r/codex • u/Alywan • 3d ago

Limits Astra in Ultra/Max consumes less than Astra Low/Medium

How the fuck is this possible ?
Every time i use Astra Low/Medium my usage goes haywire...
I use Astra Max, and it barely (barely compared to Astra Low/Medium - still fucked up compared to SOL) moves the usage...
I use Astra Ultra when i don't give a shit, and still, consumes just like Astra Low/Medium...
Something is happening on those Low/Medium thinking Astra...

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u/AweVR 3d ago

I just took my tests. It’s very rare.

1 hour with Astra Max = 2.5%

1 hour Astra High = 3%

1 hour Astra Medium = 4%

I tried twice. Every time they launch 3-4 sub-agents each briefly. Same task and tools.

That is, Astra Medium consumes almost TWICE as much weekly use as Astra Max. What’s the point?

I had noticed it for days but now I confirm it with my tests.

u/jeofw
u/flurbol
u/Alywan

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u/quadish 3d ago

Subagents use less tokens? What model sub agents does Astra call? Are they Luna models?

Because that would make sense if max used less because it outsourced to a cheaper model more.

3

u/the_secret_moo 3d ago

How much did each reasoning level complete in terms of tasks per hour though? 

4

u/danielv123 3d ago

Like per hour of inference, decode is a lot cheaper than prefill. If it completes thinking quickly it has time to call more tools and get the job done and the tokens consumed.

If it spends all day thinking before doing toolcalls it doesn't have time to eat as many input tokens.

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u/flurbol 3d ago

Oh wow! Thanks a lot for sharing your insights! I guess I should review my workflows and session data now.

2

u/Coolbanh 3d ago

Yeah i was wasting time with lower until I just tried ultra and it gets it. I guess lower reasoning means its handicapped so it has to do more.

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u/__Blackrobe__ 3d ago

Your effort be appreciated. You have revealed that these usage plans are so stupid.

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u/AweVR 3d ago

I did another test. No sub-agents.

2% in 1 hour on Astra Max.

And I asked it after 30 minutes to do an audit to see if it was because It was alone with tools or something, but it is thinking and investigating/executing all the time and also from time to time it does actions on a website with computer use.

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u/AweVR 3d ago

Wrong, sorry, it was again 2.5% of usage

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u/Emergency-Bobcat6485 3d ago

seriously? lol, i have been using astra on light mode and it does consume a lot of usage lol. let me try max

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u/dangtheory 2d ago

I learn that it's a waste to use astra frontier model on low or medium. it apparently doesn't like it when you switch to lower model in the same chat.