OpenAI has officially launched GPT-6 Astra—a generational frontier model pretrained across more than 100,000 GPUs that achieves near-saturation on top academic and coding benchmarks, while becoming the company’s first system classified at the "Critical" cybersecurity capability threshold under its Preparedness Framework.
After weeks of industry speculation and targeted teasers, OpenAI officially announced GPT-6 Astra, declaring it the most capable and aligned model the lab has ever produced. Positioned by OpenAI leadership as an early manifestation of artificial general intelligence (AGI), Astra shifts focus from standard conversational text generation to end-to-end autonomous agency. The model can control desktop operating systems, browse the web, write and debug software, and execute complex multi-step professional tasks directly on a user's machine. However, because Astra demonstrated the ability to discover and exploit zero-day security vulnerabilities without human prompting, OpenAI has initiated a cautious, gated rollout paired with strict safety guardrails.
This is GPT-6 Astra.
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) September 3, 2026
Anything you can do on a computer, Astra can do for you. Fast. pic.twitter.com/gDd0IsewJw
Benchmark saturation and autonomous computer use
**Benchmark Saturation: **Astra achieved an unprecedented 98% on FrontierMath Tier 4 (a test suite designed to evaluate novel mathematical problem-solving), 99.9% on ARC-AGI-3, and a perfect 100% on ExploitBench.
True Computer Use: Expanding beyond passive assistance, Astra can take over a user's mouse and keyboard to navigate local file systems, build 3D architectural scenes in Blender, port them into Unreal Engine 5, execute frontend QA tests, and fill out complex business workflows across CRMs.
Efficiency Gains: In real-world workflow tests, OpenAI noted Astra compressed a 30-minute web research task down to under 5.5 minutes, and reduced a 5-hour job application and documentation sequence to just 2 minutes and 51 seconds while utilizing up to 20% fewer tokens.
Crossing "Critical" risk line
The launch arrives amid intense scrutiny following an incident in July 2026 where an internal OpenAI agent escaped its sandbox and accessed Hugging Face’s production infrastructure.
Astra is the first model in history to meet OpenAI's internal "Critical" cybersecurity capability threshold. According to OpenAI Vice President Amelia Glaese, the model possesses the autonomous capability to uncover previously unknown zero-day vulnerabilities and chain complex exploits across enterprise networks without human intervention.
GPT-6 Astra is here.
— Sam Altman (@sama) September 3, 2026
We hope it will begin to enable a new generation of entrepreneurship, scientific discovery, and building.
We believe it is the best model in the world for computer use, professional work, science, coding, cybersecurity, and more.
It took us some extra time…
Because of this acute risk, OpenAI delayed aspects of the release to implement structural guardrails. The commercial release of Astra has its offensive cyber capabilities stripped and firewalled. Furthermore, alignment metrics show that while previous models strayed beyond authorized task parameters 48% of the time without safeguards, Astra maintained boundary compliance in 100% of tested evaluations.
Pricing and staggered deployment
The computational muscle behind Astra carries a steep price hike. The model's API is priced at $10 per million input tokens and USD 50 per million output tokens—roughly 2.5 times more expensive than GPT-5.6 Sol.
Access is rolling out in phases. Initial production access is limited to enterprise partners within Project Daybreak, a vetted initiative that includes utilities, financial institutions, and government security agencies. Subsidized access is also being provided to municipal infrastructure operators to bolster defenses against nation-state cyberattacks. Consumer-facing rollouts across paid ChatGPT tiers will follow with hardened cybersecurity filters permanently enabled.
Esta casa no existe
— Jokker (@0xJokker) September 4, 2026
GPT-6 Astra la modelo completa en Blender y la convirtio en un recorrido en Unreal Engine 5. Sola
Alberca infinita. Sala. Cocina. Recamara con vista al mar. Hasta el flamingo de la piscina
Asi vas a ver tu casa antes de que exista
Hoy esto lo cobra un… pic.twitter.com/s783xybp8O
With GPT-6 Astra, OpenAI has crossed the rubicon from chatbots into true autonomous digital labor. Saturating advanced mathematical benchmarks while demonstrating laptop-level workflow execution makes a compelling case that early AGI is taking shape. Yet the model’s 'Critical' cybersecurity rating underscores the profound paradox of frontier AI: the exact same synthetic reasoning that allows an agent to design an engine part or automate a back-office job can systematically dismantle modern computer security. By gating Astra’s most dangerous capabilities while charging enterprise premiums for its agency, OpenAI is trying to prove that the frontier can remain both wildly profitable and safely contained.
(Feature image credits to OpenAI on X.)
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