OpenAI staffer maps out which of GPT-5.6 Sol's five reasoning levels fits which task complexity

Jul 11, 2026

GPT-5.6 Sol features five reasoning levels from 'Light' to 'xhigh,' as well as 'Max' and 'Ultra' modes that deploy multiple sub-agents in parallel. OpenAI's Vaibhav Srivastav recommends starting with lower reasoning levels and scaling up only when necessary.

Why it matters: This guidance helps users optimize cost and performance by matching reasoning effort to task complexity.

Full story at: The Decoder ↗