GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) vs GPT-6 Astra (Medium)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) by OpenAI or GPT-6 Astra (Medium) by OpenAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Clear winner
Verdict
Pick GPT-6 Astra (Medium)
GPT-6 Astra (Medium) vs GPT-5.6 Terra (Max): 17.8% more intelligence, 2.7% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 87.6% faster end-to-end.
| Metric | GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) | GPT-6 Astra (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 42.1 | 49.6 | +17.8% GPT-6 Astra (Medium) is 17.8% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,500.72 | $2,434.12 | −2.7% GPT-6 Astra (Medium) is 2.7% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 120.44s | 14.89s | −87.6% GPT-6 Astra (Medium) is 87.6% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $12.0 | $10.0 / $50.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
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-6 Astra (Medium) 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 (Max)GPT-6 Astra (Medium)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/gpt-6-astra-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-6-terra/gpt-6-astra-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill