GPT-5 mini (High) vs GPT-6 Astra (Max)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5 mini (High) by OpenAI or GPT-6 Astra (Max) by OpenAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-6 Astra (Max) scores 35.9 points higher (52.7 vs 16.8) but costs 28× as much to run the benchmark ($5324 vs $189; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-6 Astra (Max) when you need intelligence above 16.8, and GPT-5 mini (High) when 16.8 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-5 mini (High) | GPT-6 Astra (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 16.8 | 52.7 | +213.7% GPT-6 Astra (Max) is 3.1× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $188.66 | $5,324.10 | +2722.1% GPT-6 Astra (Max) is 28× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 60.90s | 285.78s | +369.3% GPT-6 Astra (Max) is 369.3% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.25 / $2.00 | $10.0 / $50.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-6 Astra (Max) vs GPT-5 mini (High): 213.7% more intelligence, 2722.1% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 369.3% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5 mini (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Haiku 5.5 (Xhigh) scores 41.20 for $158.
- 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 mini (High)GPT-6 Astra (Max)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-mini/gpt-6-astra · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-mini/gpt-6-astra?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill