OpenAI's Ted Sanders shares a rule of thumb for picking the right GPT model
Original title: OpenAI's Ted Sanders shares a rule of thumb for picking the right GPT-model
OpenAI's Ted Sanders has categorized the new GPT-6.1 Terra and explained how the company names its models. He says model performance is multidimensional, with model size, reasoning effort, and multi-agent systems as distinct dimensions that merging into a single "IQ score" would obscure, and newer smaller models can beat older larger ones via better data or architectures. According to Sanders, GPT-6.1 Terra is likely better than the larger Astra at technical communication and roughly matches it in image processing and computer use at a much lower price, but falls short in most other areas. His advice: pick Astra if you care only about quality, Sol if somewhat price sensitive, and Terra or Luna if very price sensitive.
Why it mattersAn OpenAI employee explains the size, reasoning effort, and multi-agent dimensions behind GPT model naming and offers concrete selection advice by price sensitivity.
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Original article
OpenAI's Ted Sanders has categorized the new GPT-6.1 Terra and explained how the company names its language models. According to Sanders, model performance is multidimensional. A model that's great at math won't automatically be good at jokes. Still, most performance gaps come down to one variable: model size. Sanders says OpenAI's model names are difficult to simplify because model size, reasoning effort, and multi-agent systems are distinct dimensions. Combining them into a single "IQ score" would obscure details.
And size doesn't explain everything. Newer, smaller models can outperform older, larger ones through better training data or improved architectures. GPT-6.1 Terra is likely better than the larger Astra at technical communication and roughly matches it in image processing and computer use at a much lower price point, but falls short in most other areas, Sanders says. "If you care about quality only, pick Astra. If you're a bit price sensitive, pick Sol. If you're very price sensitive, pick Terra or Luna."
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