Alternatives to GPT-6 Astra

OpenAI LMArena 1441.2 $20.00/M on a balanced workload prices as of 2026-11-05, except 8 under confirmation

5 models are higher-scoring or cheaper, with neither dimension worse.

Of the 141 models carrying both an independent score and a published price at the same delivery mode, 45 score at least as high as GPT-6 Astra and cost no more under at least one listed workload, with at least one of those dimensions improved. 44 of them cost less; the rest match the price and have a higher score. 5 match or beat its recorded context, maximum output, input modes, tool use and extended reasoning. 40 have a recorded capability loss, named on every row.

Dominance is not a property of a model. It is a property of a model, a capability lens and a workload, and all three are named on every row. Scores are LMArena Elo, used under CC BY 4.0 from the official dataset; prices are blended per million tokens. A higher score is not a drop-in replacement.

This page lists models only while a candidate improves score or price without worsening the other under a listed workload. When that comparison no longer holds, this address stays and says so.

Where it holds

Workload	GPT-6 Astra $/M	Recorded capabilities preserved	Recorded capability losses
Balanced	$20.00	5	40
Summarise	$9.44	5	40
Chat	$23.30	5	40
Code gen	$33.28	5	40
Agentic	$10.65	5	40

Workload mixes are defined on the methodology page. Cached input is priced at the cached rate, and reasoning tokens at the worse of the reasoning and output rates.

What you would be replacing

Intelligence	1441.2
Context window	1M
Max output	128K
Input modes	file, image, text
Tool use	yes
Extended reasoning	yes

Preserving recorded capabilities requires matching or beating these fields. Full record for GPT-6 Astra, or check GPT-6 Astra against the whole catalogue.

Recorded capabilities preserved 5

Each option has a higher score or a lower price, with neither dimension worse under the listed workloads. It matches or beats GPT-6 Astra on recorded context, maximum output, input modes, tool use and extended reasoning.

#	Model	Intelligence	$/M	Holds under
1	GPT-5.5 OpenAI	1466.8 +25.6	$11.25	Balanced −44% Summarise −47% Chat −41% Code gen −41% Agentic −43%
2	GPT-5.6 Sol OpenAI	1457.2 +16	$8.00	Balanced −60% Summarise −60% Chat −60% Code gen −60% Agentic −60%
3	GPT-5.4 OpenAI	1452.5 +11.3	$5.63	Balanced −72% Summarise −74% Chat −71% Code gen −70% Agentic −71%
4	GPT-5.6 Terra OpenAI	1448.3 tie	$4.50	Balanced −78% Summarise −79% Chat −77% Code gen −76% Agentic −77%
5	GPT-6.1 Sol OpenAI	1445.6 tie	$4.00	Balanced −80% Summarise −80% Chat −80% Code gen −80% Agentic −81%

Alternatives with recorded capability losses 40

These improve score or price without worsening the other under the listed workloads, but reduce at least one recorded capability. Read the last column before switching.

