GPT-6.1 Terra costs a tenth of Astra and got a lower score in a test

OpenAI released GPT-6.1 Terra on 26 October 2026. It costs $1 for each million input tokens and $5 for output. This is a tenth of the $10 and $50 of its flagship GPT-6 Astra. OpenAI tells that Terra does tasks three times as fast or more. A reviewer made tests of the two models on three tasks. Terra cost less and operated in less time, but it was less accurate on one task.

What is new

Terra is the model with the moderate price in the GPT-6 family, for work each day in large volume. The speed claim of OpenAI comes from its test of computer tasks. The tests of the reviewer are not equal to it.

The numbers

In the SQL test, Astra used 319.7 seconds and cost an estimated $1.65. Terra used 133.1 seconds and cost $0.079. On the totals that were not easy, Terra gave a query to operate and not an answer. Six other answers were incorrect, and Terra gave them with the same confidence as the correct answers.

What is not known

Each model operated one time, on tasks that the reviewer made. The results do not show if other tests give the same score. The costs are estimates, and the results do not tell the cause when Terra did not find some records.

Insight: Safety flags and test results differ

OpenAI gives Terra less high severity flags than some previous models in its safety report. It gives more small flags than GPT-6.1 Sol and Astra. GitHub, which has Terra in Copilot, gave no numbers for its test. Each report tests a different item. No report shows how many times Terra is incorrect with no warning, and buyers must make a test. Vendors get more when buyers compare only price and speed.