GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium) vs gpt-oss-120b (High)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium) by OpenAI or gpt-oss-120b (High) by OpenAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium) scores 18.5 points higher (30.1 vs 11.6) but costs 3.6× as much to run the benchmark ($447 vs $123; both mid-range class). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium) when you need intelligence above 11.6, and gpt-oss-120b (High) when 11.6 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium) | gpt-oss-120b (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 30.1 | 11.6 | −61.5% gpt-oss-120b (High) is 61.5% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $446.53 | $122.71 | −72.5% gpt-oss-120b (High) is 72.5% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 5.84s | 11.28s | +93.2% gpt-oss-120b (High) is 93.2% 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 (Medium): 61.5% less intelligence, 72.5% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 93.2% 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-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 (Medium)gpt-oss-120b (High)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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