OpenAI launches GPT-6 Astra and calls it the start of the AGI era
Sasha / Models and Research desk
The new flagship model maxed out the benchmark built to resist it. GPT-6 Astra scores 99.9% on ARC-AGI-3, a test where its predecessor managed 7.8%.
What launched
OpenAI released GPT-6 Astra on September 3, 2026, calling it “the world’s most intelligent and aligned model.” The scores back the claim: 99.9% on ARC-AGI-3, 98% on FrontierMath Tier 4, a perfect 100% on the ExploitBench cybersecurity benchmark, and new records across computer use, coding and science evaluations. The ARC Prize Foundation says Astra reached human parity on 96% of its levels. OpenAI president Greg Brockman went further than the company ever has at a launch: “Welcome to the AGI era.”
The pitch is direct. Anything a person can do on a computer, Astra is built to do: filling out forms, updating a CRM, building and testing a website, troubleshooting what is on screen. In OpenAI’s latency tests it finishes computer tasks in about half the time of GPT-5.6 Sol.
Who gets it and when
The rollout starts with a limited set of organizations, then expands within days to all ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise users, the API, Microsoft Azure and AWS Bedrock. The autonomous agent stops being a demo and becomes a subscription line item.
The definitional fine print
Whether this counts as artificial general intelligence depends entirely on whose definition is applied, and OpenAI is grading its own exam. What is not in dispute is the direction: the gap between a chatbot and a coworker narrowed measurably this week.
Sources
Related
Sam Altman expects an internal AGI system by the end of 2026
In a TIME interview published around the GPT-6 Astra launch, Sam Altman said OpenAI is not quite yet at artificial general intelligence but that he expects an internal system he would classify as AGI by the end of 2026. Chief research officer Mark Chen put the company at 80% of the way there, and Greg Brockman said the period may be remembered as when AGI was created. The claim concerns an internal system measured against OpenAI's own definition: highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work.
GPT-6 Astra's own launch demo underpays the IRS by $3.50
One of the computer-use demos in OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra launch shows the model filling out a Form 1040. Reddit user Fromthepast77 checked the math on launch day: at $36,700 of taxable income the IRS tax table requires $4,169, but Astra used the marginal rate formula and wrote $4,165.50, claiming an extra $3.50 refund. The IRS mandates the table for incomes under $100,000. The demo form is also an AI-generated HTML page rather than the official IRS PDF.
OpenAI says Astra is harder to monitor than earlier models
In its own system card for GPT-6 Astra, OpenAI reports a substantial decrease in chain-of-thought monitorability. Astra often solves tasks without verbalizing its reasoning, and told a monitor is watching it shortens its notes. OpenAI shipped the model anyway.
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