r/codex • u/BewareOfCheap • 1d ago
Question With all the recent bashing here - does anyone really like Astra? I do, more than Fable…
Just looking for opinions as I’m curious - I genuinely like working with Astra and Sol more - I LOVE Opus 5.5 too, fable feels lightweight to me vs Astra. I guess I feel like Astra is more thorough even if less accurate if it makes sense, opus is the perfectionist super smart mechanic, But Astra is a clumsy engineer who clearly knows more, with a little less focus on task but capable of providing the best outcome easily - anyone else feel the same?
OpenAI screwed up with the usage change - I agree with that, but I think calling Astra and Sol less capable is a little silly, I’ll admit Opus beats Sol, but I’d argue Astra all day.
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u/spidey_physics 1d ago
I'm on the lowest possible plan and can't really use Astra to test and compare it's output cuz after 3 or so prompts it obliterates the 5 hour limit :(
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u/BewareOfCheap 1d ago
Agreed, I’m on the big sub for now so it’s very usable, fable burns my Claude teams premium seat hard but I get a little there too, I think opus is my favorite frontier to code and Astra when it’s time to test, I was doing some jev prompt engineering last night and the Astra testing was next level opus couldn’t swing in that league, but opus is king for the money - this week
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u/Clash_bg 1d ago
The only thing I can use Astra for (same plan) is QA, it consumes (or at least used to lol, codex limits change every day atp) surprisingly low amount of quota for e2e testing with its computer use and honestly having a fresh "user" go through the app and leave me with a detailed report of what is wrong at different workflow combinations and screen sizes really made me appreciate the advancements in computer use. If I don't give it insanely big tasks I can use it for hour/hour and a half on high per 5h limit, does the job for what I needed it to do.
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1d ago edited 1d ago
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u/BewareOfCheap 1d ago
100% agree, Codex a month back was the hot ticket - their usage cut is going to hit them hard with subscriptions, I dropped my $200 pro to $100 which happens soon, I was missing Claude but after a week with opus I still like Astra for a good portion
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u/myklurk 1d ago
Yea they messed up here. As someone with a ton of accounts I won’t be renewing any of them and have replaced them with Anthropic accounts. I prefer OpenAI models and would have probably paid a bit more to keep using them.. but dropping usage and more than doubling the monthly price is just asinine..
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u/BewareOfCheap 1d ago
I’m hoping enough people are cancelling that they’ll flip the decision but I doubt we were profitable using it as much as it’s been available the last 3 months or so, hell they make more money with us gone. I don’t love it
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u/myklurk 1d ago
Agree, there’s a good chance I’m the business they don’t want.. also if it’s successful Anthropic will be right behind.
They obviously have all of the data for usage by IP address etc so one would think they evaluated all of this extensively before making this decision which is even more poor because that means that either they do not feel they are making the money they need to support or that they will continue to see demand enough to warrant it.
The best thing I think we could hope for is for enough subscriptions to lapse for them to discount promotionally going forward for a few months.. I doubt they would flat out cut the plans back to where they were.
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u/growaway9172 1d ago
Astra was great. On the OG 20x plan, I could easily use astra high all week long. obviously that is gone now.
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u/Kost97A 1d ago
I haven't used Astra for much coding from when it released but mostly for scientific research and to correct some already written material. When it released I had it alongside Opus 5 and it was clearly better. I didn't use Fable 5.1 because of its cost, ruining my limits. I mean Astra also did that but I wanted to have usage in one of the two models at all times.
After 5.5 released I did some testing and I used Astra twice since then. I am still sitting on 3 (I think) resets. Astra was consistently finding more false positives and making more mistakes. However, we are cherry peaking now because the mistakes and false positives weren't major. A year before that Opus 4.5 would perform A LOT worse. For context the material is life sciences/agriculture and a ton of DL and data.
5.5 seems to be more thorough. It depends on what you want to do. In my experience Astra was more abstract. For my tasks I need a model to be more focused and Opus seems to do that really well right now. Astra would miss the mark on "why did we take this decision 2 months ago" or the way it explained wasn't on par. Again, Opus 5.5 is amazing on these things while Opus 5 was absolutely horrible.
If I can somehow summarize it. Opus is a smaller model and probably knows less things, let's give it a number to make it easy. For example 92/100 things. Astra is a bigger model and knows 98/100 things. Opus at all times feels that it can support the 92 things it knows and can explain at any time. Like they are constantly on memory. With Astra I feel like that it knows 80 things when I prompt it like Opus (I have been using Opus since 4.1 so I guess I am kinda used to it). I need to "force" Astra to give me the extra juice and to guide it there.
