GPT-6 Astra: OpenAI's new flagship model is ready for paying users

What's new

On September 3, 2026, OpenAI launched its new flagship model, GPT-6 Astra. It is rolling out in phases: customers in OpenAI's Daybreak program got access first, followed within a few days by paying ChatGPT users on Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise. Developers can use the model through OpenAI's API under the name gpt-6-astra, and it is also available on Microsoft Azure and Amazon Bedrock.

According to Constellation Research, the model was trained on more than 100,000 GPUs (powerful computing chips) at OpenAI's Stargate facility in Texas. Whether the model is available in Denmark and the EU is not stated in the sources.

What's smart

Astra is said to be especially strong at operating a computer on its own, handling multistep work tasks, and working with office documents, spreadsheets and presentations. It is also highlighted as strong in software development, cybersecurity and science.

OpenAI reports these results itself: 72.6 percent on the OSWorld 2.0 test, which measures computer use, versus 65.7 percent for its predecessor. It also reports 96 percent on GPQA Diamond and 97.6 percent on FrontierMath Tier 4, a test of very difficult math problems. These are the maker's own figures.

OpenAI also says Astra rejected 91.5 percent of known jailbreak attempts, meaning attempts to trick the model into breaking its rules. By comparison, GPT-5.6 Sol rejected 59 percent. This is likewise OpenAI's own test.

Greg Brockman of OpenAI said: "It's not unreasonable to feel that we are now in the AGI era," but acknowledged at the same time that the definitions of AGI, meaning human-level artificial intelligence, are unclear.

Cheaper or better?

In the API, standard mode costs $10 per million input tokens and $50 per million output tokens. Tokens are the small chunks of text the model reads and writes. In fast mode, the prices are $20 and $100. What it costs regular users per month is not stated in the sources, beyond the fact that access requires a paid ChatGPT subscription.

Constellation Research writes that Astra outperforms Anthropic's Claude Fable 5.1 on selected benchmarks, but no specific figures are provided. A summary of independent measurements from Artificial Analysis, which has not been read directly, places Astra at 61 points, behind Claude Fable 5.1 at 66 and Claude Opus 5 at 63. The picture is thus mixed, and it is too early to call Astra the clear winner.

What it's good for

The model is aimed at people who want to let AI handle larger tasks: working in spreadsheets and presentations, following a long workflow from start to finish, writing and fixing code, or supporting research and security work. For businesses, it is an advantage that the model can be reached through Azure and Amazon Bedrock, so it can fit into the cloud services many already use.

Interest in ChatGPT is also high internationally. In South Korea, the service had 17.1 million monthly active users in August 2026, 42 percent more than a year earlier, and according to OpenAI Korea, the number of ChatGPT Enterprise users there has risen 28-fold in a year.