BenchLeader

GPT-5-Codex vs GPT-6 Astra

Full profiles: GPT-5-Codex (OpenAI) and GPT-6 Astra (OpenAI): every benchmark, price and rank.

Updated · Data from 9 sources

As of 29 Oct 2026, GPT-6 Astra is ahead of GPT-5-Codex on quality (68.2 vs 58.6 on the BenchLeader Index), but GPT-5-Codex is 5.8× cheaper at $3.44 vs $20.00 per 1M tokens blended. GPT-6 Astra leads in every category we measure both in. GPT-5-Codex streams 3×+ faster.

Key facts (as of 29 Oct 2026)

  • GPT-5-Codex scores 58.6 on the BenchLeader Index and GPT-6 Astra scores 68.2 (BenchLeader, 29 Oct 2026).
  • GPT-5-Codex costs $3.44 per 1M tokens blended (list price, 29 Oct 2026).
  • GPT-6 Astra costs $20.00 per 1M tokens blended (list price, 29 Oct 2026).
  • GPT-5-Codex streams 3×+ faster than GPT-6 Astra (Artificial Analysis, 7-day median, 29 Oct 2026).

Which to pick for…

The pick's numbers come first. Category scores on the BenchLeader scale (50 is the average model, 15 points one standard deviation). High confidence means a lead of half a standard deviation or more; under one point is called either.

Use casePickWhyConfidence
CodingGPT-6 Astra83 vs 59 category scoreHigh
Agents & tool useGPT-6 Astra70 vs 67 category scoreMedium
Lowest costGPT-5-Codex$3.44 vs $20.00 per 1M blended; agentic coding session $0.115 vs $0.800–
Fastest first answerGPT-6 Astra3.0 s (GPT-6 Astra) vs 10.9 s (GPT-5-Codex (high)) to the first answer token–
High volume on a budgetNeither flagshipA smaller model is usually the better fit: Cheapest good LLMs, Fastest LLMs–

Key differences

  • GPT-6 Astra leads on quality: 68.2 vs 58.6.
  • GPT-5-Codex (high) is stronger in instruction following, long context, multimodal.
  • GPT-6 Astra is stronger in agents & tools, coding, composite, knowledge, maths, reasoning.
  • GPT-5-Codex (high) is 5.8× cheaper ($3.44 vs $20.00 per 1M blended).
  • GPT-5-Codex (high) streams 4.9× faster (195 vs 40 tokens per second).

At a glance

SpecGPT-5-CodexGPT-6 Astra
DeveloperOpenAIOpenAI
Released15 Sept 20252 Sept 2026
Context window (tokens)400,0001,050,000
Compared atGPT-5-Codex (high)GPT-6 Astra
Open weightsNoNo
Price in / out / cached input per 1M$1.25 / $10.00 / $0.125$10.00 / $50.00 / $1.00

Category by category

Category scores on the BenchLeader scale: 50 is the average evaluated model, 15 points is one standard deviation. A gap under one point is called level.

CategoryGPT-5-Codex (high)GPT-6 AstraLeader
Reasoning–85.6not comparable
Coding58.583.2GPT-6 Astra
Agents & tools66.869.6GPT-6 Astra
Maths–77.5not comparable
Knowledge–55.7not comparable
Instruction following72.4–not comparable
Multimodal56.4–not comparable
Long context60.5–not comparable
Composite–73.7not comparable

Where sources disagree

Across the 0 benchmarks both have, GPT-5-Codex leads 0, GPT-6 Astra leads 0. Every overall index that rates both puts GPT-6 Astra ahead.

Overall indexGPT-5-Codex (high)GPT-6 AstraLeader
BenchLeader Index58.668.2GPT-6 Astra

Each publisher runs its own tasks, harnesses and effort settings, so their overall verdicts can differ; BenchLeader reconciles them on one scale. † measured at another effort setting of the same model (the publisher did not test the one compared here).

Price, speed and latency

List prices blended at three input tokens per output token. Per-task prices use the token counts on the methodology page; suite cost is what Artificial Analysis paid to run its whole Intelligence Index.

