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Developer Runs GPT-6 Astra at Max for 40 Minutes on $20 ChatGPT Plus, Using 5 Million Tokens

September 6, 2026 at 18:03 EDT

Foundation Models
Software Dev & Coding
AI Agents

A developer on ChatGPT Plus ran GPT-6 Astra at Max, its highest reasoning setting, for more than 40 minutes on a single coding job—integrating Supabase and improving an app UI—using 5 million tokens and exhausting the $20 plan’s five-hour usage window. The task was still unfinished when the meter hit 100%. The same user said Claude Opus 5 would have lasted about 20 minutes at that price.

September 6, 2026 · OpenAI

40+ minutes of GPT-6 Astra Max on a $20 plan

A ChatGPT Plus user ran GPT-6 Astra at Max on a Supabase integration and UI task for more than 40 minutes, using 5 million tokens and the full five-hour usage window.

Same $20 spend

Reported runtime: Claude Opus 5 about 20 minutes, GPT-6 Astra Max more than 40.

20 min

Opus 5

40+ min

Astra Max

About 2× the runtime at the same Plus price, per the user report.

40+

Minutes at Max

Tokens used

100%

Five-hour limit

$20

ChatGPT Plus

What happened

Assign task

Integrate Supabase and improve app UI

→

Run Astra Max

40+ minutes · 5M tokens · 50k output

→

Hit the cap

5-hour window 100% · weekly 16%

→

Job unfinished

Meter empty before the task was done

Value

Developers on Plus called 40 minutes of Max-effort work strong value versus about 20 minutes of Opus 5 at the same $20.

Limits

The Supabase task was not finished, and other Plus users report a single Astra run emptying the five-hour meter.

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