OpenAI Releases GPT-6 Model Guide to Help Users Match Models to Tasks and Control Costs

OpenAI has released a guide for its GPT-6 model family, offering advice on picking models and writing better prompts for different workloads. The company calls the series its most advanced models yet, covering tasks from early prototypes to multi-step workflows across code, databases and external APIs.

For model choice, OpenAI says users should match the model to the job instead of defaulting to the most powerful one. GPT-6 Astra is built for the hardest reasoning tasks, GPT-6.1 Sol fits complex coding and research, and GPT-6 Luna handles large-scale, repetitive work such as pulling invoice fields or sorting requests.

On prompts, OpenAI suggests stating the goal, audience, context and what counts as done, rather than writing long step-by-step instructions. For reasoning effort, everyday questions do not need the highest setting, which is better saved for complex analysis, debugging or deep research.