OpenAI releases GPT-6.1 Terra, focusing on low-cost computer operation capabilities

On the same day Anthropic officially publicly filed its IPO prospectus, OpenAI released the new model GPT-6.1 Terra.

This is the first update to the Terra series in over three months, and 27 days have passed since the release of GPT-6.1 Sol on September 29. In its official promotion, OpenAI emphasized: "Fast and powerful computer operation capabilities at a lower price."

But netizens didn't seem to buy it.

"Buddy, what we need is a model stronger than Opus 5.5. Nobody cares whether it's faster or cheaper."

This netizen said bluntly that he has almost stopped using the Codex subscription service because it is really of little use now.

For a while now, Anthropic has gained a lot of attention in areas such as programming with Claude Opus 5.5. Many users were expecting OpenAI to come out with a powerful model capable of going head-to-head, but what they got was a mid-range model focused on cost-effectiveness.

It's hard not to be disappointed.

"Nothing Special"

GPT-6.1 Terra's API price is $1 per million input tokens, $0.05 for cached input tokens, and $5 for output tokens, down 50% and about 58% respectively for input and output compared with the previous generation, and only half that of GPT-6.1 Sol.

According to data published by OpenAI, Terra has significantly improved over the previous generation in areas such as programming, visual understanding, and computer operation.

In the Terminal-Bench 4.0 test, which measures the capabilities of AI programming agents, Terra's task completion rate rose from 21.5% in the previous generation to 50.3%.

In the Agents' Last Exam test, Terra scored 60.0%, close to Claude Opus 5.5's 63.2%.

OpenAI particularly emphasized that at the highest reasoning tier of this computer operation test, Terra can achieve close results at about one-ninth of Opus 5.5's task cost.

But in third-party evaluations, 6.1 Terra's performance is not particularly outstanding.

According to tests by independent AI evaluation agency Artificial Analysis, at the highest reasoning tier, Terra's intelligence index is 48 points, 6 points higher than the previous generation, but still lower than GPT-6.1 Sol's 52 points, and even further behind Claude Opus 5.5's 58 points.

Relatively speaking, the improvement in cost efficiency is more obvious.

Artificial Analysis found that in its comprehensive intelligence evaluation, Terra's average cost to complete a single task dropped from $1.40 to $0.40, a decrease of more than 70%.

If you have to put it that way, 6.1 Terra is probably a "middle-of-the-road" model. The price is neither high nor low, and the capability is neither good nor bad, and it has indeed improved compared with the previous generation. But it doesn't even surpass OpenAI's own Sol, let alone match Opus 5.5.

For developers who need to call models at low cost, this may be good news.

But for users waiting for OpenAI to deliver its next strongest model, they will probably only have one comment: Is that it?

Currently, Terra is available through the API, and Plus, Pro, Enterprise, and Edu users can also use it in ChatGPT Work and Codex. But for now it cannot be invoked in ordinary Chat conversations.

Beyond the Benchmarks

GPT-6.1 Terra has also been included in OpenAI's 28-day continuous update plan, becoming the first new model released during this period.

Tibo said this is OpenAI's first model to make significant progress in writing, model personality, and nuanced understanding of user needs.

He also emphasized that the new model performs well in all aspects, especially in computer operation, and can provide twice the usage amount compared with GPT-6.1 Sol in API and subscription services.

However, for the writing, personality, and nuanced understanding capabilities that Tibo particularly emphasized, there is still a lack of sufficient public evidence.

OpenAI's official release indeed claims that Terra can generate clearer and more natural text, but it did not provide special comparative tests for the above three capabilities, nor did it show evaluation results sufficient to prove significant progress.

Whether it really writes better and understands users better will probably have to wait for feedback after actual use.

The improvement in computer operation is relatively intuitive. In the promotional video, OpenAI demonstrated Terra's ability to create 3D models based on images.

But a promotional video is, after all, a promotional video.

OpenAI's official release also mentioned that the benchmarks Terra participated in include tasks such as creating 3D models from architectural drawings, checking animations frame by frame and organizing time codes. According to the official product positioning, it is also suitable for daily work such as filling out forms and matching product photos with catalog entries.

Altman said on X: "GPT-6.1 Terra is here! It's good at many things, but we're especially looking forward to this new era of computer operation."

In addition to executing tasks, OpenAI also emphasized improvements in model reliability.

In the official specially designed high-difficulty factual test, at the low reasoning tier, Terra's factual error rate dropped from 53.6% in the previous generation to 16.7%; at the highest reasoning tier, the error rate further dropped to 4.3%.

Of course, these numbers come from OpenAI's internal tests.

Netizens: Can't Understand It

Compared with OpenAI's official excitement, netizens' attitudes were not so polite.

"Is there any reason to choose this instead of Opus 5.5?"

Some netizens directly questioned OpenAI, saying that what they really need is a frontier model stronger than GPT-6 Astra.

Some netizens also questioned why the official side did not provide more benchmarks, since in the past didn't they just throw out a table directly?

In addition, some netizens said they had already tried the new model, and its computer operation capability was even worse than 6.1 Sol, and its speed was not as fast as advertised.

"What we need is a better product, not this useless thing."

Similar dissatisfaction also appeared in the Reddit community.

In r/codex, a netizen directly posted, describing this release as "basically advertising for Claude."

Some also felt that Terra's awkwardness lies in its positioning. One netizen pointed out that Terra's API price is 10 times that of Luna.

If pursuing the lowest cost, Luna can be used; if a stronger model is needed, choosing Sol seems more reasonable.

Even OpenAI's naming method was criticized. Because the release times of models at different tiers are not uniform, and the performance of different models on some tasks overlaps, some users are already confused about how to choose among Terra, Sol, and Astra.

Faced with these questions, OpenAI researcher Ted Sanders also explained on Hacker News. He said that Terra may be better than Sol and Astra in technical communication, performs similarly in visual understanding and computer operation, and is faster, but is slightly inferior in most other tasks.

Of course, some users in the community also affirmed Terra's cost efficiency, believing that being able to complete tasks close to flagship model level at a much lower cost is valuable in itself.

However, rather than this "middle-of-the-road" Terra, quite a few people have already begun waiting for the next Astra... and the rival's Fable 5.5.