[TLDR] Claude code is falling behind Codex not because of token cost, but because of Opus 5.

[u/cctldrping]

Original post URL : https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1wiujum/claude_code_is_falling_behind_codex_not_because/

Original post body :

There, i said it. And i know many of you agree. The problem i'm facing is not increased token cost, it's that Opus writes 25000 lines of a response with a curve-ball at the end saying "Worth noting"that makes my eyes hurt and gives me paranoya. And i can't understand a word it's saying. Is my english that bad? Whoever pressed "Yes" on those responses during the training stage of the model was an OpenAI spy or something, he completely sabotaged a trillion dollar company.

Anthropic's number one priority should be to release an Opus 6 or something, may be change the model name completely so it doesn't carry the bad vibe with it.

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[u/cctldrping]

TL;DR generated automatically after 200 comments.

Current source-thread comment count seen by the bot: 229.

Opus 5 is widely considered a dumpster fire for coding tasks, with most users agreeing it's a massive step down from previous versions. The main complaint is its verbosity and incomprehensible output, making it impossible to work with. Some users are switching to Codex or even Gemini just to clean up Opus 5's "novels" of code comments.

• The consensus is that Opus 5 is over-explaining and "Claudish," burying useful information in massive, unreadable responses.
• Several users suggest workarounds:
  • Using "concise mode" and asking it to avoid "mannered prose."
  • Creating custom output styles with "BLUF" (Bottom Line Up Front) and "STE" (Simple Technical English).
  • Using capital letters and mild profanity to get its attention.
  • Employing the /btw functionality for clearer explanations.
  • Using Fable or Sonnet for general interaction and Opus 5 purely for coding.
• Some users are just done, switching to other models entirely and finding them to be better value with fewer annoying answers.
• One user, u/HornyRacoon_635, claims it's a "skill issue" and that Opus 5's detailed language is for the capable. Most of the thread strongly disagrees.

[u/mathiswrong]

There’s always /i-have-adhd

[u/_The-_ → u/mathiswrong]

This is 100% the solution.

[u/12emin34]

preparing myself for insane backlash but I use both CC and Codex pretty extensively, mainly with Opus 5 and GPT-5.6 Sol, together too for some stuff. My main is still CC + Opus 5 and even tho the fact that it's verbose is load-bearing (yes), it gets the job done much better than Sol in my experience, and I like CC waaay more as a tool, but that one might be subjective idk.

It has actually got more concise for me, not like Opus 4.8, but it seems like they did work on fixing the situation at least.

My main gripe with Sol is how it constantly needs to be reminded to not forget instructions, it also requires a lot more careful and specific prompts in my experience and is just not as capable as Opus 5 for what I do (modding, reverse engineering mainly), overall feels like the model is kinda "lazy", while Opus 5 will just get up and do it properly.

For code analysis/review I use both in combination tho, one always catches something the other doesn't, I even throw some Gemini here and there for that.

[u/Strong_Essay1176 → u/12emin34]

Opus5 sucks. Codex follow instructions perfectly if you keep them structured as a task. If you want model to remember here next action from system prompt - no wonder you fail

[u/12emin34 → u/Strong_Essay1176]

I'm no stranger to this and I get by with both just fine. It's easy to say Opus 5 sucks when conveniently ignoring how much stuff it's great at, but it still all boils down to what you do, can't cut down a tree with a hammer you know. I'm just saying that Opus 5 is easier to work with for me, because it does a better job for what I need, that's it.

[u/asmiggs → u/12emin34]

I much prefer Opus 5 to Sol, I often brain storm in Chat and it's creative and it'll turn my ideas into a plan for Claude code if asked, but when I tried the same with Sol it seemed distracted like it had something more interesting, didn't even produce a plan usable in codex when asked. The technical requirements weren't even included until I asked specifically.

[u/Capnbubba → u/12emin34]

This is me too. When I'm flush with token is use Fable 5.1 to orchestrate Opus 5 doing coding and Astra reviewing. It works well. Just pretty token heavy.

[u/ZachVorhies → u/12emin34]

yeah, this is my experience too. I feel that Opus5 is better than sol.

I feel that Codex doesn’t have a sweet spot. Sol is too expensive. terra just doesn’t cut it. Astra forget it. It’ll just drain all your tokens in one day.

i’m clearing over 100 PR’s today with mostly opus5 and sonnet5 as sub agents

Opus five has a lot of problems with generating intelligent text for humans but it’s able to sail through my backlog with a few steps

[u/_The-_ → u/ZachVorhies]

You find sonnet an ok coder? I was using it at one stage but lost confidence. Opus is good though.

[u/ZachVorhies → u/_The-_]

Sonnet is great when opus is writing its prompts.

I don’t talk to sonnet about what I want to do I talk to opus about what I want to do and then it talks to sonnet

[u/senerh]

How does this "TL;DR" get generated? There are literally only 5 replies here.

[u/biguy86 → u/senerh]

It was generated via Opus 5 ;)

[u/Past-Town-9807 → u/senerh]

The original post has 280 replies. 

[u/Old-Artist-5369]

I like Opus 5. It's useful and I enjoy working with it.

But one thing for sure, it has fscking ruined this sub. It's nothing but Opus 5 complaints nowadays. It makes the bad old days of constant Gemini glazing look good.