OpenAI announced GPT-6.1 Terra on October 26, 2026, introducing a new mid-sized model priced at $1 per million input tokens and $5 per million output tokens. This release arrives 27 days after the launch of GPT-6.1 Sol. For developers and operators, the model is positioned by OpenAI as a fast, efficient tool designed to improve visual reasoning and computer use capabilities while providing more natural writing performance. Before the announcement, TestingCatalog and kie.ai described Terra as an unannounced or leaked model surfaced in Microsoft evaluation configurations with unconfirmed pricing, a status now superseded by the official announcement.
Model positioning and availability
The official announcement frames GPT-6.1 Terra as a significant step up from the GPT-5.6 Terra model. OpenAI reports that the new model offers 50% lower standard API prices compared to its predecessor. Beyond the base rates, the model supports cached input at a price of $0.05 per million tokens, a feature intended to optimize costs for recurring data processing tasks. Availability is broad, covering Plus, Pro, Enterprise, and Edu users within ChatGPT Work and Codex. Developers can access the model via the OpenAI API using the identifier gpt-6.1-terra. According to ChatGPT release notes, the rollout also includes Business plans, though the model does not currently support UAE inference residency.
The evolving price ladder
At $1 per million input tokens and $5 per million output tokens, Terra is priced at exactly half the cost of the GPT-6.1 Sol model. The current price points for these models are: GPT-6 Luna at $0.10 per million input and $0.50 per million output, GPT-6.1 Terra at $1 per million input and $5 per million output, and GPT-6.1 Sol at $2 per million input and $10 per million output. This structure provides a granular selection of performance-to-cost ratios for different agentic workloads.
Cadence and family dynamics
The release of Terra marks the third distinct name to appear in the GPT-6.1 family within a four-week window, following the introduction of Sol and the subsequent press-reported cancellation of the Astra variant. The status of GPT-6.1 Astra as a cancelled project is based on secondhand, press-reported information, including Forkast’s own DevDay coverage, and does not appear on any OpenAI primary surface. The release notes indicate that some Plus and Pro users may see GPT-6.1 Terra at Medium instead of GPT-6.1 Sol at Light in default Power presets in ChatGPT Work. This shift in default routing demonstrates how quickly the company is reconfiguring its production environment to prioritize newer model deployments.
Vendor-reported performance metrics
OpenAI has provided several vendor-reported benchmarks to illustrate the capabilities of the new model. On the Agents’ Last Exam, the company claims that Terra substantially outperforms GPT-5.6 Terra in the context of software usage at work. Furthermore, on internal error-inducing prompts, the vendor-reported error rate for Terra is 16.7% at low reasoning, compared to 53.6% for GPT-5.6 Terra. At maximum effort, the error rate drops to 4.3%, which the company notes is an 18 percentage-point drop that brings performance nearly in line with GPT-6 Astra and GPT-6.1 Sol. While these figures provide a baseline for evaluation, the retrieved evidence does not contain the exact context window size, the full list of supported modalities, or comprehensive benchmark tables.
What remains unverified
For developers and operators, the current announcement leaves several critical operational variables unconfirmed. There is no independent verification of the provided benchmark figures, nor is there a clear specification regarding the exact context window size or the full list of supported modalities. Furthermore, the absence of comprehensive benchmark tables and an official announcement timestamp complicates long-term planning. Deployers must weigh these missing technical details before pricing the model into production workflows or high-stakes agentic architectures.
Verification note: A direct HTTP fetch of the announcement URL returned an HTTP 403 error with a Cloudflare challenge at 21:26Z on October 26, 2026. Consequently, the date, pricing, and availability details were read from search-index extraction of that exact URL. These details were corroborated by the openai.com/news index entry for October 26, 2026, and by the AI Release Tracker. Retrieved TechCrunch and The Verge pages covered the September 29 DevDay and GPT-6.1 Sol, but dedicated coverage of Terra from those outlets could not be verified. No official announcement timestamp was available, so the October 26, 2026 date is provided without a specific time.