OpenAI Launches GPT-6 Astra, Its First Model to Cross a Critical Cybersecurity Threshold
OpenAI shipped GPT-6 Astra on 3 September 2026 and rated it Critical for cybersecurity capability under its own Preparedness Framework, the first model of any lab to carry that tier. Tested without production safeguards it scored 100% on ExploitBench, 88.0% on SRE-Bench and 39.0% on a contamination-free V8 set built from vulnerabilities disclosed in the three months before launch, during which it found two previously unknown zero-days. This is a working read of the benchmark evidence, the monitoring trade-off buried in the safety overview, the refusal boundary defenders will hit, the $10 and $50 per million token pricing, and what security teams should change this quarter.