OpenAI Launches GPT-6 Astra, Claiming a New Frontier in Computer Use, Coding, and Science

OpenAI Launches GPT-6 Astra, Claiming a New Frontier in Computer Use, Coding, and Science

OpenAI has announced GPT-6 Astra, its latest model, which it calls its most intelligent and aligned so far. Astra is rolling out today to a small group of organizations, with wider access planned soon.

According to OpenAI, Astra is state-of-the-art for computer use, browsing, software engineering, cybersecurity, science, and professional work. The model scores 98% on FrontierMath Tier 4, 99.9% on ARC-AGI-3, and 100% on ExploitBench.

It also meets the Critical threshold for cybersecurity in OpenAI’s Preparedness Framework, which means extra safeguards are in place. All benchmark results come from OpenAI.

Astra will become available to all ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise users in the next few days. It will also be offered through the OpenAI API, Microsoft Azure, and AWS Bedrock.

GPT-6 Astra Benchmark Claims and Computer Use Gains

OpenAI says Astra sets new records in several benchmarks. On Terminal-Bench Science 0.1, which measures scientific research workflows using code and terminal tools, Astra scores 64.6%.

Claude Fable 5.1 scores 52.6% on the same test, with Astra’s API cost estimated to be about 31% lower. On Agents’ Last Exam, which looks at complex professional software tasks, Astra scores 59.3%. Claude Opus 5 scores 55.5% and GPT-5.6 Sol scores 53.6%. Astra also uses about 65% fewer output tokens than Opus 5 on this test.

For coding, Astra scores 57.9% on Terminal-Bench 4.0. GPT-5.6 Sol scores 37.3% and Claude Fable 5.1 scores 55.8% on the same benchmark. In science, Astra reaches 96.0% on GPQA Diamond, which tests graduate-level scientific reasoning. OpenAI says these results come from its research environment or API, so they may not match what users see in production ChatGPT.

OpenAI calls Astra its best model for computer use. It can fill out online forms, update CRM records, organize calendars, conduct research, analyze scientific data, generate plots, create websites, and run frontend QA checks.

In latency tests on OSWorld 2.0, Astra completes tasks about 47% faster than GPT-5.6 Sol. Astra scores 72.6% at around 40 minutes per task, while GPT-5.6 Sol scores 65.7% at about 75 minutes.

OpenAI is also updating the Codex harness to make computer use faster. The company says this leads to 1.9 times faster task completion compared to GPT-5.6 Sol on the Mind2Web benchmark. OpenAI shows Astra handling tasks like PCB layout in KiCad, house modeling in Blender and Unreal Engine 5, and game development.

GPT-6 Astra Professional Work, Coding, and Cybersecurity Capabilities

OpenAI says Astra is trained for both computer use and professional work. It can produce documents, spreadsheets, and presentations that follow templates and match a user’s style. On BenchCAD, which tests how well a model can reconstruct 3D objects from multiple views, Astra scores 95.9%. GPT-5.6 Sol scores 83.3% and Claude Fable 5.1 scores 84.3% on the same test.

OpenAI says Astra is its best model yet for software engineering. With Astra, Codex adds a new way to keep and retrieve context when the context window is full. Instead of compressing everything into one summary, it keeps searchable notes across context windows.

This feature is experimental and can be turned on in the Codex settings. It will become the default for Astra soon.

OpenAI calls Astra a major step forward for scientific discovery and shares two new results on gaps between prime numbers. Astra can combine scientific reasoning with computer use and work directly in specialized software to inspect data and explore results.

For cybersecurity, OpenAI says Astra meets the Critical threshold in its Preparedness Framework. Without production safeguards, Astra scores 100% on ExploitBench, compared to 78.5% for GPT-5.6 Sol. On ExploitGym, Astra has a 42.4% success rate, while GPT-5.6 Sol scores 30.3%.

In an internal test using recent vulnerabilities, Astra found and used two previously unknown zero-day vulnerabilities, which OpenAI is now reporting to the maintainers.

The version released today will not perform advanced tasks like creating proof-of-concept exploits. OpenAI plans to allow less restrictive safeguards for defensive use through OpenAI Daybreak in the coming weeks.

GPT-6 Astra Alignment Claims, Safeguards, and Remaining Concerns

OpenAI describes Astra as its most aligned model. In an evaluation informed by the Hugging Face incident, which tested whether a model facing an impossible task would go beyond its intended scope, OpenAI says Astra did so in 0% of cases, compared with 48% for GPT-5.6 Sol without production safeguards. On a computer-use safety stress test, OpenAI reports Astra produced misaligned outcomes 2.4% of the time, versus 9.5% for Fable 5.1 and 11.5% for Opus 5.

OpenAI points out one concern: Astra’s written reasoning is harder to monitor than GPT-5.6 Sol’s, especially in tests designed to make the model evade monitoring.

OpenAI says this is because Astra has more control over its written reasoning and can solve problems with fewer steps. The company says it is taking this issue seriously and that improving monitorability is a research priority.

To help, OpenAI is adding misalignment monitoring in production for Astra-class models. These classifiers check the model’s reasoning and actions and can automatically stop activity that looks unauthorized.

OpenAI says these checks can sometimes slow down or stop legitimate work, including defensive cybersecurity.

Pricing And What to Keep in Mind About The New GPT-6

GPT-6 Astra is rolling out today to a small group of organizations. It will be available to all ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise users in the next few days, as well as through the OpenAI API, Microsoft Azure, and AWS Bedrock. Usage is included in current subscription plans, with credits for extra use. Pro, Business, and Enterprise users also get access to GPT-6 Astra Pro. Enterprise admins can turn on Astra for their workspace, but it is off by default at launch.

For developers, Astra is available in the OpenAI API as gpt-6-astra and through Amazon Bedrock. Standard API pricing is $10 per million input tokens and $50 per million output tokens, with separate rates for cache reads and writes.

Fast mode offers up to twice the speed of standard processing at double the price. Astra supports Zero Data Retention for eligible API customers. OpenAI is also testing Private Safety Processing to improve monitoring while protecting customer privacy.

All benchmark results in this announcement are from OpenAI and were run in its research or API environment. These may not match what users see in production ChatGPT and should not be considered independent verification.

OpenAI has not given a specific date for full availability across all tiers. The less-restrictive cybersecurity safeguards through OpenAI Daybreak are planned for the next few weeks, but are not available yet. OpenAI also acknowledges that Astra’s reduced monitorability is a limitation and says it is still researching this issue.uing to research.

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