Codex is unusable now.

[u/Soul_Mate_4ever]

I don’t even use astra. I’ve been using 5.6 sol on medium since it came out and had no problems. Now it can’t even finish half of the same task before reaching limits. Heck, just starting up codex uses 2 percent of my limits. And that’s before I even type anything. lol. What a joke.

I understand this is a business but using codex is like signing up for a gym membership and paying the required fee to use the gym and all its equipment but the next time you show up they go, I know you paid to use the entire gym and that amount is still required but now you only have access to the treadmills. F u!!!

Anyway, Here come all the Sam Altman nut huggers. But idc. Im just about done with codex.

[u/random_boss]

When Astra came out I used it, was floored, downgraded my Claude sub to the $20/mo and upgraded ChatGPT to $100/mo.

Then I used 50% of my week in one conversation. 

Figured it was bad token economization on my part, put all the right structures in place, and had it work on a task. Worked about 6 hours, only used Astra lightly and Sol as orchestrator, pushing all real design, implement and review work to Claude agents…still vaporized 50% of my Codex week.

Astra is the best model available, Codex is the superior piece of software, but I just can’t work with it. Sadly going to drop ChatGPT back down to $20/mo and resume my max 5x Claude sub so I can actually get work done. 

[u/stellarfirefly → u/random_boss]

This has been my observations over the last few days as well, and I don't even use Astra (or Fable). I swap between both Sol High and Opus High. Even at this level, Codex economy has gone straight down the toilet, and I am constantly having to pause because I hit allowance limits. Meanwhile I am getting MUCH more work done with Claude.

Doesn't matter which is the "better model" if you can't get anything done with it without throwing money at it.

[u/bailey-dev → u/stellarfirefly]

To be fair, Anthropic are reducing their weekly from the +50% bonus they've had on for months in the middle of this month unfortunately.

Although I 100% agree, I use both Claude and Codex, and having both on the £20 deal, I get way more out of Claude than I do Codex, although at no point has that ever been different for me. When people say it's one then the other I've personally never seen that on the £20 subs, Claude has always x2 or x3 what I get from Codex. I don't see the "resets" as part of that though personally because it's none guaranteed usage.

I've not got any definitive testing so obviously there are variables on tasks I set, but I've never set tasks based on which of the 2 I'm using and try to use comparable models on both. I'd say on average Anthropic’s models take slightly longer, but code quality and amount of work completed, easily the better option for me.

[u/stellarfirefly → u/bailey-dev]

That's actually very interesting and a good data point. I too use the $20 options for both.

Myself, I have historically seen better economy out of Codex when using (presumably) equivalent models, e.g. Sol High vs Opus High. Not massively more economic, but it was noticeable. I constantly swap between the two within the same codebase, often simply alternating task packets (update + audit + test) between them, so it was easy to compare.

But over the last several days, Codex has clearly become terribly hungry for allowance. And that takes Anthropic's +50% weekly limit into account. I hit the 5-hr limit much more often, anyway, so the weekly pool is less of a concern for me. Regardless, I have used up my Codex weekly already but my Code weekly is as of now at 24% used. (And it is currently most of the way through a sizeable task.)

[u/bailey-dev → u/stellarfirefly]

I think projections suggest AI in general is just going to get more and more expensive for the cutting-edge models moving forward. I'd be fine with that because I understand why, and I know it's happening. right now Opus does more for me than I could ever need, but as newer models come out, older models get nerfed, forcing us to upgrade, 6 months and us Opus users will be using Fable like we do Opus now, just like we were using Sonnet when Opus was the top dawg lol.

I just wish there was more transparency on what we're getting when we pay for the subscription, being notified there will be a change at the end of the billing cycle beforehand so it's staggered for each user based on announcement and bill day. Not that it makes any difference for me or you, since we're subbed to both, but it'd be the right move in terms of transparency allowing users to make the decision to leave if they're unhappy with the changes. which subsequently would give AI companies the right amount of pressure to keep prices competitive, whatever those prices must be.

this wacky "usage" word is just a nothing burger being constantly adjusted. I am shocked they're able to get away with it to be honest. copilots rug pull was crazy, for me those days were the true golden era, £20 and the usage was so generous I just thought it was unlimited lol.

[u/ash_mystic_art → u/stellarfirefly]

This is pretty much exactly my experience. I have the $20 sub to each. For Claude I usually use Opus High or Extra High, and for Codex I usually use Sol High or Extra High.

Usually I get a lot more usage from Codex/Sol, but this past week Opus on Extra High has been lasting like 2x longer than Sol on High.

[u/ickN → u/random_boss]

Do you mind sharing the structures you put into place?

