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© 2026 CompareLLM. Public benchmark data aggregated from Arena Elo, LiveBench, SWE-bench & OpenRouter.

Every score has a dated snapshot.

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  3. GPT-4o vs GPT-5.6 Terra

Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026

GPT-4o vs GPT-5.6 Terra benchmark

In this head-to-head showdown, GPT-5.6 Terra delivers higher overall intelligence and human-preferred responses (Elo 1,548 vs 1,335), while GPT-5.6 Terra leads in SWE-bench software engineering benchmarks (70.4%), while GPT-4o is more budget-friendly at $10/1M per 1M output tokens, while GPT-5.6 Terra provides faster response streaming (128 tok/s). Review the complete breakdown below to determine which model best fits your performance and budget requirements.

Executive Comparison Verdict

Bottom Line: Choose GPT-5.6 Terra if your priority is peak reasoning, complex code generation, and top preference Elo. Choose GPT-4o if you are optimizing for low latency, high throughput, and cost-efficient API deployment.
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Verified Head-to-Head Advantage Breakdown

9 direct benchmark disciplines evaluated across capability, speed, and cost

GPT-4o (1)GPT-5.6 Terra (8)
GPT-4o
1 of 9 Wins
✓Output price
GPT-5.6 Terra
8 of 9 Wins
✓Preference Elo✓LiveBench✓SWE-bench✓GPQA Diamond✓Time to first token✓Output speed✓Input price✓Context window
OpenAI
Leads 1 of 9 metrics
GPT-4o

Previous OpenAI flagship. Still a common compare baseline on legacy pages.

Elo 1,335$10/1M out
OpenAI
Leads 8 of 9 metrics
GPT-5.6 Terra

OpenAI 5.6 mid tier. Official API $2/$12 per 1M after the Jul 30 2026 price cut.

Terra Mid-TierElo 1,548$12/1M out

GPT-4 Series Lineage & Sibling Variants

3 models

Currently comparing GPT-4o vs GPT-5.6 Terra. Alternative family tiers available.

Active: GPT-4o
GPT-4o mini$0.6GPT-4.5 Orion$150
Top Rival Showdowns for GPT-4o
All Matchups
Compare vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5vs Gemini 3 Provs Grok 4.6vs DeepSeek V4 Provs Qwen 3 Max
Preference LeaderGPT-5.6 Terra Wins

GPT-5.6 Terra

Δ 213 Arena Elo pts

Throughput LeaderGPT-5.6 Terra Wins

GPT-5.6 Terra

128 tok/s

Value per Dollar LeaderGPT-4o Wins

GPT-4o

$10 / 1M output

Capability Percentiles

Relative percentile scores computed across all active models in the benchmark catalog.

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Leaders Matchup Capability Radar

Comparing top Western standard models with China's leading frontier rival across 6 skill dimensions. Tap any spoke or dot to inspect.

Tap any node to inspect
Percentile 0–100
Head-to-Head Comparison

Overall Matchup Breakdown

Category wins across reasoning intelligence, generation speed, and token cost.

GPT-4o (1)vsGPT-5.6 Terra (9)
GPT-4o: 1W (10%)Overall: GPT-5.6 TerraGPT-5.6 Terra: 9W (90%)
← GPT-4oGPT-5.6 Terra →
🏆GPT-5.6 Terra(5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Benchmark
GPT-4ovsGPT-5.6 Terra
Preference Elo
1,335vs1,548+213
Coding Elo
—vs1,542
SWE-bench
54.8%vs70.4%+15.6%
LiveBench
54.2%vs69.1%+14.9%
GPQA Diamond
73.2%vs82%+8.8%
GPT-4o: 0WGPT-5.6 Terra: 5W
🏆GPT-5.6 Terra(2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Benchmark
GPT-4ovsGPT-5.6 Terra
Output speed
110 tok/svs128 tok/s+18 tok/s
Time to first token
180 msvs160 ms+20 ms
GPT-4o: 0WGPT-5.6 Terra: 2W
🏆GPT-5.6 Terra(2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Benchmark
GPT-4ovsGPT-5.6 Terra
Output price
$10/1Mvs$12/1M+$2/1M
Input price
$2.5/1Mvs$2/1M+$0.5/1M
Context window
128kvs1M+872k
GPT-4o: 1WGPT-5.6 Terra: 2W

