is not your own result. It teaches the general idea only and says nothing about OpenAI or GPT-6.1 Terra.

What OpenAI Launched

OpenAI described GPT-6.1 Terra as “a fast, efficient model that combines detailed visual reasoning and precise computer use alongside clearer, more natural writing.” Its examples range from drafting proposals and interpreting technical drawings to filling out forms and editing videos.

OpenAI’s model page lists a 1,050,000-token context window, 128,000 maximum output tokens and a 1 June 2026 knowledge cutoff. It takes text and image input and returns text, and tool calling requires the Responses API.

Standard API list price per 1M tokens. Source: OpenAI API model pages, read 26 October 2026. Prompts over 272K input tokens cost more; Batch and Flex prices are 50% lower.

What Was Posted on X

OpenAI’s own post on X, 26 October 2026: it says GPT-6.1 Terra substantially outperforms GPT-5.6 Terra on Agents’ Last Exam, matches GPT-6 Astra at one-tenth the price per token, and finishes tasks over three times faster on average than Astra and GPT-6.1 Sol. These are OpenAI’s own results.

OpenAI president Greg Brockman said computer use with Terra has crossed a qualitative threshold where it feels faster at using a computer than what he can do unassisted. The speed comparison is his own impression, not an OpenAI benchmark.

Bindu Reddy, CEO of Abacus AI, posted that GPT-6.1 Terra is the cheapest frontier model per task, comparable to Argon and Sonnet in total score and very good at browser use, and called it a good fit for personal agents.

What OpenAI Says It Scores

On Agents’ Last Exam at medium reasoning effort, OpenAI said, GPT-6.1 Terra scores 15 percentage points higher than GPT-5.6 Terra at about one-third the cost. OpenAI said Terra also completes tasks over three times faster than both GPT-6 Astra and GPT-6.1 Sol.

At max effort, OpenAI said, Terra is over three times as token efficient as Claude Opus 5.5 and one-fourth its price per token, “resulting in a ~9x lower cost per task.” On Terminal-Bench 4.0 at maximum reasoning effort, OpenAI said, Terra solves 50.3% of tasks, more than double GPT-5.6 Terra’s published score of 21.5%.

OpenAI said the error rate on its internal benchmark of error-inducing prompts fell from 53.6% with GPT-5.6 Terra to 16.7% at low reasoning effort. It added: “For the most complex coding tasks, GPT-6.1 Sol and GPT-6 Astra remain the better choice.”

Safety Rating

OpenAI said GPT-6.1 Terra meets the Critical threshold in cybersecurity under its Preparedness Framework and keeps the protections developed for GPT-6 Astra. It said Terra showed strong resistance to malicious instructions in its prompt-injection tests, and pointed to the model’s system card for more detail.

Connecting the Coverage

Earlier on 26 October we reported that Anthropic cut task costs up to 45% and says margins held, from its S-1. We covered OpenAI’s last Terra generation in our GPT-5.6 Sol, Terra and Luna launch piece, and its Sol pricing in GPT-6.1 Sol’s cached-read price change. For how OpenAI makes money, see our OpenAI business model breakdown.

The Structural Read

As we read it, the comparison OpenAI chose is with Anthropic: its announcement puts Terra at about a ninth of Claude Opus 5.5’s cost per task at max effort, on the same day we reported that Anthropic’s S-1 describes task-cost cuts of up to 45%.

As we read it, OpenAI is also steering buyers between its own models: it says Sol and Astra remain the better choice for the most complex coding tasks, while Terra is pitched for high-volume work such as reading invoices.

As we read it, every performance figure here is OpenAI’s own, published with the launch, so the claims are a starting point for buyers to test rather than a settled result.

Three Implications

FOR DEVELOPERS OpenAI’s model page lists $1 per million input tokens and $5 per million output tokens, with Batch and Flex 50% lower and prompts over 272K input tokens priced higher.

FOR CHATGPT WORK AND CODEX USERS OpenAI says the same usage allowance covers more tasks with GPT-6.1 Terra than with GPT-5.6 Terra, and substantially more than with GPT-6.1 Sol or GPT-6 Astra.

FOR SECURITY TEAMS OpenAI says Terra meets the Critical threshold in cybersecurity under its Preparedness Framework and keeps the protections developed for GPT-6 Astra.

The Business Engineer Lens

This story maps onto the Business Engineer framework The CFO’s Guide to the Token Economy.

The framework puts it this way: “The reason cheaper tokens produce bigger bills is structural.”

As we read it, Terra is a test of that idea: OpenAI says Terra costs less per task, and a lower price per task can lead buyers to run more tasks. The framework was published in June 2026 and does not discuss GPT-6.1 Terra.

What Is Not Established

All benchmark results in this piece are OpenAI’s own and were published with the launch; we have not seen independent results yet. OpenAI says Terra performs on par with Astra on Agents’ Last Exam, not on every test, and it says Sol and Astra remain the better choice for the most complex coding tasks.

The Bottom Line

OpenAI said GPT-6.1 Terra performs on par with GPT-6 Astra on Agents’ Last Exam at one-tenth Astra’s price per token, and priced it at $1 per million input tokens and $5 per million output tokens, which OpenAI says is 50% below GPT-5.6 Terra and GPT-6.1 Sol. It is rolling out in ChatGPT Work, Codex and the API.