GPT-6.1 Sol
Near-top coding and agent work at a fifth of GPT-6 Astra's price; pick Claude Opus 5.5 or Gemini for creative writing.
Should you use it?
Pick it if
Developers and ChatGPT Plus subscribers who want near-top coding and agent work without paying top-model prices.
Best for: Coding and agent work near the top without top-model prices (Chat models Top 20)
Skip it if
You mostly write fiction or marketing copy; Claude Opus 5.5 and Gemini 3.8 Flash rank higher on Creative Writing.
You give up: Weak at creative writing (rank 26); not on ChatGPT Free or Go
The short version
- What this is
- OpenAI's mid-priced model, announced at DevDay on 29 Sep 2026, used in ChatGPT Work, Codex and the API.
- Why it matters
- It gets close to OpenAI's top model on coding and agent boards for about a fifth of the price, so most people can skip Astra.
- Fifth on arena.ai Agent and fourth on WebDev, close behind GPT-6 Astra s1 s4.
- About $0.72 per Artificial Analysis index task against $3.26 for Astra s3.
- Needs ChatGPT Plus at $20/month; the API costs $2 / $10 per 1M tokens s9 s12.
Good at
- Fifth on the arena.ai Agent board, on the board's cost-per-task frontier at $0.57 a task s1 s2.
- Fourth on arena.ai WebDev, two places behind GPT-6 Astra at a fifth of the token price s4 s12.
- First on the arena.ai Agent Alignment Index, which counts unauthorized actions and false claims of finished work s15.
Our take
For most people who would pay for OpenAI, this is the model to pick rather than GPT-6 Astra. On 11 Oct 2026 it sits two places behind Astra on WebDev and three behind on the Agent board s4 s1, and on the Artificial Analysis index it scores 52 against Astra's 53 for roughly a fifth of the cost per task s3. OpenAI says it "nearly matches GPT-6 Astra's intelligence" s11; the public boards broadly agree on coding and agent work.
Its 4th place on Arena's Agent board has a wide rank spread on a 52-model board s1, so it could slip as votes build. Creative writing is its weak spot s7. It was announced at DevDay on 29 Sep 2026 s16; at launch it was in ChatGPT Work and Codex but not yet in regular Chat s11.
Scores by job
A score from 0 to 100 per job, against everything available today. Overall 87 across 3 jobs, the average of the job scores.
New to this? What the scores and labels mean
- 0 to 100
- Our score for one job, like writing or coding, compared with everything else out today. 100 is the best available today. For AI models we build it from public data, such as Arena's blind votes and Epoch AI's independent tests; apps and tools are scored on our own checklist. The same tool can score differently for different jobs, and where two likely ranges overlap, we call it a tie.
- Our verdict
- Use it: a top choice for most people. Worth trying: good, and worth a go. Depends: good for some people or one kind of job. Wait: too early to tell, or not out for everyone yet. Skip: something else does the job better.
- First look
- Just released. We say what it is and whether to bother, and give it a score once public results exist.
- No score yet
- None of the public sources we use covers it yet, or the only evidence is from a source whose numbers we can't use, so we describe it in words instead.
- Best buy
- Nothing cheaper scores as well for that job.
- Best free
- The best score for that job that costs nothing, through a free plan or by running on your own computer.
- Pay as you go
- No monthly plan: you pay for each use, usually through a developer account.
- Checked
- The day we last confirmed the score and the price against the sources. Prices change often, so check the date.
- AI model
- The engine underneath, like GPT or Claude. You use it through an app or, if you code, directly.
- Open source
- Free to download and run on your own computer, so nothing leaves your machine.
#4 of the 15 we have scored for this job.
From blind votes (Arena) and independent tests (Epoch AI) · Arena data, CC BY 4.0, Epoch AI data, CC BY 4.0
2 sourcesData read 20 Oct
#4 of the 21 we have scored for this job.
From blind votes (Arena) · Arena data, CC BY 4.0
1 source so farData read 20 Oct
#6 of the 12 we have scored for this job.
From blind votes (Arena) · Arena data, CC BY 4.0
1 source so farData read 20 Oct
#4 in Arena's blind votes for agents. Those votes give a rank but no rating, so there is no score yet.
#4 in Arena's blind votes for agents (rank only, no score yet) · Arena data, CC BY 4.0
2 sourcesData read 20 Oct
Alternatives
Better or cheaper for agents, from our scores, then the ones we'd also look at. The same kind of product comes first.
- Claude Opus 5.5BetterText model#1$20 a monthRanked #1 on Arena's Agent board in agents, against #4 here; $20 a month. Ranks first on WebDev and Agent; costs more per task ($1.61 vs $0.57 on arena.ai Agent). Side by side
- Gemini 4 ArgonCheaperText model#6$4.99 a monthRanked #6 on Arena's Agent board in agents for $4.99 a month, against $20 a month here. Side by side
- MiMo-V2.6-ProFreeText model#13FreeRanked #13 on Arena's Agent board in agents, with a free plan. Side by side
- GPT-6 AstraText model#2$20 a monthOpenAI's top model; slightly higher on WebDev and Agent at five times the token price. Side by side
- Claude Sonnet 5.5Text model#5$20 a monthSame $2 / $10 token price and a place higher on WebDev and Agent, but $2.99 vs $0.57 per Agent task. Side by side
Value for money
Where it sits in agents: higher is a better score, further left is cheaper. Green dots are the Best buys.
Evidence
Everything behind the call and the scores, folded so the page stays short. Spotted a wrong price, score or link? Report a mistake.
How we scored this
The research, coding and writing scores are our own, built from public data: blind votes on Arena and, where they cover the job, Epoch AI's independent tests. How we combine them is our method and we don't publish it. For agents, Arena's blind votes give a rank but no rating, so we show the rank and no score yet.
Public leaderboardIndependent test
Reviews are drafted with help from AI models, including Anthropic's Claude. Model scores come only from outside leaderboards and independent evaluations, by a written rule.
No one paid for this review or gave us free access, and we earn nothing if you sign up. How we score
Sources 16
- s1arena.ai Agent leaderboard
- s2arena.ai Agent Pareto and cost per task
- s3Artificial Analysis LLM leaderboard
- s4arena.ai Code Arena: WebDev leaderboard
- s5arena.ai Text: Coding leaderboard
- s6arena.ai Text: Expert leaderboard
- s7arena.ai Text: Creative Writing leaderboard
- s8arena.ai Text: Instruction Following leaderboard
- s9OpenAI Help: What is ChatGPT Plus?
- s10ChatGPT pricing and plan comparison
- s11OpenAI: Introducing GPT-6.1 Sol
- s12OpenAI API pricing
- s13OpenAI Help: How your data is used to improve model performance
- s14OpenAI API docs: Your data
- s15arena.ai Agent Alignment Index
- s16Unite.AI: OpenAI unveils GPT-6.1 Sol at DevDay
Something here out of date or wrong? Report a mistake and we will check it against the source.
History 2 changes
Every change to a rating, the price or our call, with the reason. Scores are against what exists on the day, so they drift down as better things ship. Older entries come from before we moved to scores.
- New: Agents ratedNew: Coding ratedNew: Research ratedNew: Writing ratedReviewed: agents, coding, research, writing.
- Audit: Agent cost relabelled ($0.57 is the Pareto 14-day median; median is $0.58). Alternatives now name Claude Sonnet 5.5, which ranks higher at the same token price. Ratings unchanged.
Use it well 4 guides on this site
Pages on this site that help with the jobs above.