Microsoft began rolling out GPT-6 Astra, OpenAI's newest frontier model, in Microsoft Foundry. Access starts through the Foundry Limited Access Program and widens to participating customers over coming days. Microsoft positions the model for multi-step work rather than chat. It can plan, weigh options and produce documents, spreadsheets and presentations for review. It also operates software on screen, including apps with no developer interface. Named uses include reproducing bugs, proposing fixes and building Power BI dashboards. Microsoft warns that on-screen content can mislead or manipulate an agent. It points to scoped credentials, human checkpoints and activity logs as containment. Prompts and outputs are not used to train the models. Pricing is consumption-based, with Global and US Data Zone deployment options.
What changed
Astra was not available through Microsoft's Foundry platform.
What it unlocks
Running OpenAI's newest model on Azure, with agents that operate software on screen across apps.
- $10 input, $50 output per M tokens
- Long context: $20 in, $75 out
- US Data Zone: 10% premium
- Cached input $1.00 per M tokens
What you need to act on it
- acceptance into the Microsoft Foundry Limited Access Program
- an Azure account
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