Model	Intelligence	$/M	Holds under	Recorded capability loss
Gemini 4 Argon Google	1528.6 +87.4	$8.00	Balanced −60% Summarise −61% Chat −60% Code gen −60% Agentic −61%	1.1M → 1M context
Claude Opus 5.5 Anthropic	1515.8 +74.6	$8.00	Balanced −60% Summarise −61% Chat −60% Code gen −60% Agentic −61%	1.1M → 1M context
Claude Fable 5.1 Anthropic	1513.8 +72.6	$20.00	Balanced same price Summarise −2% Chat −1% Code gen under 1% less Agentic −4%	1.1M → 1M context
Claude Opus 5 Anthropic	1504.1 +62.9	$10.00	Balanced −50% Summarise −50% Chat −50% Code gen −50% Agentic −50%	1.1M → 1M context
Gemini 3.8 Flash Google	1498.5 +57.3	$3.00	Balanced −85% Summarise −85% Chat −85% Code gen −85% Agentic −85%	1.1M → 1M context 128K → 66K max output
Claude Opus 4.6 Anthropic	1501.7 +60.5	$10.00	Balanced −50% Summarise −50% Chat −50% Code gen −50% Agentic −50%	1.1M → 1M context
Muse Wonder Meta	1499.2 +58	$8.00	Balanced −60% Summarise −61% Chat −60% Code gen −60% Agentic −61%	1.1M → 1M context
MiMo-V2.6-Pro Xiaomi	1491.4 +50.2	$0.540 Price under confirmation since Nov 5, 2026	Balanced −97% Summarise −96% Chat −98% Code gen −98% Agentic −98%	no file input
Muse Spark 1.3 Meta	1490.6 +49.4	$2.00	Balanced −90% Summarise −88% Chat −91% Code gen −91% Agentic −90%	1.1M → 1M context
Gemini 3.7 Flash Google	1489.1 +47.9	$3.00	Balanced −85% Summarise −85% Chat −85% Code gen −85% Agentic −85%	1.1M → 1M context 128K → 66K max output
Claude Opus 4.7 Anthropic	1489.7 +48.5	$10.00	Balanced −50% Summarise −50% Chat −50% Code gen −50% Agentic −50%	1.1M → 1M context
Muse Spark 1.2 Meta	1482.7 +41.5	$2.00	Balanced −90% Summarise −88% Chat −91% Code gen −91% Agentic −90%	1.1M → 1M context
Claude Fable 5 Anthropic	1491.6 +50.4	$20.00	Balanced same price Summarise same price Chat same price Code gen same price Agentic same price	1.1M → 1M context
Gemini 3.6 Flash Google	1479.8 +38.6	$1.50	Balanced −93% Summarise −93% Chat −93% Code gen −93% Agentic −93%	1.1M → 1M context 128K → 66K max output
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview Google	1480.1 +38.9	$4.50	Balanced −78% Summarise −79% Chat −77% Code gen −76% Agentic −77%	1.1M → 1M context 128K → 66K max output
Muse Spark 1.1 Meta	1478.3 +37.1	$2.00	Balanced −90% Summarise −88% Chat −91% Code gen −91% Agentic −90%	1.1M → 1M context
Gemini 3.5 Flash Google	1478.2 +37	$3.38	Balanced −83% Summarise −84% Chat −82% Code gen −82% Agentic −83%	1.1M → 1M context 128K → 66K max output
Kimi K3 Moonshot AI	1475.7 +34.5	$3.96 Price under confirmation since Nov 4, 2026	Balanced −80% Summarise −84% Chat −77% Code gen −77% Agentic −78%	1.1M → 1M context no file input
GLM 5.3 Z.ai	1473.8 +32.6	$0.409 Price under confirmation since Nov 4, 2026	Balanced −98% Summarise −98% Chat −97% Code gen −97% Agentic −97%	1.1M → 1M context no file, image input
GLM 5.3 Flash Z.ai	1473 +31.8	$0.102 Price under confirmation since Nov 5, 2026	Balanced −99% Summarise −99% Chat −99% Code gen −99% Agentic −99%	1.1M → 1M context no file input
Claude Sonnet 5.5 Anthropic	1472.9 +31.7	$4.00	Balanced −80% Summarise −80% Chat −80% Code gen −80% Agentic −81%	1.1M → 1M context
GLM 5.2 Z.ai	1469.6 +28.4	$0.409 Price under confirmation since Nov 4, 2026	Balanced −98% Summarise −98% Chat −97% Code gen −97% Agentic −97%	1.1M → 1M context no file, image input
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash DeepSeek	1464.5 +23.3	$0.096 Price under confirmation since Nov 5, 2026	Balanced over 99% less Summarise over 99% less Chat −99% Code gen −99% Agentic −99%	1.1M → 1M context no file input
