GPT-5.6 Terra (Low) vs GPT-5 mini (High)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.6 Terra (Low) by OpenAI or GPT-5 mini (High) by OpenAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-5.6 Terra (Low) scores 10.7 points higher (27.5 vs 16.8) but costs 1.9× as much to run the benchmark ($350 vs $189; both mid-range class). Pick GPT-5.6 Terra (Low) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise GPT-5 mini (High).
| Metric | GPT-5.6 Terra (Low) | GPT-5 mini (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 27.5 | 16.8 | −38.9% GPT-5 mini (High) is 38.9% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $350.36 | $188.66 | −46.2% GPT-5 mini (High) is 46.2% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 5.75s | 67.32s | +1070.8% GPT-5 mini (High) is 1070.8% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $12.0 | $0.25 / $2.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-5 mini (High) vs GPT-5.6 Terra (Low): 38.9% less intelligence, 46.2% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 1070.8% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5.6 Terra (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
- GPT-5 mini (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Haiku 5.5 (Xhigh) scores 41.20 for $158.
GPT-5.6 Terra (Low)GPT-5 mini (High)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-low/gpt-5-mini · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-6-terra-low/gpt-5-mini?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill