Amazon's cloud adds a cheaper OpenAI model and lets AI run old workflows

Amazon's cloud arm, AWS, added a new OpenAI model to Amazon Bedrock, its service for using AI models. The model costs at least 50% less than two comparable ones. AWS also made it possible for AI agents to run business workflows a company already has, with no rebuild.

The cheaper model

OpenAI's GPT-6.1 Terra is now generally available on Bedrock. Terra is the line meant for everyday workloads. Input and output tokens, the units AI services bill by, cost at least 50% less than GPT-6.1 Sol and GPT-5.6 Terra.

OpenAI says that on its Agents' Last Exam test, Terra scored 15 percentage points higher than GPT-5.6 Terra and performed on par with GPT-6 Astra. It also finished tasks more than three times faster than both. Those are OpenAI's figures, not an independent test.

Terra accepts text and images, up to 1 million input tokens. It can be reached through the Bedrock APIs, ChatGPT Work and Codex.

AI agents that use existing workflows

AWS Step Functions runs business processes step by step and already works with over 220 AWS services. It can now be handed to an AI agent as a tool, through Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Gateway.

The agent decides when to run a workflow and what information to pass in. Step Functions then runs each step exactly as defined. In AWS's example, a support agent triggers a refund. The eligibility check, the manager approval and the credit still happen in the same order every time.

• Existing Standard and Express workflows qualify.
• Agents can also look up runs.
• It works in all Regions where AgentCore Gateway is available, at standard rates.

AWS also pointed to one engagement platform that exposed roughly 400 internal API operations to agents the same way, without rebuilding anything.

Security for a future threat

Two launches deal with quantum computers. Attackers can record encrypted traffic today and unlock it once quantum computers are powerful enough. This is called harvest now, decrypt later.

AWS Key Management Service now supports ML-KEM, a post-quantum method for agreeing on a shared secret. It is available everywhere the service runs except the Middle East (UAE and Bahrain) and China Regions. Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL also added post-quantum protection for connections, on versions 18 and higher. Nobody can yet put a date on when the threat arrives.

What to do

Businesses that already use AI on AWS can compare Terra's price with the model they use now. The speed and test results come from OpenAI, so a trial on real work is the fair check. Teams with existing Step Functions workflows can look at which ones an agent could safely start.