Paid ChatGPT subscribers have had a new model to choose from since October 26, 2026, when OpenAI began rolling out GPT-6.1 Terra to Plus, Pro, Enterprise and Edu users in ChatGPT Work and Codex. OpenAI says the model matches GPT-6 Astra, its most powerful option, at one-tenth of the price per token, and that its standard API prices are 50% lower than those of GPT-5.6 Terra, the model it replaces.
For Nigerian users, the rollout splits neatly in two. If you pay for ChatGPT Plus, the model should appear in your model picker over the coming days, with no change to what you pay. If you’re a developer or a startup building on OpenAI’s API, the bigger story is the bill, because GPT-6.1 Terra costs $1 per million input tokens and $5 per million output tokens, which is the kind of cut that changes whether an AI feature is affordable to run when every invoice is settled in dollars. OpenAI’s announcement doesn’t mention the free or Go plans, so there’s no sign yet that free users are getting it.
| Released | 26 October 2026 |
|---|---|
| ChatGPT plans | Plus, Pro, Enterprise and Edu (ChatGPT Work and Codex) |
| API name | gpt-6.1-terra |
| Launch Price | $1 per 1M input tokens, $5 per 1M output tokens |
| Cached input | $0.05 per 1M tokens |
| Context window | 1,050,000 tokens |
| Maximum output | 128,000 tokens |
| Input and output | Text and image in, text out |
| Knowledge cutoff | 1 June 2026 |
| Free and Go plans | Not confirmed |
OpenAI built this one to use your apps for you
OpenAI pitches GPT-6.1 Terra as a model for computer use, meaning it can read what’s on a screen and take actions across apps instead of only answering in a chat window. In the company’s GPT-6.1 Terra announcement, it says the model finishes tasks more than three times faster on average than both GPT-6 Astra and GPT-6.1 Sol on Agents’ Last Exam, a benchmark that tests how well AI agents handle real software at work, and that it substantially outperforms GPT-5.6 Terra on the same test.
Those are OpenAI’s own figures, and they come from OpenAI’s own testing, so treat them as a guide rather than a guarantee of how the model will behave on your tasks. The company also isn’t claiming Terra replaces its bigger models for everything. It recommends GPT-6.1 Sol or GPT-6 Astra for in-depth research and complex coding, and positions Terra as the quicker, cheaper choice for everyday work.
Plus subscribers get more room before hitting the limit
A practical change for Plus users is how far your allowance goes. OpenAI says usage limits in ChatGPT Work and Codex stretch further with GPT-6.1 Terra than they did with GPT-5.6 Terra, and much further than with Sol or Astra. If you regularly run into the cap while drafting documents, summarising long files or working through spreadsheets, switching to Terra for those jobs should leave more of your allowance for the moments you actually need a heavier model.
The model takes text and images as input but only replies in text, so it won’t handle audio or video directly. ChatGPT has been changing quickly on the free side too, with OpenAI preparing ads for free and Go users in Nigeria, which is another reason the gap between free and paid plans matters more than it did a few months ago.
What the new prices mean for Nigerian developers
According to the GPT-6.1 Terra model page, cached input costs $0.05 per million tokens, and the Batch and Flex options are 50% cheaper again for work that doesn’t need an instant answer. The context window runs to 1,050,000 tokens, with up to 128,000 tokens of output, so a single request can hold very long documents or codebases. There’s a catch for heavy prompts, though, because anything above 272,000 tokens is billed at twice the normal input rate and one and a half times the output rate.
Because OpenAI bills in US dollars, the naira cost of any API project still moves with the exchange rate and with whatever limits your bank places on dollar card spending. Halving the token price doesn’t remove that exposure, but it does make it cheaper to test a customer-support bot, a document reader or an automation tool before committing real money to it. Developers already on GPT-5.6 Terra can switch by changing the model name to gpt-6.1-terra and comparing results on their own data first.
OpenAI isn’t the only company pushing AI that works in the background, as we saw with Claude Duet’s arrival and its wait for Nigerian users. If you’re on Plus, open the model picker this week and try Terra on the routine jobs that eat into your limit, and keep Sol or Astra for the hard problems; if you’re on the free plan, nothing changes for now.