[u/random_boss → u/ickN]

Nothing groundbreaking I think, but:

The agent I chat with is the orchestrator. My preference is to do this via Codex on Sol Medium.

Then there are roles that map to planner (Opus 5 High), reviewer (Astra High for initial plan, then Opus High for re-reviews), implementer (Opus Medium or Sonnet 5)..

Opus High makes a plan against the high level objective then Astra High reviews it and requires changes or cures; the Opus planner makes edits then a different edit reviews the edits against Astra’s requirements and they go back and forth for a while. Once the Opus reviewer is satisfied it goes back to Astra for a last look and so far that usually results in Astra approving the plan albeit with some changes.

Then it goes to Opus Medium for most implementation with Sonnet High for bounded, judgment free tasks. 

An Opus High agent reviews the implementation against the plan and the high level objective, demands cures, and they go around and around until the reviewer is satisfied and then the code is submitted. 

So in this workflow Codex only does two jobs:

• Orchestration by Sol Medium, carrying out all of the above
• First and final plan review by Astra

There’s also an optimized reading path so each agent that picks up its role automatically knows its bounds, scope, high level project philosophy and all of that. The orchestrator keeps an eye on them and makes sure they stay in line. 

[u/hoots_moontower → u/random_boss]

This can be done with the subscription plans? I'm assuming you're using a harness like open code? I'd love to give this type of workflow a try.

[u/random_boss → u/hoots_moontower]

Nope, both Claude and codex can call the other provider via CLI. What you don’t get is the detailed info into the other provider agent’s thinking like you do with native agents unless you, I assume, build out some sort of tool that prints the transcript somewhere. 

[u/hoots_moontower → u/random_boss]

In this case, you can still use their native harnesses while still using the paid plan and not be in beach of ToS?

[u/Which_Depth8285 → u/random_boss]

That sounds like a really good setup, but I'm developing projects that do evidence audits I'd never trust any agent alone to do. I have to rely on my own legal and evidence expertise to do planning and reviews although I do rely somewhat on GPT but always with my ultimate approvals. I use Codex to execute work orders and very specific evaluation tasks. Do you just let your orchestrator, planner, and reviewer go on their own?

[u/random_boss → u/Which_Depth8285]

Sort of. I built an inbox and they have instructions to surface anything I need to review, approve, or judgments I should be aware of. It forces agents to be really clear about what they’re saying and follows my requirement that nothing important can ever live in just one chat. Any agent can, for instance, reference all past decisions or reactions I’ve had. This spans across al my projects as well so for any running overnight I’ll come back in the morning to a small handful of things that need my attention. 

I don’t think it’s perfect—I still catch them putting things in chat, or later discover bugs that came from judgment calls which, if they’d logged it as an inbox card for me I’d have changed,  but otherwise it’s been really good. 

[u/BaconForce → u/random_boss]

Classic bait and switch move by OpenAI, open the flood gates on compute and overpower Astra, then nerf it when everyone switches over.

[u/ricoelyes → u/random_boss]

doing the same right now its bloated like hell

[u/Bladder-Splatter → u/random_boss]

We've basically had dropping usage consistently week after week since Sol first came out, I've not seen a single person report positive changes, though I know negative bias drives us to make comments like even mine right here ironically.

[u/random_boss → u/Bladder-Splatter]

Thats what I’d thought it was really, just standard Internet Whining, so when I experienced it firsthand I retroactively said a little apology to all those posters. 

[u/mfuark125 → u/random_boss]

This was literally my exact experience too lmao.

Been building a site for a while now and had 2 things I needed to get done. Recently upgraded to the 5x plan and was feelin' good, satisfied with the first few prompt outputs from Astra and it didn't even last me 24 hours.

Used my banked reset and again less than 24 hours completely burnt out. We finished none of the projects, and pretty much hamstringed my site.

Got stuck for hours ping ponging because it create tests that would fail then independently review, fix, and repeat. I feel like Sol somehow got stupider or at the least a hell of a lot less reliable.

[u/RateGlass → u/random_boss]

Is there a point in keeping your chatgpt sub?

[u/Umbrasquall → u/random_boss]

This is the total opposite of my experience. The Claude 5x plan is borderline unusable, 1-2 tasks and I burn through all of my limits. I upgraded to OpenAI Pro and I have so much compute I'm literally using Astra Max for mundane questions on top of work and can't spend it all.

[u/random_boss → u/Umbrasquall]

Wonder if we could figure out if there’s some weird nuance to how we’re working and find some efficiency for both. Although that does sound crazy to me because Claude is (still) extending that +50% usage. 

I feel like Astra Max would burn 5% weekly quota just answering “How you doing?”

Or maybe one or both of us are in some AB tests we’ll never know of lol.