Update #2: A few hours later, Plus users with the $20/month subscription now have Astra access as well.
It’s been just over a year since OpenAI released the first GPT-5 models for ChatGPT. Now it’s time for GPT-6 Astra to upgrade ChatGPT and Codex capabilities. Details below.
GPT-6 Astra details
OpenAI has officially detailed its new model, GPT-6 Astra, which it calls “the world’s most intelligent and aligned model.”
Here’s more from the official announcement today:
GPT‑6 Astra brings together years of research and big bets across pre-training, reinforcement learning, and alignment. Astra is state-of-the-art on computer use, browsing, software engineering, cybersecurity, science, and professional work. Astra saturates FrontierMath Tier 4 with a 98% score, having already helped solve long-standing open problems in mathematics. Astra also saturates ARC-AGI-3 with a 99.9% score and ExploitBench with a 100% score. It also sets a new frontier on computer and browser use, handling the most demanding professional work with unmatched speed, accuracy, and judgment.
OpenAI goes further on how GPT-6 improves computer use, which allows ChatGPT to use your Mac or other desktop, including in the background while you work:
GPT‑6 Astra pairs advances in computer use with targeted training for professional environments, to help tackle complex work tasks. It combines the intelligence required for complex problems with the ability to carry out multistep workflows and produce polished documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.
Additionally, GPT-6 Astra is “the best model for software engineering to date,” OpenAI says.
In terms of Codex specifically, here’s something new about GPT-6:
With Astra, we’re introducing a new way for Codex to preserve and retrieve context when the context window fills. Historically, models have used compaction to summarize work during long sessions, such as when debugging complex issues or tackling large refactors. Each compaction can leave out details about why a fix failed or how a component behaves. In Codex, Astra can keep notes across context windows, preserving accumulated details without repeatedly compressing them into a single summary. Earlier context windows remain searchable, so Astra can find requirements or test results from previous messages and tool outputs—even if that information wasn’t captured in its notes. You can enable this experimental feature in your Codex, and it will become the default for Astra in the coming weeks.
OpenAI calls GPT-6 Astra a “significant jump in cyber capabilities,” adding that it “meets the Critical threshold in cybersecurity under our Preparedness Framework.”
For that reason, the model is rolling out slowly to users.
“GPT‑6 Astra is rolling out today to a limited set of organizations and over the coming days will become available to all ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise users, as well as through the OpenAI API and AWS,” OpenAI says.
“Astra usage is included within the existing subscription allowances—users and businesses will also be able to purchase credits for additional usage. Users on the Pro, Business, and Enterprise plans will also get access to GPT‑6 Astra Pro. Enterprise administrators can enable Astra for their workspace; access is off by default at launch.”
GPT-5 launched August 7, 2025, replacing GPT-4o and several reasoning models as ChatGPT’s default. Its defining feature was automatic routing: ChatGPT could answer quickly or invoke deeper reasoning depending on the request. OpenAI also claimed fewer factual errors than GPT-4o.
Apple adopted the model with iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS Tahoe 26. ChatGPT requests passed through Apple Intelligence, including Siri handoffs, Writing Tools, and visual intelligence, switched from GPT-4o to GPT-5.
GPT-5.1 promised warmer, more natural answers in November. December’s “code red” GPT-5.2 accelerated professional work in response to Gemini. GPT-5.3 Instant targeted ChatGPT’s “cringe” tone, followed two days later by GPT-5.4 Thinking with a million-token context window and built-in computer use.
OpenAI subsequently added GPT-5.4 mini and nano, the restricted GPT-5.4-Cyber, GPT-5.5 for more autonomous work, GPT-5.5 Instant, and July’s GPT-5.6 Sol, Terra, and Luna models.
From the Codex Mac app to a new ChatGPT
The software around those models transformed too. OpenAI launched a dedicated Codex Mac app in February as a hub for running multiple coding agents, reviewing changes, and scheduling work.
In July, Codex effectively became the new ChatGPT desktop app, combining Chat, Work, and Codex while the previous native client was renamed ChatGPT Classic.
For me, Codex has changed how I work with ChatGPT the most. I’m able to offload a lot more work that doesn’t require critical thinking and even build tools on my Mac that I couldn’t put together otherwise.
GPT-6 availability
OpenAI says its new GPT-6 models will only be available to its cyber security-focused Daybreak program members to start. This echoes a similar release cadence with the previous model release, GPT-5.6.
Here’s what OpenAI says about availability, specifically:
You can learn much more about OpenAI’s latest frontier model here.
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