GPT-6 Astra pricing in 2026
What one task costs on GPT-6 Astra
Per-million-token prices are hard to feel, so here are typical token counts for common jobs priced with GPT-6 Astra. Figures are USD at the rates above and exclude prompt caching and batch discounts.
| Task | Tokens (in / out) | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Code review of a 500-line pull request | 60,000 / 4,000 | $0.800 |
| Debug one failing test | 40,000 / 6,000 | $0.700 |
| Generate a landing page in one shot | 3,000 / 30,000 | $1.53 |
| Draft a 1,200-word article | 2,000 / 2,500 | $0.145 |
| Answer a question from a 20-page document | 25,000 / 800 | $0.290 |
| Multi-step agent run (10 tool calls) | 250,000 / 25,000 | $3.75 |
| All of the above, once | $7.21 |
Cheaper at the same or better capability: GLM-5.3 FlashX runs the same set of tasks for $0.226 instead of $7.21.
GPT-6 Astra by OpenAI costs $10 per 1M input tokens and $50 per 1M output tokens — about 25.0k tokens per $1. Prices last verified 2026-09-19.
The verdict
OpenAI's new top tier, tying Claude Fable 5.1 at the highest index on the site (53) for $10 / $50 per 1M. It is built for demanding end-to-end work — deep research, scientific reasoning and long-horizon engineering — and it replaces GPT-5.6 Sol as the frontier pick inside ChatGPT Plus and Pro. Most teams should still default to Sol or Terra on price; Astra is the model you graduate to when the last few points of quality decide the outcome.
A concrete example: sending 100,000 input tokens and getting back 20,000 output tokens with GPT-6 Astra costs about $2 at current prices.
Who is GPT-6 Astra for?
GPT-6 Astra is OpenAI's flagship for demanding end-to-end work: advanced analysis, software engineering, deep research, scientific work and document creation, with particular strength on long-horizon tasks. It scores 53 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index — level with Claude Fable 5.1 at the very top of the scale — and arrives with a 1M-token context window and a knowledge cutoff of April 2026.
It is a premium tier, not a default. At $10 / $50 per 1M tokens (with long-context requests billed higher again) it costs two and a half times GPT-5.6 Sol on input and output. Where it earns that back is one-shot reliability and long agent runs. If you already pay for ChatGPT Plus or Pro, though, Astra is included — which makes it the cheapest way to actually use frontier-tier OpenAI capability.
Strengths & weaknesses
- Strength: Frontier reasoning inside ChatGPT Plus and Pro
- Best for: One-shot, Quality, Research, Backend
- Weakness: Same premium price as Fable 5.1 ($10 / $50) and slower than the Flash-tier rivals.
GPT-6 Astra key facts
| Provider | ChatGPT pricing |
|---|---|
| Input price | $10 / 1M tokens |
| Output price | $50 / 1M tokens |
| Tokens / $1 | 25.0k |
| Intelligence / $1 | 13,250 |
| Context window | 1.1M tokens |
| Tier | frontier |
| Speed | Average |
| Intelligence index | 53 / 100 |
| Released | 2026-09-03 |
| Last verified | 2026-09-19 |
What GPT-6 Astra delivers for your budget
For a coding workload, here is roughly what each monthly budget buys:
| Budget | Tokens / month | Months of workload |
|---|---|---|
| $20 | 1.0M | 1.6x |
| $50 | 2.6M | 4.0x |
| $100 | 5.2M | 8.0x |
Other ChatGPT models
How GPT-6 Astra compares to its closest rivals
Rather than repeating the full catalog on every page, here are the three current models nearest to GPT-6 Astra on the intelligence index — and why you might still pick one instead:
- Claude Fable 5.1 (Claude) — $10 input / $50 output per 1M tokens. Why you might pick it: Top of the intelligence index — first-pass quality.
- Claude Opus 5 (Claude) — $5 input / $25 output per 1M tokens. Why you might pick it: Coding and long-context favourite.
- Muse Spark 1.3 (Meta) — $1.25 input / $4.25 output per 1M tokens. Why you might pick it: Frontier index at roughly a tenth of the premium tiers' price.
GPT-6 Astra — frequently asked questions
How much does GPT-6 Astra cost?
GPT-6 Astra by OpenAI costs $10 per 1M input tokens and $50 per 1M output tokens.
How many tokens per dollar does GPT-6 Astra give you?
On a typical 1:3 input-to-output mix, GPT-6 Astra delivers around 25.0k tokens per dollar — an intelligence-per-dollar score of 13250.
What is GPT-6 Astra's context window?
GPT-6 Astra supports a context window of 1.1M tokens.
Is GPT-6 Astra worth it in 2026?
GPT-6 Astra is ChatGPT's frontier tier model. Use the AI Intelligence Calculator to see how its value compares to every other model at your budget.