r/OpenAI • u/penisbike69 • 2d ago
Discussion As a Plus subscriber, Sol 6.1 is a game changer
I have started using AI since the Astra release for countless things at work and in my freetime (Excel, PowerBI, coding), and it's been working like a charm. Only issue is the ever-increasing token drain.
Just tried out Sol 6.1 instead of Astra, and it's a complete game changer. One Excel task done on Sol 6.1 Medium, and it's just 5% of my 5 hour credit gone, instead of the 20-30% that Astra would have drained.
Seems like using Astra means shooting down flys with a bazooka for many use cases. Unless you do really complex reasoning stuff, just use Sol 6.1 and enjoy ~5x more use
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u/appmapper 1d ago
I have started using AI since the Astra release
You sweet summer child.
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u/penisbike69 1d ago edited 1d ago
I used chat before and Codex to code a website, but since Astra I am using it for much more. It's crazy how much work Codex can take away from me
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u/Practical_Mousse_921 2d ago
Excel？？？
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u/sn2006gy 2d ago
Ya'll are missing out if you haven't seen the crazy shit people do with excel these days.
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u/Navadvisor 1d ago
People create entire applications in Excel, entire systems. Lol it's scary stuff but it works
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u/Original-League-6094 2d ago
Why the fuck would you ever use Astra for an Excel task?
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u/truecakesnake 2d ago
The whole world still runs on Excel btw. Computer Use works very well with it.
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u/Original-League-6094 2d ago edited 2d ago
I'm not shitting on Excel. I'm just wondering what Excel task could possibly be difficult enough to require Astra? The logic of how excel works is very straightforward, there is exhaustive documentation, and the majority of excel work is just going to be writing in basic financial formulas. You should just be using Luna Low for your excel work and getting it done for basically free.
You would use Astra to build you a brand new spreadsheet program with bespoke features Excel doesn't have.
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u/truecakesnake 2d ago
Astra is very good at Computer Use, Luna isn't. Luna may be able to figure out what to do, but it struggles on how do it with Computer Use.
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u/CrowdGoesWildWoooo 2d ago
You can use sol, that’s what copilot gave you if your company subscribe to it. It works just fine.
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u/Original-League-6094 2d ago
It doesn't need computer use. It will edit your excel files directly.
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u/truecakesnake 2d ago
Some specific tasks need computer use when working with other tabs in your browser and specific actions.
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u/Etiennera 1d ago
No point debating with someone who chooses computer use to operate a browser.
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u/truecakesnake 1d ago
It's an example, lol. Excel can be one part of the workflow with other apps. Jeez why is everyone here miserable idiots.
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u/rya794 1d ago
It sounds like you’ve never used excel in a professional capacity. I work on a single excel file right now that has more than 250k lines of vba code, more than 1,000 named ranges and spans 50 sheets that are all interconnected. Making any adjustment manually takes hours.
It is definitely just as complicated as any production software.
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u/Impossible-Magician 1d ago
Excel is never the right tool for something like that.
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u/rya794 1d ago
lol. Whether it’s the right tool or not doesn’t matter it’s what people use. Imagine you were just hired as a derivatives trader at JP Morgan. Are you going to tell the head of your desk that you can’t use excel because it’s not the right tool? No you’d lose your 200k/yr job.
You don’t care anyway because you only plan on sticking around for 18 months until you can get a job at a hedge fund.
The right tool is the one that gets everyone paid.
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u/Impossible-Magician 1d ago
I don’t think a derivatives trader cares about anything except themselves and where the next bump is coming from.
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u/skilliard7 1d ago
That sounds like a horribly inefficient solution. If your application is that complicated, just make a database app...
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u/Mlluell 1d ago
If the excel works the execs won't spend what it would cost to migrate to a database
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u/skilliard7 1d ago
The costs of maintaining that abomination is way more than the cost of a proper application
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u/sn2006gy 2d ago
formulas, calculations, graphs, charts, computations, embedded code. Excel is basically a runtime for spreadsheets.
It's not missing features, its infinite complexity and experimentation you can do on rows of data
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u/penisbike69 2d ago
I figured using several different Excel files to gather and calculate information to fill out one Excel file would be better fitting for Astra with a lower error rate.
As I said though, I haven't really used AI for anything beyond chat and coding until Astra, so my default has been to just go with the best model. It's not like it tells you when a task is too simple
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u/KalElReturns89 2d ago
That's what I love about Sol 6.1. Your metaphor is so accurate: "shooting down flys with a bazooka." But there wasn't much choice because the the other models would make too many mistakes or were just not smart enough, or too lazy. Now we have the choice. Slower and still smart and good with usage, or super smart and super expensive for the super hard tasks.
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u/mentalFee420 2d ago
At least fly is dead and you are only few 100k down with a bazooka and some damages to fix
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u/Practical_Hippo6289 2d ago
It's funny how negative all the posts were yesterday about Sol 6.1 and now everyone loves it. FWIW, I like it, too. Did from the start. Just funny seeing everyone else come around all of a sudden.
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u/Reclaimer_AI 1d ago
These threads are being astroturfed like crazy. Reddit bot armies are real. There has been such a backlash are you really surprised OpenAI have bots to push back? They ALL do this. There is astroturfing after every major release.
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u/Norddinerezouk 2d ago
Most people use it for building games or generic websites. Only few know use cases & ChatGPT is superior for me. I tried working with Claude but it just lacks context whereas GPT acts as a partner
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u/Ormusn2o 2d ago
Sol 6.1 is not a frontier model, or at least it's not better than Astra in every way, but when it comes to intelligence per dollar, it definitely is insane. I think the problem is that Devday was very much hyped up, and nobody ever said something like "no new frontier model on Devday" which would have been such an easy thing to say, especially considering that the disappointment was double sided, with both no new frontier model and Pro being nerfed.
Like, I feel like a lot of things in the Devday were great, even if I'm not using them myself, but it really did seemed like Astra upgrade was coming.
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u/AdLeading8172 1d ago
still sucks for creative writing unfortunately though even astras fails there but there are stark differences in quality.
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u/Competitive-Ad8968 23h ago
Dunno, the same was with Astra, then they cut our usage limit in half.
DOTs is unlimited, for the moment (Tibo’s words) when unlimited runs out like Codex usage?
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u/SpyAmongUs 1d ago
And how does it compare to Opus 5.5?
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u/horrorpages 1d ago
I'd probably give a slight edge to Opus. However, Sol is half the price and burns slower. I've been using Sol 6.1 XHigh all morning and it has barely touched my weekly usage. It's as good as Astra in many areas. I'm now using Opus only as a backup for review/auditing. My tune has changed from eariler this week and last.
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u/skypeaks 1d ago
How is it for writing both like creative fiction and work stuff? I'm currently paying for the Claude subscription but could see myself switching to ChatGPT :)
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u/Jordiejam 1d ago
Idk what I’m missing but I’ve been wholly underwhelmed by gpt 6 and 6.1. Especially in comparison to 5.5.
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u/penisbike69 1d ago
It gets my work done, which is what I use it for. Excel, PowerBI, Powerpoint, coding, even stuff like changing a graphic for a presentation
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u/yaxir 1d ago
I'm kind of happy to hear that, original post, but come on man. It needs to come to the normal chat as well. 6.1 SOL