OpenAI ships GPT-6.1 Terra: faster computer use at half the API price

On October 26, 2026, OpenAI released GPT-6.1 Terra, its new middle model for looking at screens and images, working through apps the way a person would, and writing clearly. It replaces GPT-5.6 Terra as the Terra option, and OpenAI cut its standard API prices in half compared with both GPT-5.6 Terra and the pricier GPT-6.1 Sol.

Primary sources: OpenAI’s Introducing GPT-6.1 Terra post, the ChatGPT release notes and model release notes, and the API model page. The Verge and Decrypt covered the launch the same day.

What Terra is

OpenAI pitches Terra as “a new balance of speed, capability, and cost”: cheaper and quicker than GPT-6.1 Sol and GPT-6 Astra, the models it still recommends for the hardest work. OpenAI describes GPT-6.1 Terra as fast and efficient, with better visual reasoning, more precise computer use (seeing a screen and clicking and typing in apps the way a person would), and clearer, more natural writing.

The API model ID is gpt-6.1-terra. Per the developer docs, it takes text and image input, outputs text, has a 1,050,000-token context window, and offers reasoning effort settings from none through max (default medium). The listed knowledge cutoff is June 1, 2026.

What is new

OpenAI’s announcement makes these claims. All of the numbers come from OpenAI’s own testing, and the error-rate test is internal:

• Computer use: On Agents’ Last Exam at medium effort, GPT-6.1 Terra scores 15 percentage points higher than GPT-5.6 Terra at about one-third the cost, and performs on par with GPT-6 Astra at about one-tenth the price per token. OpenAI also says Terra completes those tasks more than three times faster than GPT-6 Astra and GPT-6.1 Sol.
• Visual reasoning: Better than GPT-5.6 Terra on MMMU-Pro at every reasoning setting, and nearly matching GPT-6 Astra and GPT-6.1 Sol at much lower cost.
• Fewer factual errors: On an internal set of prompts built to cause mistakes, the error rate at low effort dropped from 53.6% (GPT-5.6 Terra) to 16.7%. At max effort it fell to 4.3%.
• Coding: On Terminal-Bench 4.0 at max effort, Terra solves 50.3% of tasks versus 21.5% for GPT-5.6 Terra. For the most complex coding work, OpenAI still says GPT-6.1 Sol and GPT-6 Astra are the better choice.
• Price: Standard API rates are 50% lower than GPT-5.6 Terra and GPT-6.1 Sol: $1 per million input tokens, $0.05 per million cached input tokens, and $5 per million output tokens (announcement, model page).
• Safety: OpenAI says GPT-6.1 Terra meets the Critical threshold in cybersecurity under its Preparedness Framework and keeps the protections built for GPT-6 Astra. The system card linked from the announcement has the details.

Treat vendor benchmarks as marketing with receipts, not a promise that your homework or household paperwork will come out perfect.

Who can use it, and when

Starting October 26, 2026, per OpenAI:

• ChatGPT Work and Codex: The announcement lists Plus, Pro, Enterprise, and Edu. The ChatGPT release notes also include Business in the rollout. As it reaches your account, pick GPT-6.1 Terra from the model list (OpenAI’s ChatGPT Learn notes put it under Advanced in the desktop app and in Work on the web). Your plan’s overall usage limits are unchanged, and OpenAI says the same allowance covers more tasks with Terra than with GPT-5.6 Terra.
• Default presets may change: The release notes say some Plus and Pro users may see GPT-6.1 Terra at Medium instead of GPT-6.1 Sol at Light in Work’s default Power presets.
• Not in Chat: OpenAI’s GPT-6 models help article and the model release notes both say Terra is a Work and Codex option and is not available in ordinary Chat conversations.
• API: Developers use the model ID gpt-6.1-terra (docs). API usage is billed separately from ChatGPT subscriptions (model release notes).
• Amazon Bedrock: AWS announced general availability the same day.
• Free and Go: Neither plan is in the rollout list. OpenAI’s pricing page lists GPT-6 Luna for Codex on Free and Go, so do not expect Terra there just because the headline says “available today.”

Rollouts depend on your plan, region, and workspace settings. If Terra is missing from the model list, check again later before assuming something is wrong with your account.

What this means at home

Most households do not need the API price sheet. The practical change is for people who already pay for ChatGPT and use Work (ChatGPT’s agent for longer tasks across apps and websites) or Codex (OpenAI’s coding tool):

• Try Terra when you want the model to look at a screen or photo, fill in a form from a document, match a picture to a list, or draft and revise text, without spending your allowance on Sol or Astra.
• Keep Sol or Astra for the hardest coding or research questions if your plan includes them. OpenAI says so directly for complex software work.
• Review every computer-use step. An agent that can fill out forms can also fill out the wrong one. Watch what it clicks, and approve anything that spends money or sends something.
• Do not hand any cloud model your bank passwords, your kids’ school logins, or tax documents you would not email to a stranger.

If you only use Free chat for quick questions, this launch does not change your day. If you already use Work or Codex on Plus or Pro, try Terra on one dull, real task (a receipt photo into a budget spreadsheet row, a short email rewrite, a question about a screenshot) and see whether the result is good enough before you change habits.

Do this / don’t do that

Do

• Read OpenAI’s announcement once, then check the model list in Work or Codex on your own account.
• Use Terra for repetitive visual or click-through chores where a cheaper, faster model is the point.
• Keep a human check on anything involving money, health, school, or legal text.

Don’t

• Do not assume Free or Go ChatGPT now includes GPT-6.1 Terra.
• Do not treat OpenAI’s internal error-rate charts as a guarantee that any single answer is true.
• Do not give a computer-use agent broad access to accounts you care about without watching the session.
• Do not confuse this with a browser or phone security update. It is a model release.

Bottom line

On October 26, 2026, OpenAI released GPT-6.1 Terra, a faster, cheaper middle model for visual reasoning, computer use, and writing. It is rolling out in ChatGPT Work and Codex on Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu, and in the API as gpt-6.1-terra (OpenAI announcement, ChatGPT release notes). If you are on Plus or Pro, try it inside Work or Codex on a low-stakes task. Everyone else can file it under a nice price cut for developers, not a reason to change Free-chat habits overnight.

Image: Official OpenAI GPT-6.1 Terra announcement art, the GPT-6.1 Terra wordmark over Earth (openai.com).