MeasureGPT-5-Codex (high)GPT-6 Astra
Blended price per 1M tokens$3.44$20.00
Input / output per 1M$1.25 / $10.00$10.00 / $50.00
Cached input per 1M$0.125$1.00
Price per task: chat reply$0.0035$0.019
Price per task: summarize a 30-page report$0.021$0.150
Price per task: code edit$0.022$0.135
Price per task: agentic coding session$0.115$0.800
Price per task: structured extraction$0.0045$0.030
Output speed195 tok/s40 tok/s
Time to first answer10.9 s3.0 s
Time to a complete answer13.4 s–

Each model is compared at its best-ranked reasoning-effort setting. GPT-5-Codex (high) scores 58.6 and takes 11 s to its first answer token. GPT-6 Astra scores 68.2 and takes 3 s to its first answer token; GPT-6 Astra (max) scores 67.7 in 232 s, GPT-6 Astra (high) scores 66.8 in 33 s. Higher effort means more thinking before the answer: better scores, longer waits and more tokens billed. How reasoning effort changes scores and cost.

Every benchmark

143 benchmarks, grouped by category; each name links to the board and its leaders. † measured at another effort setting of the same model, shown for reference and not counted as a win.

MetricPublisherGPT-5-Codex (high)GPT-6 Astra
BenchLeader IndexBenchLeader58.668.2
Agents & tools scoreBenchLeader66.869.6
Coding scoreBenchLeader58.583.2
Instruction following scoreBenchLeader72.4–
Long context scoreBenchLeader60.5–
Multimodal scoreBenchLeader56.4–
Composite scoreBenchLeader–73.7
Knowledge scoreBenchLeader–55.7
Maths scoreBenchLeader–77.5
Reasoning scoreBenchLeader–85.6
Blended price $/MBenchLeader$3.44$20.00
Output speedBenchLeader195 tok/s40 tok/s
Time to first answerBenchLeader10.9 s3.0 s
Context windowBenchLeader400,000 tokens1,050,000 tokens
Reasoning
GPQA DiamondEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub–95.8%†
Humanity's Last ExamScale AI / CAIS–54.8%
Arena Hard PromptsArena (LMArena)–1501†
LiveBench 2.0 ReasoningLiveBench–92.7%
LiveBench 1.0 ReasoningLiveBench–92.7%†
GPQA Diamond (AA)Artificial Analysis83.7%96.1%†
Humanity's Last Exam (AA)Artificial Analysis27.9%54.7%†
HLE-Diamond (AA)Artificial Analysis–63.8%†
Kagi LLM BenchmarkKagi LLM Benchmark70.3%†–
ARC-AGI-1ARC Prize–97.5%†
ARC-AGI-2ARC Prize–95.0%†
ARC-AGI-3ARC Prize–98.6%†
CritPtArtificial Analysis5.1%31.7%†
CritPt v2 hard subset (AA)Artificial Analysis–70.5%†
MysteryMechanismVals AI–53.1%†
Chess PuzzlesEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub–74.0%†
Mystery Game PuzzlesEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub–84.0%†
LMCAEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub–64.1%
DTBenchEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub–97.1%
BTF-3Epoch AI Benchmarking Hub–13.5%†
Coding
SciCodeSciCode–56.5%†
WeirdMLWeirdML54.5%93.3%†
FrontierCodeCognition–53.3%†
GSO-BenchGSO-Bench–79.4%
Arena CodingArena (LMArena)–1543†
Show all 143 benchmarks
MetricPublisherGPT-5-Codex (high)GPT-6 Astra
Coding
Arena WebDevArena (LMArena)–1774†
LiveBench 2.0 CodingLiveBench–93.7%
LiveBench 1.0 CodingLiveBench–80.4%†
LiveCodeBenchVals AI84.7%–
IOIVals AI–100.0%†
Code MigrationVals AI–67.7%†
Code Migration v1.1Vals AI–80.6%†
ProgramBenchVals AI–5.5%†
SWE-bench MultimodalVals AI–43.3%†
Vibe Code Bench 1-100Vals AI–27.6%†
Vibe Code Bench v1.1Vals AI–89.6%†
SWE Atlas: Codebase QnAScale AI SEAL–59.1%†
SWE Atlas: RefactoringScale AI SEAL–59.0%†
SWE Atlas: Test WritingScale AI SEAL–50.7%†
MirrorCodeEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub–46.7%†
DeepSWE v1.1Epoch AI Benchmarking Hub–73.2%†
ALE-BenchEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub–2951.3†
FrontierSWEEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub–65.5%†
Terminal-Bench 4.0 (AA)Artificial Analysis–59.1%†
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (AA)Artificial Analysis–88.4%†
Startrise FrontendStartrise–79.9%
FrontierCode 1.1 (AA)Artificial Analysis–47.0%†
FrontierCode 2.0 (AA)Artificial Analysis–42.4%†
LiveCodeBench (AA)Artificial Analysis84.0%–
Agents & tools
