OpenAI says GPT-6 Astra completes tax workbook twice as fast as GPT-5.6 Sol
OpenAI reports that GPT-6 Astra completed a 50-tab tax workbook twice as fast as GPT-5.6 Sol. It says the model's stronger understanding of user intent gives Basis more confidence in real-world use.
This launch is live: new reports, reactions and numbers are added as they arrive.
How GPT-5.6 Sol compares
List prices per million tokens, context and Arena's text leaderboard, against OpenAI's other top models and the leading labs' best. The percentages are GPT-5.6 Sol's price against each.
| Model | Released | Input | Output | Context | Arena |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPT-5.6 Sol | Jul 2026 | $4.00 | $20.00 | 1M | #16 1483 |
| GPT-5.6 Terra | Jul 2026 | $2.50 +60% | $15.00 +33% | 1M | #43 1465 |
| GPT-5.6 Luna | Jul 2026 | $1.00 +300% | $6.00 +233% | 1M | #60 1454 |
| Claude Opus 5.5 | September 2026 | $4.00 | $20.00 | 1M | #1 1509 |
| Gemini 3.1 Pro | $2.00 +100% | $12.00 +67% | 2M | #14 1487 | |
| Qwen3.8 Max Prime | September 2026 | $4.00 | $12.00 +67% | 1M | not ranked yet |
Arena ranks the best effort setting of each model among all models on its text leaderboard. Every model and price.
What the sources say
Linked, never rewritten. Official means the lab itself.
Official3
openai.com· 28 Sep, 00:00Basis completes a tax workbook 2x faster with GPT-6 Astraopenai.com· 29 Sep, 10:00Introducing GPT-6.1 Solopenai.com· 29 Sep, 10:00DevDay 2026 RecapPress5
The Verge· 29 Sep, 16:00OpenAI DevDay 2026: The biggest news and announcementsThe Decoder· 29 Sep, 17:14GPT-6.1 Sol comes close to Astra at a fifth of the priceTechCrunch· 29 Sep, 17:15OpenAI launches GPT-6.1 Sol, says it nearly matches GPT-6 Astra and costs lessOpenRouter· 29 Sep, 17:28OpenAI: GPT-6.1 Sol listed on OpenRouterOpenRouter· 29 Sep, 17:28OpenAI: GPT-6.1 Sol Pro listed on OpenRouterHow it unfolded
Every source in the order it appeared. Times in UTC.
What the numbers did
Signals for OpenAI from two hours before this story to ten days after: leaderboards, app charts, usage, prices and status.