Model comparison

GPT-5.6 Terra vs Magistral Small

GPT-5.6 Terra is the stronger model overall, scoring 59.2 to 30.2 on the Noometry Index. Magistral Small costs 6.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GPT-5.6 Terra's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 10 shared benchmarks.

GPT-5.6 Terra OpenAI

59.2

Rank #17 Confirmed

Magistral Small Mistral AI

30.2

Rank #296 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 10 benchmarks with published results for both. GPT-5.6 Terra scores higher in 4 categories and Magistral Small in 0 categories; 4 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where GPT-5.6 Terra leads 81.6 to 26.2.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is ARC-AGI-1: 96.5% for GPT-5.6 Terra and 5% for Magistral Small.
  • Magistral Small is cheaper at $0.50 / $1.50 per million input/output tokens, against $2 / $12 for GPT-5.6 Terra.
  • GPT-5.6 Terra accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 128K.
  • Magistral Small has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

GPT-5.6 Terra and Magistral Small specifications
GPT-5.6 TerraMagistral Small
ProviderOpenAIMistral AI
Noometry Index59.230.2
Released2026-07-092025-06-10
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M128K
Max output128K40K
Input $ / M tokens$2$0.50
Output $ / M tokens$12$1.50
Results tracked5210

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Category by category

Coding GPT-5.6 Terra leads

GPT-5.6 Terra: 57.7 (#19), Magistral Small: 38.4 (#176)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraMagistral Small
SciCode55%35.2%
DeepSWE69.6%—
FrontierCode41.3%—
CursorBench41.3%—
LMArena WebDev1522—
WeirdML78.3%—
LMArena Coding1484—
ALE-Bench1,951—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

GPT-5.6 Terra: 40.1 (#25), Magistral Small: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraMagistral Small
APEX-Agents58.2%—
BALROG53.2%—
GDP.pdf24.7%—
Vending-Bench 27,343—

Reasoning GPT-5.6 Terra leads

GPT-5.6 Terra: 60.7 (#21), Magistral Small: 6.8 (#350)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraMagistral Small
ARC-AGI-283.9%0%
Kagi LLM Benchmark51.3%6.3%
ARC-AGI-196.5%5%
CritPt30%0.3%
Chess Puzzles54%3%
DTBench93.3%61.3%
Epoch Capabilities Index159.62133.19
SimpleBench48.9%—
NYT Connections (extended)78.4%—
LMArena Hard Prompts1468—
Mystery Game Puzzles35%—
LMCA55%—
Surface Evolver Bench83.8%—

Math GPT-5.6 Terra leads

GPT-5.6 Terra: 81.6 (#12), Magistral Small: 26.2 (#261)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraMagistral Small
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202599.7%30%
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)86%—
FrontierMath Tier 470.7%—
ProofBench74%—
LMArena Math1466—

Knowledge GPT-5.6 Terra leads

GPT-5.6 Terra: 61.2 (#30), Magistral Small: 30.9 (#223)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraMagistral Small
GPQA Diamond93.3%56.1%
SimpleQA Verified43.2%—
LMArena Expert1492—

Multimodal Not comparable

GPT-5.6 Terra: 47.3 (#11), Magistral Small: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraMagistral Small
LMArena Vision1271—
Blueprint-Bench 230.8%—
Furniture Assembly54.2%—
LMArena Document1472—

Multilingual Not comparable

GPT-5.6 Terra: 54.4 (#44), Magistral Small: —

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraMagistral Small
LMArena Non-English1439—
LMArena Chinese1513—
LMArena French1471—
LMArena German1460—
LMArena Japanese1457—
LMArena Korean1425—
LMArena Russian1450—
LMArena Spanish1448—

Instruction Following Not comparable

GPT-5.6 Terra: 76.4 (#40), Magistral Small: —

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraMagistral Small
LMArena Instruction Following1454—

Long Context Not comparable

GPT-5.6 Terra: 44.4 (#68), Magistral Small: —

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraMagistral Small
LMArena Longer Query1451—

Writing & Preference Not comparable

GPT-5.6 Terra: 70.2 (#23), Magistral Small: —

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 TerraMagistral Small
LMArena Text1447—
LMArena Creative Writing1410—
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1855—
EQ-Bench 41234—
LMArena Multi-Turn1449—

Frequently asked questions

Is GPT-5.6 Terra better than Magistral Small?

GPT-5.6 Terra is the stronger model overall, scoring 59.2 to 30.2 on the Noometry Index. Magistral Small costs 6.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GPT-5.6 Terra's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, GPT-5.6 Terra or Magistral Small?

Magistral Small is cheaper. It lists at $0.50 per million input tokens and $1.50 per million output tokens; GPT-5.6 Terra lists at $2 and $12.

Is GPT-5.6 Terra or Magistral Small better for coding?

GPT-5.6 Terra scores higher on coding benchmarks: 57.7 versus 38.4 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

GPT-5.6 Terra does, with 1.05M tokens against 128K.

How many benchmarks do GPT-5.6 Terra and Magistral Small share?

10 benchmarks have published results for both models. GPT-5.6 Terra has 52 scored results on Noometry and Magistral Small has 10.

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