MiMo-V2.5-Pro Xiaomi	1464.2 +23	$0.810 Price under confirmation since Nov 5, 2026 262K context at this price; 1M published	Balanced −96% Summarise −95% Chat −96% Code gen −96% Agentic −96%	1.1M → 262K context at this price no file, image input
GLM 5.1 Z.ai	1462.8 +21.6	$1.40	Balanced −93% Summarise −92% Chat −94% Code gen −94% Agentic −93%	1.1M → 205K context no file, image input
Claude Opus 4.8 Anthropic	1461.3 +20.1	$10.00	Balanced −50% Summarise −50% Chat −50% Code gen −50% Agentic −50%	1.1M → 1M context
Gemini 2.5 Pro Google	1457.7 +16.5	$3.44	Balanced −83% Summarise −86% Chat −81% Code gen −81% Agentic −82%	1.1M → 1M context 128K → 66K max output
Kimi K2.6 Moonshot AI	1455.6 +14.4	$1.40	Balanced −93% Summarise −92% Chat −93% Code gen −93% Agentic −91%	1.1M → 262K context no file input
Claude Sonnet 4.6 Anthropic	1457.7 +16.5	$6.00	Balanced −70% Summarise −70% Chat −70% Code gen −70% Agentic −70%	1.1M → 1M context
Qwen3.7 Plus Qwen	1454.6 +13.4	$0.560	Balanced −97% Summarise −97% Chat −97% Code gen −97% Agentic −97%	1.1M → 1M context no file input
MiMo-V2.6-Flash Xiaomi	1451.2 tie	$0.175	Balanced −99% Summarise −99% Chat −99% Code gen −99% Agentic −99%	no file input
Grok 4.5 xAI	1447.6 tie	$3.00	Balanced −85% Summarise −82% Chat −87% Code gen −87% Agentic −85%	1.1M → 500K context
Claude Opus 4.5 Anthropic	1450.9 tie	$10.00	Balanced −50% Summarise −50% Chat −50% Code gen −50% Agentic −50%	1.1M → 200K context 128K → 64K max output
GLM 5 Z.ai	1445.9 tie	$1.09	Balanced −95% Summarise −93% Chat −95% Code gen −95% Agentic −94%	1.1M → 205K context no file, image input
DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 DeepSeek	1446 tie	$1.53	Balanced −92% Summarise −91% Chat −93% Code gen −93% Agentic −92%	1.1M → 1M context no file, image input
Kimi K2.5 Moonshot AI	1444.9 tie	$1.20	Balanced −94% Summarise −94% Chat −94% Code gen −94% Agentic −94%	1.1M → 262K context no file input
Gemma 4 31B Google	1443 tie	$0.205 Price under confirmation since Nov 4, 2026	Balanced −99% Summarise −98% Chat −99% Code gen −99% Agentic −98%	1.1M → 262K context 128K → 16K max output no file input
Step 5 Preview StepFun	1442.7 tie	$1.43	Balanced −93% Summarise −91% Chat −94% Code gen −94% Agentic −93%	1.1M → 1M context 128K → 64K max output no file input
Inkling Thinking Machines	1442.7 tie	$1.76	Balanced −91% Summarise −90% Chat −92% Code gen −92% Agentic −91%	1.1M → 524K context no file input
Claude Sonnet 5 Anthropic	1442.7 tie	$4.00	Balanced −80% Summarise −80% Chat −80% Code gen −80% Agentic −80%	1.1M → 1M context

What this compares, and what it leaves out

Quality is LMArena Elo, used under CC BY 4.0 from the official dataset. The 95% confidence interval on a difference between two scores is about ±10.21 points, so a gap smaller than that is marked tie rather than an improvement — see significance bands.
197 further models at this delivery mode carry a price but no independent score. They are absent from the comparison in both directions — unrated is not a zero, and an unmeasured model is neither an alternative nor a worse buy.
Retired models are never offered as an alternative, and a model only competes against its own delivery mode: batch trades latency for price, so it is not a like-for-like swap.
Nothing here measures latency, throughput, rate limits or how a model behaves on your prompts. Two models with the same index score are not interchangeable.
Models with no higher-scoring or cheaper alternative that is no worse on the other axis are on the value frontier. Models with such an alternative are listed here.

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