GPT-5.6 Terra (Low) vs gpt-oss-120b (High)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.6 Terra (Low) by OpenAI or gpt-oss-120b (High) 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-5.6 Terra (Low) scores 15.9 points higher (27.5 vs 11.6) but costs 2.9× as much to run the benchmark ($350 vs $123; both mid-range class). Pick GPT-5.6 Terra (Low) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise gpt-oss-120b (High).
| Metric | GPT-5.6 Terra (Low) | gpt-oss-120b (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 27.5 | 11.6 | −57.8% gpt-oss-120b (High) is 57.8% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $350.36 | $122.71 | −65.0% gpt-oss-120b (High) is 65.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 5.68s | 11.32s | +99.3% gpt-oss-120b (High) is 99.3% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $12.0 | $0.15 / $0.60 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
gpt-oss-120b (High) vs GPT-5.6 Terra (Low): 57.8% less intelligence, 65.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 99.3% 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-oss-120b (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Max) scores 38.10 for $122.
GPT-5.6 Terra (Low)gpt-oss-120b (High)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights 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-oss-120b · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-6-terra-low/gpt-oss-120b?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill