OpenAI's mid-tier model posts a median task cost of $0.62, making a case that cheaper can still be competitive
OpenAI’s GPT-6.1 Terra, running at its Max setting, has placed #8 in Agent Arena. It posted a 10.6% net improvement and a median task cost of $0.62.
What the numbers show
Agent Arena ranks AI models on agentic work. These are tasks where the model acts on a user’s behalf rather than simply answering questions. Terra (Max) came in eighth overall.
The 10.6% net improvement is the headline metric from the ranking. Next to it sits the cost figure: a median of $0.62 per task.
Broader evaluations put Terra’s median task costs between $0.40 and $0.62. The Agent Arena result sits at the top of that range. That fits a Max configuration, which trades extra compute for better output.
The model has posted solid scores elsewhere as well. On Terminal-Bench 4.0 it scored 50.3%, compared with 21.5% for its predecessor, GPT-5.6 Terra, at maximum effort.
Terra (Max) also achieved a 60% pass rate on the Agents’ Last Exam at max effort. It scored around 74% on OSWorld, a benchmark that measures how well a model can operate a computer the way a person would.
Where Terra fits in the GPT-6 family
OpenAI released GPT-6.1 Terra on October 26, 2026. The company designed it for cost-efficient visual reasoning, agentic tasks, and natural writing.
The target use cases include clicking through screens, filling out forms, processing invoices, and handling documents.
API pricing comes in at $1 per million input tokens and $5 per million output tokens. That makes it approximately 50% more affordable than its closest counterparts, GPT-6.1 Sol and GPT-5.6 Terra.
The model also reportedly completes tasks more than three times faster than its more expensive siblings.
Terra is available through ChatGPT Work, Codex, and the API under the model ID gpt-6.1-terra. It is not accessible through the standard ChatGPT chat interface.
It also ships with a context window of 1.05 million tokens.
Within OpenAI’s GPT-6 series, Terra occupies the middle of the menu. Sol and Astra sit above it as the high-performance models. Luna sits below as the lighter option.
