GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) vs GPT-5.6 Terra (Non-reasoning)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) by OpenAI or GPT-5.6 Terra (Non-reasoning) by OpenAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) scores 21.3 points higher (42.1 vs 20.8) but costs 9.8× as much to run the benchmark ($2501 vs $256; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) when you need intelligence above 20.8, and GPT-5.6 Terra (Non-reasoning) when 20.8 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) | GPT-5.6 Terra (Non-reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 42.1 | 20.8 | −50.6% GPT-5.6 Terra (Non-re… is 50.6% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,500.72 | $255.77 | −89.8% GPT-5.6 Terra (Non-re… is 89.8% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 104.98s | 5.09s | −95.2% GPT-5.6 Terra (Non-re… is 95.2% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $12.0 | $2.00 / $12.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-5.6 Terra (Non-reasoning) vs GPT-5.6 Terra (Max): 50.6% less intelligence, 89.8% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 95.2% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 53.60 for $2172.
- GPT-5.6 Terra (Non-reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
GPT-5.6 Terra (Max)GPT-5.6 Terra (Non-reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
Compare something else
Agents:
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-6-terra/gpt-5-6-terra-non-reasoning · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-6-terra/gpt-5-6-terra-non-reasoning?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill