GPT-5.6 Terra (High) vs GPT-6 Astra (Max)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.6 Terra (High) by OpenAI or GPT-6 Astra (Max) by OpenAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-27.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-6 Astra (Max) scores 18.5 points higher (52.7 vs 34.2) but costs 6.9× as much to run the benchmark ($5324 vs $768; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-6 Astra (Max) when you need intelligence above 34.2, and GPT-5.6 Terra (High) when 34.2 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-5.6 Terra (High) | GPT-6 Astra (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 34.2 | 52.7 | +54.1% GPT-6 Astra (Max) is 54.1% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $767.78 | $5,324.10 | +593.4% GPT-6 Astra (Max) is 6.9× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 6.58s | 360.54s | +5379.3% GPT-6 Astra (Max) is 5379.3% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $12.0 | $10.0 / $50.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-6 Astra (Max) vs GPT-5.6 Terra (High): 54.1% more intelligence, 593.4% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 5379.3% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5.6 Terra (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
- GPT-6 Astra (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
GPT-5.6 Terra (High)GPT-6 Astra (Max)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-6-terra-high/gpt-6-astra · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-6-terra-high/gpt-6-astra?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill