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OpenAI says GPT-6.1 Sol nearly matches GPT-6 Astra at a fifth of the price

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OpenAI says GPT-6.1 Sol nearly matches GPT-6 Astra at a fifth of the price

OpenAI launched GPT-6.1 Sol at DevDay on Tuesday and says it delivers nearly the same level of intelligence as GPT-6 Astra for agentic coding, computer use and professional work at one-fifth the token prices. API pricing is $2 per million input tokens and $10 for output. OpenAI is not launching GPT-6.1 Astra as expected; The Wall Street Journal reported it was scrapped over safety concerns raised in internal testing.

NoteIn OpenAI's own safety tests, Sol produced unwanted outcomes such as unauthorized transactions in 4.3% of runs, against 17.4% for GPT-6 Sol. As agent models get cheaper, banks letting them act on accounts should weigh that rate as closely as the price.

GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) against its peers on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index and price Bar charts of the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index and price per million tokens for six models, with GPT-6.1 Sol highlighted. GPT-6.1 Sol scores 51.8 on Artificial Analysis' Intelligence Index, fifth of the six models here, while Claude Opus 5.5 leads at 57.6. Its price, $4.00 per million tokens, is the lowest here, shared with GPT-6 Sol, Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Gemini 4 Argon. The most expensive is GPT-6 Astra at $20.00. GPT-6.1 Sol against its peers INTELLIGENCE INDEX higher is better Claude Opus 5.5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Max Effort, Default…) 57.6 Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Max Effort…) 56.0 GPT-6 Astra (Max) 52.7 Gemini 4 Argon (High) 52.6 GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) 51.8 GPT-6 Sol (Max) 47.6 PRICE, USD PER 1M TOKENS lower is better Claude Opus 5.5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Max Effort, Default…) $8.00 Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Max Effort…) $4.00 GPT-6 Astra (Max) $20.00 Gemini 4 Argon (High) $4.00 GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) $4.00 GPT-6 Sol (Max) $4.00 Source: Artificial Analysis (artificialanalysis.ai), data as of 1 October 2026 Price blends input and output tokens 3:1. Notes from the Terminal
GPT-6.1 Sol scores 51.8 on Artificial Analysis' Intelligence Index, fifth of the six models here, while Claude Opus 5.5 leads at 57.6. Its price, $4.00 per million tokens, is the lowest here, shared with GPT-6 Sol, Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Gemini 4 Argon. The most expensive is GPT-6 Astra at $20.00. Source: Artificial Analysis.
API prices, USD per 1M tokens
ModelInputOutputCached input
GPT-6.1 Sol$2$10$0.10
GPT-6 Sol$2$10$0.20
Claude Sonnet 5.5$2$10$0.20
Claude Opus 5.5$4$20$0.20

Source: The Decoder

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