I Ran GPT-6 Astra Against 7 Real Signups: Only 2 Passed, Costing $19.68
JanJanJaJa · reddit · 2026-09-11
A developer tested the newly API-available GPT-6 Astra (via OpenRouter, $10/M in, $50/M out) on self-registering accounts across Reddit, GitHub, Discord, Etsy, Indeed, Airbnb and Craigslist.
Results:
- Only 2/7 succeeded (GitHub, Etsy) — and neither had a CAPTCHA in the way
- Reddit blocked by Cloudflare; Discord stuck in a 7-minute loop; Indeed stalled on SMS; Craigslist banned outright
- Total burn: 1.95M tokens, $19.68 — failed attempts still cost money
Key findings:
- The viral clip of Astra clearing all 48 levels of Neal Agarwal's "I'm Not a Robot" game doesn't translate to production: a scraping vendor explicitly says Astra "does not fix blocks, geo-restrictions, CAPTCHAs, or rate limits"
- Email OTP verification worked cleanly everywhere it appeared
- Cost comparison: the same Etsy step on DeepSeek V4 Flash costs $0.04 vs $5.86 on Astra — 150x cheaper; the author argues this task doesn't need a flagship model
The author is against bot farms but notes reliably CAPTCHA-solving models are approaching.
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