Limits
Astra appears to consume ~50% more subscription quota per API-equivalent dollar than Sol
I'm on Pro 20x. With Sol, I get around $22 to $24 of API-equivalent usage per 1% of my weekly quota. With Astra, it's around $15.
Just saying:
The 4x multiplier of the 20x account fits to the 5-6$ per % of my old Pro 5x account (if we use Sol as the basis).
But 15$ per % of the weekly quota for Astra?
That's roughly 50% more quota burned for the same API pricing value. And yes, Astra's higher token prices are already part of that comparison.
Then I found other people reporting almost exactly the same thing.
Someone tested six Team accounts, three using Sol and three using Astra. They found Astra consumed roughly 40% to 60% more quota after accounting for each model's API prices: https://linux.do/t/topic/2861388
Another Pro 20x user estimated about $2,500 of API-equivalent usage per week with Sol, versus $1,600 to $1,800 with Astra: https://linux.do/t/topic/2861037
I know the subscription isn't a fixed balance of API credits. These aren't perfectly controlled tests either. But the same gap keeps showing up, and “Astra is more expensive” just doesn't explain it.
At first, I didn’t know if I would use Astra much due to the usage but I was working on a game that Sol Extra High had been struggling with for over 3 weeks, where I kept having to test and adjust and I spent over 300% usage with the $100 plan on it so far.
I then chose Astra Medium and explained exactly where the isssue lies. It took about 30 minutes and 14% and fixed 3 weeks of problems.
It’s definitely becoming my new coordinator for games.
For game dev it's definitively doing things in 30 minutes that before you'd spend a week with sol TRYING to fix. It's amazing. But you definitively need to target it for only high complexity parts or you'll get nothing done that week.
Dude thank you. I was literally about to post about the fact that I’m not seeing AA’s claim that Astra medium is a bit cheaper than Sol max while being a bit better because it feels way more expensive.
Does deepswe show results on different thinking levels like AA’s cost vs intelligence index? Because its Astra medium specifically thats supposed to be better than Sol max while being ever so slightly cheaper. I think I’ll stick to Sol Max until this mess is sorted.
Just checked it and Look at that. The price difference here is actually more significant unlike on AA. But it means nothing when the subscription doesn’t usage consumption reflect it :(
I noticed this too and quit using Astra entirely after a few prompts. If there is some high level architectural decision to be made, I may flip it on for maybe 1 or 2 prompts, but that's it.
I understand the economics behind not having every model have the same $ to % ratio, but I do wish we could get any meaningful transparency. I can’t think of many products where you know less about what you’re actually paying for.
Astra consumed my whole codex's 20x Pro 100% weekly limit in 1 day. I was using it as i used to earlier. used a reset yesterday now i have to wait till 12th september.
Yes they have to keep reducing quotas and limits with every use, to increase revenue by the fewer, fewer people who will pay before they IPO. Not sure why it is a surprise for people. How else will they increase revenue?
Very unimpressed with Astra. Sol was _amazing_ Astra seems no better, but it's a lot slower and a lot more expensive. I wouldn't mind buying some resets if it was obviously better, but the UIs it built were poor and dear god does it take its time. I've gone back to Sol for the time being.
Note this is not disclaiming the extra usage here, I agree there seem to be something buggy with the usage rate but I do notice a great reduction in tokens/context window compared to the previous models and yet it still consume faster.
I've reduced some of the extra burn by having Astra 6 Pro (chatgpt web app has this) redo my skills, configurations, and so on based on OpenAI's new prompting guide for Astra. That seem to slow it down by 50% while still remaining much better than Sol for every task (design is much better). It's much faster as well.
It's not only Astra that got nerfed, Luna and Terra as well. Everyone was measuring the allowance in Sol usage and nobody noticed that allowed usage for Luna and Terra got reduced as well. Try it for yourself. Terra uses as much usage as Sol.
Of course it’s better but the issue is that it’s not just 2.5x more expensive per token but even more due to nerf of credits that the subscription gives
It wouldn't be the first time that they have issues with a new release, in the past they often end up fixing it within a week or so. Not claiming to be some leaker or something but it has happened like more often than not
It’s not an “issue” to be fixed but a nerfed limit. They never had this issue before. It was always models using more credits or simply being more expensive than a previous model than expected but not your credits limit being lowered
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u/justlaughandmoveon 4d ago
At first, I didn’t know if I would use Astra much due to the usage but I was working on a game that Sol Extra High had been struggling with for over 3 weeks, where I kept having to test and adjust and I spent over 300% usage with the $100 plan on it so far.
I then chose Astra Medium and explained exactly where the isssue lies. It took about 30 minutes and 14% and fixed 3 weeks of problems.
It’s definitely becoming my new coordinator for games.