Side-by-Side Benchmark Matrix

Preference Elo+213
GPT-4o1,335
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
GPT-5.6 Terra1,548
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
Coding Elo
GPT-4o—
GPT-5.6 Terra1,542
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
LiveBench+14.9%
GPT-4o54.2%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
GPT-5.6 Terra69.1%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
SWE-bench+15.6%
GPT-4o54.8%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
GPT-5.6 Terra70.4%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
GPQA Diamond+8.8%
GPT-4o73.2%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
GPT-5.6 Terra82%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
Time to first token+20 ms
GPT-4o180 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
GPT-5.6 Terra160 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
Output speed+18 tok/s
GPT-4o110 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
GPT-5.6 Terra128 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
Input price+$0.5/1M
GPT-4o$2.5/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
GPT-5.6 Terra$2/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
Output price+$2/1M
GPT-4o$10/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
GPT-5.6 Terra$12/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
Context window+872k
GPT-4o128k
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
GPT-5.6 Terra1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
BenchmarkGPT-4oGPT-5.6 TerraAdvantage Delta
Preference Elo
1,335
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
1,548
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
+213
Coding Elo—
1,542
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
—
LiveBench
54.2%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
69.1%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
+14.9%
SWE-bench
54.8%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
70.4%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
+15.6%
GPQA Diamond
73.2%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
82%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
+8.8%
Time to first token
180 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
160 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
+20 ms
Output speed
110 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
128 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
+18 tok/s
Input price
$2.5/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
$2/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
+$0.5/1M
Output price
$10/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
$12/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
+$2/1M
Context window
128k
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
+872k
Interactive Simulator (USD)

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Simulate monthly production API costs in USD (US Dollar).

Save up to 5% with GPT-4o
Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo
Quick Presets:
Token Ratio (In vs Out)70% In / 30% Out
RAG / Search (10% out)Coding / Chat (50% out)
GPT-4o$237.50 / mo
In: $87.5Out: $150
GPT-5.6 Terra$250.00 / mo
In: $70Out: $180
Estimated Cost Delta

GPT-4o is estimated to save $12.50/month ($150/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

  • 1
    GPT-5.6 Terra:Pick GPT-5.6 Terra when repo-level coding accuracy is the constraint.
  • 2
    GPT-4o:Pick GPT-4o when you are optimizing output cost.
  • 3
    GPT-5.6 Terra:Pick GPT-5.6 Terra when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsGPT-5.6 Terra

Higher SWE-bench (70.4%).

High-volume chatGPT-4o

Lower output list price ($10/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIGPT-5.6 Terra

Lower TTFT (160 ms).

Long-document RAGGPT-5.6 Terra

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionGPT-5.6 Terra

Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (GPT-5.6 Terra).

Target WorkloadRecommended PickEvaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agentsGPT-5.6 TerraHigher SWE-bench (70.4%).
High-volume chatGPT-4oLower output list price ($10/1M).
Voice / low-latency UIGPT-5.6 TerraLower TTFT (160 ms).
Long-document RAGGPT-5.6 TerraLarger window (1M).
Screenshots / visionGPT-5.6 TerraBoth accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (GPT-5.6 Terra).

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

View all news
priceJul 30, 2026

GPT-5.6 Terra after the Jul 30 cut: $2/$12 mid-tier

Terra is OpenAI’s Sonnet-class invoice. Use it when Sol is too expensive and Luna is too small.

newsMay 13, 2024

GPT-4o stays as the 2024 compare anchor people still search

Deprecated for buying. Kept because “4o vs sonnet” is still a typed query.

Community Sentiment

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CompareLLM AI Matrix

Verified Head-to-Head Telemetry

LIVE BENCHMARK
VS
OpenAI

GPT-4o

Elo 1,335
SWE-bench54.8%
Speed (tok/s)110 tok/s
Input / 1M Tokens$2.5/1M
Output / 1M Tokens$10/1M
OpenAI

GPT-5.6 Terra

Elo 1,548
SWE-bench70.4%
Speed (tok/s)128 tok/s
Input / 1M Tokens$2/1M
Output / 1M Tokens$12/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, GPT-4o or GPT-5.6 Terra?
GPT-5.6 Terra has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,548). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, GPT-4o or GPT-5.6 Terra?
GPT-5.6 Terra leads SWE-bench at 70.4% vs 54.8%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?
GPT-4o output tokens are $10/1M versus $12/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, GPT-4o or GPT-5.6 Terra?
GPT-5.6 Terra has the lower time-to-first-token (160 ms vs 180 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?
GPT-5.6 Terra accepts 1M tokens versus 128k.
Can I self-host either model?
Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.
Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?
No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.
What does preference Elo mean on this page?
Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. GPT-4o and GPT-5.6 Terra Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Related news

  • price · Jul 30, 2026

    GPT-5.6 Terra after the Jul 30 cut: $2/$12 mid-tier

  • news · May 13, 2024

    GPT-4o stays as the 2024 compare anchor people still search

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All GPT-4o matchups →|All GPT-5.6 Terra matchups →
GPT-4o vs GPT-4 Turbo (previous gpt-flagship)GPT-4o vs OpenAI o1 (next gpt-flagship)GPT-5 vs GPT-5.6 TerraOpenAI o3-mini vs GPT-5.6 TerraGPT-4.5 Orion vs GPT-5.6 TerraGPT-5.6 Sol vs GPT-5.6 Terra