GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium) vs GPT-6 Astra (Max)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium) by OpenAI or GPT-6 Astra (Max) by OpenAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-6 Astra (Max) scores 22.6 points higher (52.7 vs 30.1) but costs 12× as much to run the benchmark ($5324 vs $447; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-6 Astra (Max) when you need intelligence above 30.1, and GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium) when 30.1 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium) | GPT-6 Astra (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 30.1 | 52.7 | +75.1% GPT-6 Astra (Max) is 75.1% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $446.53 | $5,324.10 | +1092.3% GPT-6 Astra (Max) is 12× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 5.88s | 328.93s | +5494.0% GPT-6 Astra (Max) is 5494.0% 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 (Medium): 75.1% more intelligence, 1092.3% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 5494.0% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
- 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 (Medium)GPT-6 Astra (Max)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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