# The Decoder — GPT-6.1 Terra halves OpenAI's API prices and still gains ground on its larger models

- Company: The Decoder (the-decoder.com)
- Announced: 2026-10-26T20:30:55+00:00
- Category: new-model
- Coverage: not counted
- Announcement: yes
- Group: models
- Source: https://the-decoder.com/gpt-6-1-terra-halves-openais-api-prices-and-still-gains-ground-on-its-larger-models/
- Record: https://forck.live/items/27976-gpt-6-1-terra-halves-openai-s-api-prices-and-still-gains-ground-on-its-larger
- Subject: Reporting
- Models affected: GPT-6.1 Terra, GPT-5.6 Terra, Claude Sonnet 5.5, GPT-6.1 Sol, GPT-6 Luna, GPT-6 Astra, Claude Opus 5.5
- Pricing: Input tokens cost $1 per million, output tokens $5, compared to $2 and $10 for Claude Sonnet 5.5 and $2 and $12 for GPT-5.6 Terra. Cached inputs drop to just $0.05 per million tokens, a quarter of the previous rate.

OpenAI released GPT-6.1 Terra, a mid-range model it says pushes the cost-to-performance boundary further than any predecessor, at half the API price of GPT-5.6 Terra. Input tokens cost $1 per million and output tokens $5, against $2 and $10 for Claude Sonnet 5.5 and $2 and $12 for GPT-5.6 Terra, with cached inputs at $0.05 per million, a quarter of the previous rate. OpenAI says the model combines fast visual reasoning with precise computer control and a more natural writing style, targeting everyday work from drafting proposals to interpreting technical drawings and filling out forms. It is available now for Plus, Pro, Enterprise and Edu users in ChatGPT Work and Codex, and through the API. Artificial Analysis calls it a new benchmark for intelligence per dollar: at maximum reasoning effort it gains 6 points on the Intelligence Index over GPT-5.6 Terra while costing less than a third per task, $0.40 versus $1.40. On the private AA-Omniscience benchmark the model guesses only 38 percent of the time when it lacks the answer, down from 88 percent for GPT-5.6 Terra. OpenAI says Terra finishes more than three times faster than GPT-6 Astra and GPT-6.1 Sol, and on Terminal-Bench 4.0 it solves 50.3 percent of tasks at maximum effort, up from 21.5 percent. For the most demanding coding tasks, OpenAI still recommends GPT-6.1 Sol and GPT-6 Astra.

## Evidence

Verbatim from https://the-decoder.com/gpt-6-1-terra-halves-openais-api-prices-and-still-gains-ground-on-its-larger-models/:

> OpenAI has released GPT-6.1 Terra, a new mid-range AI model at half the API price of its predecessor.
> 
> OpenAI built the model for office tasks and automated software control.
> 
> Benchmarks show a sharply better price-to-performance ratio and fewer hallucinations.
> 
> OpenAI has released GPT-6.1 Terra, a model it says pushes the cost-to-performance boundary further than any of its predecessors. API prices are half those of GPT-5.6 Terra.
> 
> Terra is OpenAI's closest competitor to Anthropic's mid-tier Sonnet series at half the price. Input tokens cost $1 per million, output tokens $5, compared to $2 and $10 for Claude Sonnet 5.5 and $2 and $12 for GPT-5.6 Terra. Cached inputs drop to just $0.05 per million tokens, a quarter of the previous rate.
> 
> According to OpenAI , the model combines fast visual reasoning with precise computer control and a more natural writing style, targeting everyday work tasks from drafting proposals to interpreting technical drawings to filling out forms. GPT-6.1 Terra is available now for Plus, Pro, Enterprise, and Edu users in ChatGPT Work and Codex, as well as through the API. Ad
> 
> Analysts say cost efficiency has hit a new high

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Record: https://forck.live/items/27976-gpt-6-1-terra-halves-openai-s-api-prices-and-still-gains-ground-on-its-larger
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