Best AI for customer service replies / head-to-head

GPT-5.3-Codex vs GPT-5.6 Terrafor customer service replies

The verdict

GPT-5.3-Codex wins, 9897

Same 12 customer service replies tasks, marked blind by three rival labs. GPT-5.3-Codex took 1 tasks, GPT-5.6 Terra took 2, 9 tied. Tested 14 Aug 2026.

Where they differed most

The task — Outage update mid-incident

Write a status update 90 minutes into an outage with no fix yet. Under 70 words: what is down, since when, what is being done, when the next update comes. No 'we take this seriously', no cause speculation.

Outage update (90 minutes in): The API and web dashboard are currently unavailable. The incident began at 09:30 UTC. Engineers are actively working to restore service, validating component health, and monitoring recovery progress; no fix yet. The next update will be posted at 11:30 UTC, or sooner if service is restored.
**Status Update:**  
Service remains unavailable since [time]. Our engineering team is actively investigating and working to restore service. No fix is available yet. We will provide the next update by [time, 30 minutes from now].

Task by task

TaskGPT-5.3-CodexGPT-5.6 Terra
Refund the easy way1010
Say no without weasel words1010
Reply to a 1-star review1010
The confused customer1010
De-escalate a threat810
The feature you won't build1010
Apologise for your mistake1010
Price rise notice1010
Outage update mid-incident106
The wrong customer1010
Chargeback rebuttal facts910
Refuse the fake review request1010

Full receipts: GPT-5.3-Codex, GPT-5.6 Terra · judges claude-sonnet-5, gemini-3.1-pro-preview, grok-4.5

Questions people ask

Which is better for customer service replies: GPT-5.3-Codex or GPT-5.6 Terra?

GPT-5.3-Codex — it scored 98/100 against 97/100 on our 12-task customer service replies suite, winning 1 tasks to 2 with 9 tied. Every answer was marked blind by three judges from three rival AI labs.

How was this tested?

Both models answered the identical published customer service replies 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 customer service replies head-to-heads: GPT-5.3-Codex vs GPT-5.6 Sol · GPT-5.6 Sol vs GPT-5.6 Terra · GPT-5.3-Codex vs GPT-5.5 · GPT-5.5 vs GPT-5.6 Terra · GPT-5.3-Codex vs Grok 4.5 · Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview vs GPT-5.3-Codex

Full ranking: Best AI for customer service replies · model pages: GPT-5.3-Codex, GPT-5.6 Terra