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GPT-5.6 Terra

Balanced

The balanced tier of the GPT-5.6 family — GPT-5.5-class performance at half the price.

OpenAI
Maker
90/100
Overall
49
Value score
$6.25
Blended /1M
1.1M
Context
Proprietary
Weights
Pricing: $2.50 in · $15 out / 1M tokens · synced from OpenRouter · updated 2026-07-17

Scorecard

Output Quality9.0/10 · 77% community
Agentic Ability9.0/10 · 77% community
Speed8.4/10 · 74% community
Value for $8.8/10 · 76% community
Reliability9.2/10 · 78% community

GPT-5.6 Terra is the everyday-work tier of OpenAI's July 2026 family, positioned for high-volume business tasks. OpenAI's own framing: competitive with GPT-5.5 while roughly 2x cheaper ($2.50/$15 per million tokens), with the family's ~1M-token context. For agent workloads it slots in as the OpenAI-ecosystem answer to Sonnet: the sensible default, escalating to Sol when a task earns it.

Strengths
  • GPT-5.5-class output at roughly half the price
  • ~1M-token context at a mid-tier price
  • Fast enough for interactive agent loops
Trade-offs
  • Steps behind Sol on the hardest tasks
  • Very new — long-run agent behavior still being characterized

Agents that run Terra well

The everyday OpenAI default for agents — volume work with frontier-adjacent quality.

Best model for CodexBest model for ClineBest model for AiderBest model for OpenCodeBest model for CursorBest model for Continue

GPT-5.6 Terra FAQ

Is GPT-5.6 Terra good for AI agents?
The everyday OpenAI default for agents — volume work with frontier-adjacent quality. On our editorial scoring it rates 9.0/10 for agentic ability and 9.0/10 for output quality. GPT-5.5-class output at roughly half the price.
How much does GPT-5.6 Terra cost?
Via OpenRouter, GPT-5.6 Terra is priced at $2.50 in · $15 out / 1M tokens — a blended rate of about $6.25 per 1M tokens for typical input-heavy agent use.
What is GPT-5.6 Terra's context window?
GPT-5.6 Terra has a 1.1M-token context window — large enough to hold sizeable codebases or document sets in a single run. OpenAI is the maker.
Can I self-host GPT-5.6 Terra?
No — GPT-5.6 Terra is a proprietary, hosted-only model from OpenAI. You access it through an API (e.g. OpenRouter) rather than running the weights yourself.
What are the downsides of GPT-5.6 Terra?
The main trade-offs: steps behind sol on the hardest tasks; very new — long-run agent behavior still being characterized. It's strongest for the everyday openai default for agents — volume work with frontier-adjacent quality.

Terra compared

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The model is half the story — the agent is the other half

The model picks the moves; the agent runs the loop, the tools, and the guardrails. Once you've chosen a model, see which agent gets the most out of it.

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