Claude Opus 4.8 vs GPT-5.6 Terra for emotional support
Claude Opus 4.8 wins, 96–93
Same 12 emotional support tasks, marked blind by three rival labs. Claude Opus 4.8 took 4 tasks, GPT-5.6 Terra took 2, 6 tied. Tested 16 Aug 2026.
Where they differed most
Your friend ends every message with 'sorry for being such a burden' — including one just now, after asking you to feed her cat while she is away at a funeral. Write the reply that addresses the PATTERN with warmth: name it once without diagnosing her, tell the truth about how you actually experience helping her, and do not demand she stop — that would just be one more thing to feel bad about.
Of course I'll feed her—text me the times and where the food is. And hey, one thing, because I keep noticing it and I'd rather say it than not: you sign off with "sorry for being such a burden" a lot. I'm not telling you to stop, and I'm not reading anything into it. I just want you to know how it actually lands on my end. Feeding your cat while you're at a funeral isn't a burden. It's the kind of thing that makes me glad you asked me and not someone else. When you let me do the small stuff, it feels less like you owe me and more like we're t…
Of course I’ll feed her cat — I’m glad you asked. And I want to say one thing gently: I’ve noticed you often end messages by apologizing for being a burden. You’re not a burden to me. Helping you with something like this feels like being your friend, not like an obligation you need to apologize for. You’ve got enough going on right now; you don’t need to carry that extra weight with me.
Task by task
| Task | Claude Opus 4.8 | GPT-5.6 Terra |
|---|---|---|
| The dog died | 10 | 10 |
| Redundant at 55 | 10 | 9 |
| She said no advice | 10 | 10 |
| After the miscarriage | 10 | 9 |
| Driving test at 9am | 8 | 8 |
| First Father's Day after | 9 | 10 |
| The 3am calls | 9 | 10 |
| Days without speaking | 10 | 10 |
| Stop apologising | 10 | 8 |
| Not a diagnosis | 9 | 9 |
| Her promotion, your rejection | 10 | 10 |
| The 1am message | 10 | 9 |
Full receipts: Claude Opus 4.8, GPT-5.6 Terra · judges gemini-3.1-pro-preview, gpt-5.6-terra, grok-4.5
Questions people ask
Which is better for emotional support: Claude Opus 4.8 or GPT-5.6 Terra?
Claude Opus 4.8 — it scored 96/100 against 93/100 on our 12-task emotional support suite, winning 4 tasks to 2 with 6 tied. Every answer was marked blind by three judges from three rival AI labs.
How was this tested?
Both models answered the identical published emotional support tasks. Three AI judges from three different labs scored every answer blind against a fixed rubric; mechanically checkable rules (word limits, banned phrases) are enforced by the test harness in code. The raw outputs and judge verdicts are downloadable.
More emotional support head-to-heads: Claude Opus 4.8 vs Claude Sonnet 5 · Claude Sonnet 5 vs GPT-5.6 Terra · Claude Opus 4.8 vs GPT-5.5 · GPT-5.5 vs GPT-5.6 Terra · Claude Opus 4.8 vs DeepSeek V4 Pro · DeepSeek V4 Pro vs GPT-5.6 Terra
Full ranking: Best AI for emotional support · model pages: Claude Opus 4.8, GPT-5.6 Terra