Terminal-BenchTerminal-Bench44.3%†58.2%†
Remote Labor IndexScale AI / CAIS–20.8%
APEX-AgentsMercor–64.7%
Arena AgentArena (LMArena)–14†
LiveBench Long AgenticLiveBench–77.5%
LiveBench BrowserLiveBench–91.3%
LiveBench Agentic CodingLiveBench–57.3%†
Terminal-Bench HardArtificial Analysis37.9%–
τ²-Bench Telecom (AA)Artificial Analysis86.8%–
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals)Vals AI–87.3%†
HiL-BenchScale AI SEAL–65.3%
GDPval-AA v2.1, normalised scoreArtificial Analysis–53.7%†
GDPval-AA v2.1Artificial Analysis–1584†
τ³-Banking (AA)Artificial Analysis–41.4%†
ITBench SRE (AA)Artificial Analysis–48.6%†
Analyst Agent (AA)Artificial Analysis–51.3%†
CUA-benchVals AI–19.2%†
CyberBenchVals AI–41.1%†
Finance Agent v2Vals AI–53.5%†
Finance Agent v2.1Vals AI–60.4%†
Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark v1.1Vals AI–7.1%†
Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark v1Vals AI–5.4%†
Legal Research BenchVals AI–39.4%†
Robo-benchVals AI–23.3%†
SREBenchVals AI–56.9%†
Tax Agent BenchVals AI–20.7%†
Terminal-Bench 4.0 (Vals)Vals AI–59.6%†
Terminal-Bench ScienceVals AI–62.9%†
Time Horizon Index: KSPVals AI–90.5%†
Arena SearchArena (LMArena)–1246†
BALROGBALROG–68.3%†
Vending-Bench 2Andon Labs–15514.7
AutomationBenchArtificial Analysis–68.5%†
GDP.pdf (AA)Artificial Analysis–31.0%†
Harvey LAB-AA v1.1Harvey–8.6%†
AA-Briefcase v1.1Artificial Analysis–1568†
Terminal-Bench-Science 0.1 (AA)Artificial Analysis–63.3%†
CWE-Bench (AA)Artificial Analysis–63.3%†
DeepSec-Bench (AA)Artificial Analysis–36.9%†
CyberGym end-to-end (AA)Artificial Analysis–0.0%†
FACTS SearchGoogle–89.9%
Maths
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Epoch AI Benchmarking Hub–93.7%†
FrontierMath Tier 4Epoch AI Benchmarking Hub–97.6%†
OTIS Mock AIMEEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub–100.0%†
ProofBenchVals AI–99.0%
LiveBench MathematicsLiveBench–96.8%†
Arena MathsArena (LMArena)–1487†
Knowledge
SimpleQA VerifiedEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub–75.6%†
LiveBench 2.0 Data AnalysisLiveBench–83.0%
LiveBench ResearchLiveBench–85.2%
LiveBench 1.0 Data AnalysisLiveBench–83.0%†
AA-Omniscience v1.1Artificial Analysis–42.4†
PRBench FinanceScale AI SEAL–47.5%
PRBench LegalScale AI SEAL–48.4%
BioMysteryBenchVals AI–79.3%†
Excel Modeling BenchmarkVals AI–71.7%†
Excel Modeling Benchmark v1.1Vals AI–72.7%†
MedCodeVals AI–48.5%†
MedScribeVals AI–87.9%†
DrugDiscoveryBenchScale AI SEAL–68.7%†
EBR-benchEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub–76.2%†
GDP.pdfEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub–34.2%†
AA-Omniscience v1.1: accuracyArtificial Analysis–61.6%†
AA-Omniscience v1.1: non-hallucinationArtificial Analysis–50.2%†
HealthBench Professional (AA)OpenAI–66.0%†
Instruction following
LiveBench LanguageLiveBench–89.4%†
LiveBench Instruction FollowingLiveBench–75.6%†
IFBenchArtificial Analysis74.2%–
Arena Instruction FollowingArena (LMArena)–1473†
Human preference
Arena TextArena (LMArena)–1477†
Arena Creative WritingArena (LMArena)–1450†
Arena Multi-turnArena (LMArena)–1485†
Arena Longer QueriesArena (LMArena)–1489†
Multimodal
Arena VisionArena (LMArena)–1280†
LiveBench DesignLiveBench–82.0%
MMMU-ProArtificial Analysis73.8%86.9%†
Blueprint-Bench 2Epoch AI Benchmarking Hub–49.7%
Code2Video-AAArtificial Analysis–1427†
AA-3DArtificial Analysis–1164†
Long context
AA-LCR v1.1Artificial Analysis71.7%80.7%†
Arena DocumentArena (LMArena)–1473†
MLCRArtificial Analysis–41.7%†
Composite
Epoch Capabilities IndexEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub–168.8
LiveBench 2.0LiveBench–85.6%
LiveBench 1.0LiveBench–82.2%†
AA Intelligence Index v5.0Artificial Analysis–56.9†
AA Intelligence Index v4.3.2Artificial Analysis24.952.7†
AA Progress Index v1Artificial Analysis275.1349.6†
Vals IndexVals AI–65.0†
Vals Finance IndexVals AI–55.6%†
Vals RSI IndexVals AI–27.1%†
Vals Science IndexVals AI–65.1%†
Vals Router IndexVals AI–65.0%
AA Cyber IndexArtificial Analysis–33.4†

