Best AI for coding / head-to-head

GPT-5.5 vs GPT-5.6 Terrafor coding

The verdict

GPT-5.6 Terra wins, 9391

Same 18 coding tasks, marked blind by three rival labs. GPT-5.6 Terra took 4 tasks, GPT-5.5 took 2, 12 tied. Tested 16 Aug 2026.

Where they differed most

The task — Retry with backoff

Write an async retry wrapper in TypeScript: exponential backoff with jitter, a maximum attempt count, and it must NOT retry on 4xx responses other than 429. Maximum 30 lines. State what happens on the final failure.

```ts
type RetryOptions = { attempts?: number; baseMs?: number; maxMs?: number };

const sleep = (ms: number) => new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, ms));

const statusOf = (x: any): number | undefined =>
  typeof x?.status === "number" ? x.status :
  typeof x?.response?.status === "number" ? x.response.status :
  undefined;

const isNonRetryable4xx = (s?: number) =>
  s !== 429 && s !== undefined && s >= 400 && s < 500;

export async function retry<T>(
  fn: () => Promise<T>,
  { attempts = 5, baseMs = 200, maxMs = 5000 }: RetryOptions = {}
): Prom…
```ts
type RetryOptions = {
  maxAttempts?: number;
  baseDelayMs?: number;
  maxDelayMs?: number;
};

export async function retry<T>(
  fn: () => Promise<T>,
  { maxAttempts = 5, baseDelayMs = 100, maxDelayMs = 10_000 }: RetryOptions = {}
): Promise<T> {
  if (maxAttempts < 1) throw new RangeError("maxAttempts must be >= 1");

  for (let attempt = 1; attempt <= maxAttempts; attempt++) {
    try {
      return await fn();
    } catch (error) {
      const e = error as { status?: number; response?: { status?: number } };
      const status = e.r…

Task by task

TaskGPT-5.5GPT-5.6 Terra
Duration parser88
Find the bug1010
SQL without window functions1010
Infinite useEffect1010
Typed debounce910
Leftmost binary search1010
Security review1010
Safe migration99
Fix the code not the test99
Race condition109
Retry with backoff58
Recursive type109
Bash one-liner99
Explain and cost1010
Regex with limits89
Callback to async99
Diagnose from a trace88
Idempotency910

Full receipts: GPT-5.5, GPT-5.6 Terra · judges claude-sonnet-5, gemini-3.1-pro-preview, grok-4.5

Questions people ask

Which is better for coding: GPT-5.5 or GPT-5.6 Terra?

GPT-5.6 Terra — it scored 93/100 against 91/100 on our 18-task coding suite, winning 4 tasks to 2 with 12 tied. Every answer was marked blind by three judges from three rival AI labs.

How was this tested?

Both models answered the identical published coding 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 coding head-to-heads: GPT-5.6 Luna vs GPT-5.6 Terra · GPT-5.5 vs GPT-5.6 Luna · GPT-5.6 Sol vs GPT-5.6 Terra · GPT-5.5 vs GPT-5.6 Sol · GLM 5.2 vs GPT-5.6 Terra · GPT-5.3-Codex vs GPT-5.6 Terra

Full ranking: Best AI for coding · model pages: GPT-5.5, GPT-5.6 Terra