OpenAI GPT-6.1 Terra: Cheaper Visual Reasoning, Computer Use, and Coding at Half the API Price
OpenAI announced GPT-6.1 Terra on October 26, 2026, a fast, efficient model that pairs detailed visual reasoning and precise computer use with what OpenAI describes as clearer, more natural writing. The headline reason it matters: Terra is positioned at the cost-intelligence frontier of OpenAI's model families, with standard API prices 50% lower than GPT-5.6 Terra and GPT-6.1 Sol, while scoring 15 percentage points higher than GPT-5.6 Terra on a professional computer-use benchmark at roughly one-third the cost.
Key facts at a glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Model | GPT-6.1 Terra |
| Announced | October 26, 2026 |
| Predecessor | GPT-5.6 Terra |
| API model name | gpt-6.1-terra |
| Standard input price | $1 per million tokens |
| Cached input price | $0.05 per million tokens |
| Output price | $5 per million tokens |
| Price vs. prior tier | 50% lower than GPT-5.6 Terra and GPT-6.1 Sol |
| ChatGPT availability | Plus, Pro, Enterprise, and Edu users in ChatGPT Work and Codex |
GPT-6.1 Terra is a cost-intelligence play, not a frontier-capability play
OpenAI frames GPT-6.1 Terra as an advance on the cost-intelligence frontier across its model families, delivering a new balance of speed, capability, and cost rather than a new ceiling on capability. Terra is described as a significant step up from GPT-5.6 Terra for the communication and computer-based tasks that fill a workday: drafting proposals, interpreting technical drawings, filling out forms, and editing videos.
The model's standard API prices are 50% lower than those of GPT-5.6 Terra and GPT-6.1 Sol. OpenAI states this makes it practical for developers to automate high-volume work, giving the example of reading incoming invoices and entering their details into accounting software.
In ChatGPT Work and Codex, OpenAI says a user's plan goes further with GPT-6.1 Terra: the same usage allowance covers more tasks than with GPT-5.6 Terra and substantially more than with GPT-6.1 Sol or GPT-6 Astra.
Computer use and visual reasoning: Terra closes most of the gap to OpenAI's frontier models at a fraction of the cost
OpenAI reports that GPT-6.1 Terra delivers computer-use and visual-reasoning results near its most capable models while costing far less per task. The evidence comes from three named benchmarks.
Agents' Last Exam (professional computer-use tasks)
Agents' Last Exam is described as a benchmark of professional tasks, including turning architectural drawings into a 3D model and reviewing an animated film shot by shot to create a time-coded log for a restoration team.
- At medium reasoning effort, GPT-6.1 Terra scores 15 percentage points higher than GPT-5.6 Terra at about one-third the cost.
- Terra performs on par with GPT-6 Astra at only one-tenth its price per token.
- At max effort, Terra is over three times as token efficient as Claude Opus 5.5 and one-fourth its price per token, producing a ~9x lower cost per task.
- Terra is also over three times faster than both GPT-6 Astra and GPT-6.1 Sol at completing tasks.
MMMU-Pro (visual reasoning)
On MMMU-Pro, GPT-6.1 Terra outperforms GPT-5.6 Terra at every reasoning setting. OpenAI states Terra nearly matches the scores of its most capable frontier model, GPT-6 Astra, and of GPT-6.1 Sol, at much lower cost.
OSWorld 2.1 (desktop app agents)
OSWorld 2.1 tests how well AI agents use desktop applications to complete multistep tasks, such as building a 3D model from a technical drawing. At medium reasoning effort, GPT-6.1 Terra surpasses GPT-5.6 Terra's best score at a fraction of the cost per task.
Factuality: the error rate on error-inducing prompts drops sharply
OpenAI states it has invested heavily in reducing hallucinations and factual errors this year, and reports substantial gains from GPT-5.6 Terra to GPT-6.1 Terra on its internal benchmark of error-inducing prompts.
- At low reasoning effort, the error rate fell from 53.6% with GPT-5.6 Terra to 16.7% with GPT-6.1 Terra, a drop of nearly 37 percentage points.
- At maximum effort, the error rate fell by 18 percentage points to 4.3%, nearly matching the rates for GPT-6 Astra and GPT-6.1 Sol.
Coding: Terminal-Bench 4.0 more than doubles the predecessor's score
GPT-6.1 Terra marks a substantial improvement over GPT-5.6 Terra for software engineering, according to OpenAI's evaluations.
Terminal-Bench 4.0 tests how well coding agents solve problems from the command line, such as fixing a webpage whose layout shifts as it loads. At maximum reasoning effort, GPT-6.1 Terra solves 50.3% of tasks, more than double GPT-5.6 Terra's published score of 21.5%.
OpenAI adds an important boundary condition: for the most complex coding tasks, GPT-6.1 Sol and GPT-6 Astra remain the better choice.
Terminal-Bench-Science 0.1 tests how well agents use code to carry out scientific research tasks, such as tracking cell divisions in a time-lapse video. At max reasoning, GPT-6.1 Terra surpasses GPT-6.1 Sol at lower cost and comes within five points of Claude Opus 5.5 at less than one-fifth the estimated cost.
Safety and alignment: GPT-6 series alignment improvements carry over
GPT-6.1 Terra meets the Critical threshold in cybersecurity under OpenAI's Preparedness Framework and maintains the protections developed for GPT-6 Astra.
OpenAI states that GPT-6.1 Terra brings the alignment improvements of the GPT-6 series. According to its evaluations, Terra is more likely to stay within scope and to honestly disclose limitations and potential blockers to the user compared with GPT-5.6 Terra. In OpenAI's prompt-injection tests, GPT-6.1 Terra also showed strong resistance to malicious instructions designed to divert it from the user's task. OpenAI points to the system card at deploymentsafety.openai.com/gpt-6-1-terra for more detail.
Pricing and availability: available today in ChatGPT Work, Codex, and the API
Starting today, GPT-6.1 Terra is available to all Plus, Pro, Enterprise, and Edu users in ChatGPT Work and Codex. Developers can access it through the OpenAI API as gpt-6.1-terra.
Standard API pricing is $1 per million input tokens, $0.05 per million cached input tokens, and $5 per million output tokens.
What OpenAI's positioning implies
OpenAI places GPT-6.1 Terra in a tier below GPT-6 Astra and GPT-6.1 Sol on the hardest problems while claiming near-parity on several evaluated tasks. The explicit guidance is that for the most complex coding tasks, GPT-6.1 Sol and GPT-6 Astra remain the better choice, whereas Terra is aimed at high-volume automation and day-to-day communication and computer-based work.
The stated pattern across OpenAI's reported numbers is that Terra's advantage compounds as cost enters the picture: parity or near-parity on Agents' Last Exam, MMMU-Pro, and factuality at maximum effort, combined with large reported reductions in cost per task and time per task. Quantitatively, OpenAI reports a 15-percentage-point Agents' Last Exam gain at about one-third the cost, on-par Agents' Last Exam performance with GPT-6 Astra at one-tenth the price per token, and a ~9x lower cost per task versus Claude Opus 5.5 at max effort.
All figures in this article come from OpenAI's announcement post. No third-party verification, independent benchmark runs, or user reports are included in the source material.
Sources
- OriginalIntroducing GPT-6.1 Terra