Astra lands on Pro and Business before Plus

OpenAI has started rolling out GPT-6 Astra to ChatGPT Pro and Business accounts on the $100 and $200 a month plans, ahead of Plus subscribers on the $20 tier. A post on Threads reports the model is appearing across ChatGPT Work and Codex, and that Astra is also being prepared for the API release.

At a glance

• Astra is surfacing across ChatGPT Work and Codex first, with Pro, Business and Enterprise plans also getting GPT-6 Astra Pro, which enterprise administrators must switch on because access is off by default.
• OpenAI reports Astra scoring 98% on FrontierMath Tier 4, 99.9% on ARC-AGI-3 and 100% on ExploitBench, and says ChatGPT is now nearly twice as fast at computer use.
• Because Astra meets the Critical cybersecurity threshold in OpenAI's Preparedness Framework, the model is going out slowly, starting with a limited set of organizations before all ChatGPT tiers, the API and AWS.

Shipping a frontier model to the highest-paying tiers first reads as a capacity and risk-control decision as much as a commercial one: the same release that claims saturated cyber benchmarks is the one OpenAI classifies as Critical under its own safety framework. For practitioners, the more consequential change is likely in Codex, where context handling rather than a benchmark score decides how long an agent stays useful on a large refactor.

OpenAI puts Astra at 98% on FrontierMath Tier 4 and 100% on ExploitBench

OpenAI describes GPT-6 Astra as the world's most intelligent and aligned model, and says it is state of the art on computer use, browsing, software engineering, cybersecurity, science and professional work. The company reports a 98% score on FrontierMath Tier 4, 99.9% on ARC-AGI-3 and 100% on ExploitBench, and says Astra has already helped solve long-standing open problems in mathematics.

On speed, OpenAI's Ari Weinstein wrote that ChatGPT is nearly 2x faster at computer use than before, crediting an optimized harness alongside the model. Those harness optimizations apply to existing models as well, speeding tasks up by around 60% in GPT-5.6 Sol. OpenAI also calls Astra its best model for software engineering to date.

In Codex, Astra keeps notes across context windows instead of compacting sessions

Models have historically used compaction to summarize work during long sessions, such as debugging complex issues or large refactors, and each pass can leave out why a fix failed or how a component behaves. In Codex, Astra keeps notes across context windows, and earlier windows stay searchable, so it can retrieve requirements or test results the notes missed.

OpenAI ships the behaviour as an experimental feature that users enable in Codex, and says it will become the default for Astra in the coming weeks. The surrounding software has changed too: OpenAI launched a Codex Mac app in February, and in July Codex became the ChatGPT desktop app, combining Chat, Work and Codex while the previous native client was renamed ChatGPT Classic.

Astra meets the Critical cybersecurity threshold under the Preparedness Framework

OpenAI calls Astra a significant jump in cyber capabilities and says it meets the Critical threshold in cybersecurity under the Preparedness Framework, which is why distribution is staged. The model went first to a limited set of organizations, with members of the cybersecurity-focused Daybreak program among the earliest to receive the GPT-6 models.

GPT-5 arrived on August 7, 2025, with automatic routing between fast answers and deeper reasoning. The year since brought GPT-5.1 in November, the code red GPT-5.2 in December, GPT-5.3 Instant, GPT-5.4 Thinking with a million-token context window and built-in computer use, then 5.4 mini and nano, the restricted GPT-5.4-Cyber, GPT-5.5, GPT-5.5 Instant and July's GPT-5.6 Sol, Terra and Luna.

When Plus accounts get Astra

OpenAI says Astra will reach all ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise users over the coming days, along with the OpenAI API and AWS, without giving a firm date for either. Usage counts against existing subscription allowances, and users and businesses will be able to purchase credits for additional usage, though no price for those credits has been named.