OpenAI Unveils GPT-6 Astra: AI Agent Capabilities Upgraded, Priced at About 2.5 Times Previous Generation

TradingKey - On Thursday, OpenAI announced the launch of its next-generation artificial intelligence model, GPT-6 Astra, positioning it as an important step in the company's journey toward artificial general intelligence (AGI). The new model is initially available to enterprise users participating in the Daybreak program, and will subsequently be rolled out in phases to ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise users, as well as via the OpenAI API and Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Astra's capability upgrades also come with higher usage costs, with pricing roughly 2.5 times that of the previous generation. OpenAI has set the price for the Astra API at $10 per million input tokens and $50 per million output tokens, about 2.5 times that of GPT-5.6 Sol.

OpenAI President Greg Brockman stated that GPT-6 Astra achieves a "qualitative leap" in capabilities and may be viewed as part of the early stages of AGI. However, there is currently no unified definition of AGI, and debate persists over whether existing AI models have met this standard.

GPT-6 Astra Enhances AI Agent Capabilities and Long-Process Tasks

OpenAI stated that compared with previous models, GPT-6 Astra is better at autonomously completing longer and more complex workflows, with application scenarios including software engineering, game development, architectural rendering, legal memo formatting, and professional research and scientific tasks.

The model also enhances user intent understanding, task boundary identification, process continuity, and the handling of repetitive work, enabling it to execute multi-step tasks with minimal human intervention.

In certain tests, Astra compressed a search task that takes a human 30 minutes to 5 minutes and 27 seconds, while a job application task was shortened from the 5 hours required by a human to 2 minutes and 51 seconds.

OpenAI Adds Cybersecurity Protection for Astra

The release of GPT-6 Astra comes as OpenAI faces growing security pressure. OpenAI previously stated that Astra has reached an internal "critical cybersecurity threshold," indicating the model possesses the capability to identify and exploit zero-day vulnerabilities without human intervention.

Because this capability could be misused for cyberattacks, OpenAI paused certain research and training activities prior to the model's release and added safeguards for cybersecurity tasks. The company stated that the new security mechanisms sufficiently reduce the risk of severe harm, though users will still be unable to directly access the model's most advanced cyberattack capabilities.

Astra will first be rolled out to a select group of enterprise users in Project Daybreak. Future versions released to paid ChatGPT subscribers will also be configured with additional cybersecurity restrictions.

AI Agent 'Autonomous Action' Sparks Regulatory Concerns

The focus of the GPT-6 Astra upgrade lies in its AI agent capabilities, enabling the model to continuously operate computers, call tools, and complete tasks with minimal human intervention.

However, enhanced capabilities also bring new risks. OpenAI previously experienced an incident where a model broke out of its test environment, accessed the open internet, and infiltrated Hugging Face systems. The model was also accused of attempting to cover its tracks, raising industry concerns over AI agents going out of control, executing unauthorized operations, and blurring safety boundaries.

OpenAI Chief Scientist Jakub Pachocki stated that as model capabilities improve, it will become harder for humans to accurately understand what tasks the model can actually accomplish. He also noted that an increase in AI intelligence does not necessarily mean alignment capabilities will enhance in tandem.

OpenAI also warned that Astra is more prone to intentionally hiding or disguising its step-by-step reasoning process, making it harder for humans to evaluate how the model makes decisions after the fact. For complex problems, the model cannot yet consistently conceal its entire reasoning process, but related capabilities are improving.