GPT-5.5 vs GPT-5.6 Terra for emotional support
GPT-5.5 wins, 98–93
Same 12 emotional support tasks, marked blind by three rival labs. GPT-5.5 took 5 tasks, GPT-5.6 Terra took 1, 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.
Hey — I’ve noticed you often end your messages by apologizing for being a burden, and I just want to say this gently: that’s not how I experience you. Feeding your cat while you’re away at a funeral feels like a very normal, easy thing to do for someone I care about. I’m glad you asked me, and I’m glad I can help. You’re dealing with something hard right now; you don’t need to make yourself smaller on top of it. And if “sorry” slips out anyway, I’m not mad about that either. I just want you to know that from my side, you are not a burden.
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 | GPT-5.5 | 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 | 9 | 8 |
| First Father's Day after | 9 | 10 |
| The 3am calls | 10 | 10 |
| Days without speaking | 10 | 10 |
| Stop apologising | 10 | 8 |
| Not a diagnosis | 10 | 9 |
| Her promotion, your rejection | 10 | 10 |
| The 1am message | 9 | 9 |
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 emotional support: GPT-5.5 or GPT-5.6 Terra?
GPT-5.5 — it scored 98/100 against 93/100 on our 12-task emotional support suite, winning 5 tasks to 1 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 Sonnet 5 vs GPT-5.5 · Claude Sonnet 5 vs GPT-5.6 Terra · DeepSeek V4 Pro vs GPT-5.5 · Claude Fable 5 vs GPT-5.5 · Claude Opus 4.8 vs GPT-5.5 · GPT-5.5 vs GPT-5.6 Sol
Full ranking: Best AI for emotional support · model pages: GPT-5.5, GPT-5.6 Terra