Data as of 2026-10-29. Best configuration of each model; every score links to its source on the model pages.

What changed

  • GPT-5-Codex (high): 1 new result (AA Progress Index v1).
  • GPT-6 Astra: 3 score revisions.
  • GPT-6 Astra: 1 new result (Vals Router Index).
  • GPT-6 Astra: 1 score revision.
  • GPT-5-Codex (high): BenchLeader Index 59.0 → 58.5.
  • GPT-6 Astra: 8 new results (LiveBench 2.0, LiveBench Long Agentic, LiveBench 2.0 Reasoning…).
  • GPT-6 Astra: 1 new result (Startrise Frontend).
  • GPT-6 Astra: BenchLeader Index 68.9 → 68.0.
  • GPT-6 Astra: BenchLeader Index 67.3 → 68.9.
  • GPT-6 Astra: 2 new results (PRBench Legal, HiL-Bench).

Rankings: Best LLM overall · Best LLM for agents · Best cheap LLMs

GPT-5-Codex vs GPT-6 Astra: questions

Is GPT-6 Astra better than GPT-5-Codex?
GPT-6 Astra leads on quality: 68.2 vs 58.6. The BenchLeader Index combines every independent quality benchmark; GPT-6 Astra is ahead overall as of 29 Oct 2026, but check the category scores for your use.
GPT-5-Codex vs GPT-6 Astra: which is cheaper, and will that change?
GPT-5-Codex is cheaper today: $3.44 against $20.00 per million tokens, blended at three input tokens per output token. No price change has been announced for either.
Is GPT-5-Codex or GPT-6 Astra better for coding?
GPT-6 Astra scores higher in coding (83 vs 59 on the category index, where 50 is average).
Which is faster, GPT-5-Codex or GPT-6 Astra?
GPT-5-Codex streams 3×+ faster (195 vs 40 output tokens per second, Artificial Analysis 7-day median).
Is GPT-5-Codex or GPT-6 Astra better for agents and tool use?
GPT-6 Astra scores higher in agentic tasks (70 vs 67 on the category index, where 50 is average).
More questions (3)
Which is better for long documents?
GPT-6 Astra accepts more context: 1,050,000 against 400,000 tokens for GPT-5-Codex.
Which has lower latency?
GPT-6 Astra answers first: 3.0 s against 10.9 s to the first answer token, as Artificial Analysis measures it. Reasoning effort drives most of this: a higher setting thinks longer before it answers.
When was GPT-6 Astra released?
GPT-6 Astra was released on 2 Sept 2026.