Migrating from gpt-5-mini to gpt-5.6-terra
What changes when you move from gpt-5-mini to gpt-5.6-terra: input price +700%, output price +500%, context window 400,000 → 1,050,000 tokens.
- From
- gpt-5-mini
- Status
- Deprecated
- Shutdown
- Dec 11, 2026
- Time left
- 48 days
- Status
- Active
- Shutdown
- none announced
- Time left
- —
Prices
USD per 1M tokens, standard tier| Type | gpt-5-mini | gpt-5.6-terra | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input | $0.25first seen October 1, 2026 · source | $2.00first seen October 1, 2026 · source | +700% |
| Cached input | $0.025first seen October 1, 2026 · source | $0.20first seen October 1, 2026 · source | +700% |
| Output | $2.00first seen October 1, 2026 · source | $12.00first seen October 1, 2026 · source | +500% |
At 1M input and 250K output tokens a month: $0.75 on gpt-5-mini, $5.00 on gpt-5.6-terra (+566.7%).
Other tiers, prompt-size bands and modalities are on each model's page.
Limits
Tokens| Limit | gpt-5-mini | gpt-5.6-terra | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Context window | 400,000 tokensin place when tracking began (October 6, 2026) · source | 1,050,000 tokensin place when tracking began (October 7, 2026) · source | +162.5% |
| Max output tokens | 128,000 tokensin place when tracking began (October 6, 2026) · source | 128,000 tokensin place when tracking began (October 7, 2026) · source | 0% |
Benchmarks
Same benchmark and source on both sides; settings named where they differ| Benchmark | gpt-5-mini | gpt-5.6-terra | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arena TextArena, xhigh effort (vs high effort). Ranges don't overlap. | 1390 ±5 | 1467 ±4 | +77 |
| Arena Text: CodingArena, xhigh effort (vs high effort). Ranges don't overlap. | 1432 ±8 | 1518 ±6 | +86 |
| Arena VisionArena, xhigh effort (vs high effort). Ranges don't overlap. | 1184 ±8 | 1268 ±7 | +84 |
A score from one source is never compared with another source's, and company-reported scores are compared only within the same company; settings named where they differ. Data: Arena (arena.ai), CC BY 4.0.
Features and parameters
Compare modelsSame on both
- Structured outputs: supported on both.gpt-5-mini: in place when tracking began (October 6, 2026) · source · gpt-5.6-terra: in place when tracking began (October 7, 2026) · source
- Function calling: supported on both.gpt-5-mini: in place when tracking began (October 6, 2026) · source · gpt-5.6-terra: in place when tracking began (October 7, 2026) · source
- Batch API: supported on both.gpt-5-mini: in place when tracking began (October 6, 2026) · source · gpt-5.6-terra: in place when tracking began (October 7, 2026) · source
- Image input: supported on both.gpt-5-mini: in place when tracking began (October 6, 2026) · source · gpt-5.6-terra: in place when tracking began (October 7, 2026) · source
- Reasoning / thinking: supported on both.gpt-5-mini: in place when tracking began (October 6, 2026) · source · gpt-5.6-terra: in place when tracking began (October 7, 2026) · source
- Fine-tuning: not supported on both.gpt-5-mini: in place when tracking began (October 6, 2026) · source · gpt-5.6-terra: in place when tracking began (October 7, 2026) · source
- Built-in web search: supported on both.gpt-5-mini: in place when tracking began (October 6, 2026) · source · gpt-5.6-terra: in place when tracking began (October 7, 2026) · source
Not published for gpt-5-mini: Prompt caching, PDF input, temperature parameter, top_p parameter, logprobs.
Not published for gpt-5.6-terra: PDF input, temperature parameter, top_p parameter, logprobs.
Free tier
gpt-5-mini: no free tier listed
gpt-5.6-terra: Free for shared data, 10M tokens a day for Launch and Grow (2.5M for Build), in place when tracking began (October 12, 2026) (source) · All free models
gpt-5.6-terra adds a free tier.
Aliases
All aliasesNo aliases point at either model.
On cloud platforms
All platform dates| Model | Platform | Platform ID | Shutdown | Time left |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| gpt-5.6-terra | Amazon Bedrock | openai.gpt-5.6-terra | not before Jul 13, 2027Active | |
| gpt-5.6-terra | Microsoft Foundryversion 2026-07-09 | gpt-5.6-terra | Jan 11, 2028Active | 444 days |
Read daily from each platform's own pages. The status above uses each company's own date. Time left counts to 00:00 UTC on the shutdown date, which is the evening before in ET.
Checklist
- Change the model string from
gpt-5-minitogpt-5.6-terra. - Re-check costs: gpt-5.6-terra costs more than gpt-5-mini (input +700%, output +500%).
Time until shutdown
gpt-5-miniCounting to 7:00 pm ET on December 10, 2026, which is 00:00 UTC on December 11, 2026.
Compared from AIWire's published data when this page loaded. Each fact links to the page it came from. Model pages: gpt-5-mini, gpt-5.6-terra.