GPT-6.1 Terra (Low) vs GPT-6 Astra (Max)
Which is better for the money: GPT-6.1 Terra (Low) by OpenAI or GPT-6 Astra (Max) by OpenAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-27.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-6 Astra (Max) scores 16.5 points higher (52.7 vs 36.2) but costs 46× as much to run the benchmark ($5324 vs $115; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-6 Astra (Max) when you need intelligence above 36.2, and GPT-6.1 Terra (Low) when 36.2 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-6.1 Terra (Low) | GPT-6 Astra (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 36.2 | 52.7 | +45.6% GPT-6 Astra (Max) is 45.6% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $114.52 | $5,324.10 | +4549.1% GPT-6 Astra (Max) is 46× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 6.78s | 360.54s | +5217.7% GPT-6 Astra (Max) is 5217.7% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $1.00 / $5.00 | $10.0 / $50.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-6 Astra (Max) vs GPT-6.1 Terra (Low): 45.6% more intelligence, 4549.1% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 5217.7% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-6.1 Terra (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Flash scores 37.90 for $110.
- 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-6.1 Terra (Low)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-6-1-terra-low/gpt-6-astra · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-6-1-terra-low/gpt-6-astra?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill