GPT-5.6 Sol vs GPT-6 Astra vs Claude Opus 5
Too close to call on our weighted score (GPT-6 Astra 68, GPT-5.6 Sol 66, Claude Opus 5 66). The right pick depends on what you value most.
OpenAIGPT-5.6 Sol
66/100- ECI161.8
- Price$4.00 / $20.00
- Context1.05M
- OpenAI
GPT-6 Astra
68/100- ECI166.5
- Price$10.00 / $50.00
- Context1.05M
AnthropicClaude Opus 5
66/100- ECI162.9
- Price$5.00 / $25.00
- Context1M
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (GPT-6 Astra 68/100, GPT-5.6 Sol 66/100, Claude Opus 5 66/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: GPT-6 Astra for raw capability and GPT-5.6 Sol on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGPT-6 AstraCapabilities Index (ECI): GPT-6 Astra 166.5 · Claude Opus 5 162.9 · GPT-5.6 Sol 161.8
- Lowest priceGPT-5.6 SolGPT-5.6 Sol $8.00 · Claude Opus 5 $10.00 · GPT-6 Astra $20.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGPT-5.6 Sol and GPT-6 AstraGPT-5.6 Sol 1,050,000 · GPT-6 Astra 1,050,000 · Claude Opus 5 1,000,000 tokens
- Widest inputsSame inputsGPT-5.6 Sol: Text, Images, PDFs · GPT-6 Astra: Text, Images, PDFs · Claude Opus 5: Text, Images, PDFs
- Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | GPT-5.6 Sol | GPT-6 Astra | Claude Opus 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 93 | 99 | 94 |
| Price | 25% | 7 | 0 | 2 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 80 | 80 | 80 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 61 | 60 |
| Overall | 100% | 66/100 | 68/100 | 66/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | GPT-5.6 SolOpenAI | GPT-6 AstraOpenAI | Claude Opus 5Anthropic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 161.8 | 166.5 (best) | 162.9 |
| ECI rank | #8 of 148 | #2 of 148 (best) | #5 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 93.5% | 95.8% (best) | 93.9% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 89.1% | 93.7% (best) | 85.6% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 100% (best) | 100% (best) | 98.9% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 69.7% | 75.6% (best) | 59.9% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $4.00 (best) | $10.00 | $5.00 |
| Output | $20.00 (best) | $50.00 | $25.00 |
| Cached input | $0.40 (best) | $1.00 | $0.50 |
| Blended (3:1) | $8.00 (best) | $20.00 | $10.00 |
| Long-context rate | Over 272K: $8.00 / $30.00 | Over 272K: $20.00 / $75.00 | Same rate |
| Price source | Official OpenAI API | Official OpenAI API | Official Anthropic API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,050,000 tokens (best) | 1,050,000 tokens (best) | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Max output | 128,000 tokens | 128,000 tokens | 128,000 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | gpt-5.6-sol | gpt-6-astra | claude-opus-5 |
| API providers | 40 (best) | 26 | 35 |
| Released | Jul 9, 2026 | Sep 4, 2026 | Jul 24, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Feb 16, 2026 | Apr 30, 2026 | May 2026 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- GPT-5.6 Sol$80.00
- GPT-6 Astra$200.00
- Claude Opus 5$100.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: GPT-5.6 Sol, GPT-6 Astra or Claude Opus 5?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (GPT-6 Astra 68/100, GPT-5.6 Sol 66/100, Claude Opus 5 66/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: GPT-6 Astra for raw capability and GPT-5.6 Sol on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, GPT-5.6 Sol, GPT-6 Astra or Claude Opus 5?
GPT-5.6 Sol is cheaper at $4.00 input / $20.00 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). Claude Opus 5 costs $5.00 input / $25.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price); GPT-6 Astra costs $10.00 input / $50.00 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $8.00 per million tokens for GPT-5.6 Sol versus $10.00 for Claude Opus 5 (1.3× as much) and $20.00 for GPT-6 Astra (2.5× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
GPT-6 Astra scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): GPT-6 Astra 166.5 (#2 of 148), Claude Opus 5 162.9 (#5 of 148) and GPT-5.6 Sol 161.8 (#8 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (163.1–171.1 vs 160.2–166.7), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — GPT-6 Astra 95.8%, Claude Opus 5 93.9%, GPT-5.6 Sol 93.5%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — GPT-6 Astra 93.7%, GPT-5.6 Sol 89.1%, Claude Opus 5 85.6%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — GPT-5.6 Sol 100%, GPT-6 Astra 100%, Claude Opus 5 98.9%; SimpleQA Verified — GPT-6 Astra 75.6%, GPT-5.6 Sol 69.7%, Claude Opus 5 59.9%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for GPT-5.6 Sol, GPT-6 Astra and Claude Opus 5 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, GPT-6 Astra leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
GPT-5.6 Sol and GPT-6 Astra have the largest context windows (1,050,000 and 1,050,000 tokens), against 1,000,000 for Claude Opus 5. Maximum output per response: GPT-5.6 Sol up to 128,000, GPT-6 Astra up to 128,000, Claude Opus 5 up to 128,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
GPT-5.6 Sol accepts text, images and PDFs; GPT-6 Astra accepts text, images and PDFs; Claude Opus 5 accepts text, images and PDFs. They handle the same number of input types.
Are any of these open source?
No. GPT-5.6 Sol, GPT-6 Astra and Claude Opus 5 are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
GPT-6 Astra is the newest, released Sep 4, 2026. Claude Opus 5 came out Jul 24, 2026; GPT-5.6 Sol came out Jul 9, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: GPT-5.6 Sol Feb 16, 2026, GPT-6 Astra Apr 30, 2026, Claude Opus 5 May 2026.
How do you decide the winner?
Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.
