OpenAI Scraps GPT-6.1 Astra Release Over Safety Concerns
Sep 29, 2026
AI Safety
OpenAI Releases GPT-6 Astra With New Cybersecurity Safeguards
Sep 4, 2026
OpenAI has released GPT-6 Astra to a limited set of organizations, with wider access through paid ChatGPT plans and cloud platforms coming within days.
OpenAI has released its previously announced Astra model with stronger cybersecurity safeguards as GPT-6 Astra, the company said in an announcement. Access is initially limited to selected organizations, with availability for ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise users planned over the coming days.
Developers will be able to use GPT-6 Astra through the OpenAI API as gpt-6-astra, Microsoft Azure, and AWS Bedrock. Standard API pricing is $10 per million input tokens and $50 per million output tokens.
OpenAI said Astra reached its Critical cybersecurity capability threshold. Without safeguards, the model scored 100% on ExploitBench and found two previously unknown vulnerabilities during another evaluation. The released model refuses advanced requests such as creating proof of concept exploits, while OpenAI plans to offer broader defensive access through Daybreak.
The company also found Astra's written reasoning harder to monitor than that of GPT-5.6 Sol. OpenAI said it is deploying monitoring systems that can stop actions identified as potentially unauthorized.
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