GPT-6 Astra pricing, and what the premium buys.
OpenAI's flagship at $10 and $50 per million tokens. Two and a half times GPT-5.6 Sol, and eight times GPT-5.
GPT-6 Astra sits at the top of OpenAI's lineup at $10 per million input tokens and $50 per million output. The comparison that matters is not against other providers but against the rest of OpenAI's own range: GPT-5.6 Sol is $4 and $20, and GPT-5 is $1.25 and $10. Astra is eight times GPT-5 on input and five times on output.
A multiplier that large is only worth paying where task success rate genuinely moves with it. The honest test is to run your own evaluation set against Astra and GPT-5.6 Sol and measure the difference in tasks completed correctly, then divide the price gap by that difference. Most teams discover that the flagship belongs on a narrow escalation path rather than in the default client configuration, and that the retry rate on the cheaper model matters more than the sticker price on the expensive one.
- The escalation tier for calls where a cheaper model has already failed validation
- Research and analysis work where a single wrong conclusion is expensive
- Evaluation baselines, to measure what a cheaper model is actually giving up
GPT-6 Astra vs the alternatives.
| Model | Input / 1M | Output / 1M | Sample request |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPT-6 Astra | $10.00 | $50.00 | $0.0320 |
| Claude Opus 5 | $5.00 | $25.00 | $0.0160 |
| Gemini 3.1 Pro | $2.00 | $12.00 | $0.0072 |
Common questions.
How much does GPT-6 Astra cost per million tokens?
$10 per million input tokens and $50 per million output tokens as of the last verification date on this page. That is 2.5x GPT-5.6 Sol, which runs $4 and $20.
Is GPT-6 Astra or Claude Opus 5 cheaper?
Claude Opus 5 is cheaper on both legs: $5 versus $10 per million input tokens, and $25 versus $50 per million output. They occupy the same tier in their respective lineups, so this is a fair like-for-like comparison, and the choice should come down to evaluation results on your own tasks.
Do I need the flagship model?
Usually not for most of your traffic. GPT-5 at $1.25 and $10 handles the large majority of production work, and the standard pattern is to route there by default and escalate to Astra only on low confidence or a failed validation. Running every call through the flagship is the most common way teams overspend on OpenAI.
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