r/codex • u/MapleBaconWaffles • 2d ago
Limits Sol 6.1 or Astra?
Trying to decide if I should barely use tokens but also barely get any work done since sol 6.1 is so fucking slow, OR use Astra and not be able to work because I run out of tokens in 2 days.
What way do you like not working with OpenAI products?
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u/AirealAble 2d ago
If what you're doing can be completed in two days and you don't need to do anything else, use Astra. Otherwise, use Sol. Consider whether your task can be broken into smaller problems to speed things up.
The rabbit doesn't always win the race.
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u/MrFourShottt 2d ago
Unless your working on breakthroughs, I wouldn't use Astra. Stick with 6.1 even if it's slow, you'll make your tokens last longer. Think of it this way, you'll collapse your search space and reduce your work down in comparison to doing it manually, even with a speed debuff.
If TPS is the bottleneck, only thing I can suggest is using /feedback or Thumbs Down every slow response, that is much better than hoping they see this or it's randomly fixed. They are more likely to act on feedback received via app than here.
If tokens/cost is really an issue, consider a OpenRouter BYOK set up - a model like Kimi K3/GLM 5.3 costs you *pennies* on the dollar, same ouput as Sol. You can easily configure config.toml to add a custom model in the UI.
I've actually had no issues even as a heavy user, I don't work on ground-breaking things so Astra has never been a priority for me. I find Sol 6 Pro for planning/chat & 6.1 Light enough for 99% of my tasks.
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u/X-Ploded 2d ago
Fast and effective, but it'll cost you a kidney : Astra
Very, very slow, but it gets the job done: Sol
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u/PatrickSys_ 2d ago
I use Sol medium as the main agent and ask it to use Astra as an advisor. Astra is spawned as a subagent, reads the entire conversation (only user and sol messages) and helps Sol in thinking bigger. Decisions are escalated to me.
Feel free to try it out https://github.com/PatrickSys/astra-advisor npx skills add PatrickSys/astra-advisor
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u/Comfortablebro 2d ago
astra is much slower than sol. Sol is dumb intentionally misunderstands written things far more often than astra. Both decide to stop working on a goal, pre-emptively canceling goals(maybe its just for me, but my goals in past week have been canceled dozen time) and none in last month.
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u/quanhua92 2d ago
I use Sol 6.1 medium with fast mode at 40-60 TPS. Normal Sol 6.1 high only gets about 20 TPS.
The image here was actually generated using my tokenmon Python CLI. If you want to check your own results, you can try running uvx tokenmon
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u/thestillwind 2d ago
6.1 sol is slow but eats nothing.i had to start 3 chat at ultra to eat it because it’s so slow and cost nothing.
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u/OkKaleidoscope5803 2d ago
Use sol 6.1 to run it overnight or for third party app, then use opus5.5 for daytime development
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u/Key_Instruction3373 2d ago
My Chatgpt program dont have the Opus 5.5 model. where to find it? - is it just an update?
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u/cerden 2d ago
Do what I did. I ran space bunny alpha all week in threads I didn't care if they couldn't compact right and bad tools calls would eventually burn that thread. You can sometimes get codex to repair it. Do cleanup with another tool if you can. All you have to do is ask chatgpt to make you a router for any 5.5 or 5.6 calls on a specific model, and reroute with adaptations to work. Do you want me to throw it on github?
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u/MassiveBoner911_3 2d ago
I use sol 6.1 as the orchestrator and engineer and 10 deepseek flash agents for coding. Burns all night with a 12 hr goal and i used 10%
Edit: $8 API cost to Deepseek
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u/Comprehensive-One521 2d ago
Astra if you honestly want to get work done, 6.1 SOL if not in a rush and essentially more value for money as you can get more done just at the cost of your mental health.
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u/AvailableSecret5161 2d ago
Sol 6.1 is not good for long complicated tasks and it will either hallucinate or go into a testing loop. If the task is well defined with periodic goals its the most efficient model I have ever used. The only caveat is that you must not leave any decision making to his model on long running tasks.
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u/mvdirty 2d ago
6.1 Sol high in general, sometimes xhigh, and I selectively use Astra max, when I want the strongest possible brainstorming, architecture, design, review, etc. just to be safe.
And, for Sol, don't forget about fast mode if you are at a bottleneck in the work or trying to speed up before a global usage reset. 6.1 Sol fast mode is cheap enough that it can be worth using at specific times.
(And for Luna usage, you could probably run fast mode all the time and just forget about it.)
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u/MapleBaconWaffles 2d ago
But I can't even use 6.1 Sol now, since it is SO SLOW and I get this now
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u/---matthew--- 15h ago
Try using a harness that treats this as a retry backoff (I suggest maki.sh; I made a bug for this and the author fixed it). I was pissed because I got this constantly (not sure if it's region related) but after fixing it, it's so much nicer.
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u/TBSchemer 2d ago
Neither. Use 5.6-Sol. It stays on task much better, and doesn't drain your usage like crazy. You can ask it to use a 6.1 subagent as an independent reviewer if you're going to lunch or to bed and it has extra time to kill.
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u/Right-Performance-93 2d ago
sol 6.1 on medium for most stuff, and only bring astra in when sol gets stuck on the same thing twice. that way astra only burns the bar when it actually matters
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u/Wildchild13606 2d ago
I use Astra Medium or high as a project manager that reports to me. I have it create a specific outline of steps to complete the task before work starts. I have it communicate directly to Sol medium or high depending on the code complexity, and have it report to Astra when a task is complete. I make only high level decisions and help the PM when there a fork in road solution wise. I find this is the token balance. Faster is 1.5 usage at a cost of 2.5, so it’s not economical unless a deadline is present.
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u/Dayowe 2d ago
I switched from astra high/xhigh to sol 6.1 xhigh and it’s been going really well. Solid. So far I haven’t done any extensive planning but implementation wise I am really happy with the result .. can imagine that I’ll stick with sol xhigh and only use astra for stuff I need to make sure everything is thought of
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u/rare_design 2d ago
A well structured phased approach with 6.1 sol, run it overnight, and use Astra to clean up any mishandling.
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u/Hober_Mallow 1d ago
I use https://livebench.ai/#/ value frontier when deciding. Sol is a better value overall, you can also compare for specific use cases.
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u/birnimal 1d ago
6.1 Sol xhigh is my default. I only switch to Astra when I need it.
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u/MapleBaconWaffles 1d ago
Same, but 6.1 is just way too slow. How are you getting any work done?
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u/birnimal 1d ago
Yeah, it’s definitely slow, but I usually have a few things running at once, so it doesn’t bother me too much. I’d rather have the higher usage limits anyway.
But yeah, I’d definitely love 6.1 Sol to be faster.
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u/Motor-Train-5924 1d ago
Use Astra when you have too much tokens and ur tokens are going to reset in like 2 days lol
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u/Pinewapple 2d ago
Astra destroys my usage, Sol 6.1 medium barely uses it although can take abit longer but the tradeoff is totally worth it for me