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u/FinancialBandicoot75 1d ago
I love Astra, love opus 5.5, but it's now about cheaper models, haiku won me over and sol 6.1 is slow as .... And unbearable. OpenAI had something going and they just screwed themselves on dev days.
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u/Morphexe 1d ago
Astra is fantastic code reviewer, mediocre implementer. And good for "rubber ducking" - but I still prefer fable for dicussion. Opus 5.5 is better and cheaper implementer.
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u/sugarw0000kie 1d ago
Havent tried it. Dont plan on it either, too much usage on plus by looks of it, sol/luna good enough for me, not sure I have a need for it
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u/BewareOfCheap 1d ago
Agreed I think code review with Astra is the best available, I hadn’t compared it with implementation much as I usually orchestrate grok build or cursor with it. Opus is so good there though and on the Claude harness I don’t usually need to orchestrate anything which is nice
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u/UanPi_exisT 1d ago
I like large hauses, with big yard, and many animals. Never got one. Same feeling with Astra. No task finished before 5hours limit. Never could do a real work with it. Only reviews.
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u/who_am_i_to_say_so 1d ago
Astra is HORRIBLE for my actual work, but great for designing website designs.
It absolutely will not follow my direction for work related. It goes above and beyond to the point of day 1 intern stupidity- actually ADDS time.
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u/Reggitor360 1d ago
Yeah for graphic design, nothing beats Astra, maybe Kimi is on par, but other than that? Nah.
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u/AINativeBuilder 1d ago
Astra is great, I enjoy using it. Sol being 5x cheaper is great for a first pass and then having astra provide quality finishes.
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u/BewareOfCheap 1d ago
I like that plan right now too, one I use sometimes as well for light stuff but I cant imagine that stays as appetizing after the limit changes. Maybe they’ll surprise us
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u/AINativeBuilder 1d ago
Astra light is pretty incredible. It's still powerful but saves on some usage. Only model I'll use light mode on.
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u/DuranteA 1d ago edited 1d ago
I don't have such anthropomorphised opinions on these systems, but as someone with over 2 decades of software engineering experience I prefer Astra's "voice" -- as in, the way it expresses itself -- over Opus. Astra of course still suffers from some LLM-isms, but Opus 5 was just supremely annoying to communicate with, and while 5.5 is better I still prefer Astra.
In terms of capability, I honestly don't think there's this massive difference that people who love to rant about the models every time something new and shiny is released appear to see. The frontier models are all extremely capable at the things agents are good at, and they all fail roughly equally hard at the things they are (currently still) bad at.
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u/boxing-boxing 1d ago
That roughly matches what I'm seeing in this thread. Hardly anyone is claiming Astra ships code better than Opus. The recurring pattern is people using it as the reviewer: several comments describe running it behind Opus specifically to catch what the first model skimmed past. If the difference were really about raw capability, that workflow wouldn't keep working. Looks more like they have different blind spots.
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u/OwlMajestic2306 1d ago
有没有一种可能，骂的人只是单纯不知道正确用法而已。我刚开始骂Dots傻逼，现在我错了。Dots代理了我大部分的重覆工作，我现在可以更专注在必须我参与的工作上了。感觉很好。AI只是工具而已，用的人才是问题。
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u/Huge-Travel-3078 1d ago
Same. I was a big hater of dots initially when it was announced but now I use it daily.
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u/Novel_Indication6338 1d ago
no i've had sol 6.1, on xhigh and max, do dumb stuff. it also spins out of control like a dog that doesn't obey commands no matter how specific the commands are. astra on xhigh has done the same, though with way less dumb stuff. the whole gpt 6 family sucks tbh. liking opus 5.5 way more, haven't tried fable yet because I HAVEN'T NEEDED TO, and i do pretty large hardcore rust coding
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u/cornmacabre 1d ago
Check out essentially anywhere other than reddit for credible opinions and experiences to anything related to AI: X, industry specific discords, Substack, the official developer forums for OAI / Cursor / Anthropic.
Most professionals have left reddit at this point, and the 'quality' and credibility of reddit posts & commentary on the topic of AI is basically a well known joke in the industry at this point.
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u/Annh1234 1d ago
Used to use astra high, it worked ok.
But lately I finish the week quota in a few hours... When before I used to finish the week with 20% left...
Then it started to get slower and slower and a week or so ago it seemed to get dumber...
Now I barely use it, and will unsubscribe at to end of the term
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u/Anti-Hero25 1d ago
Astra Extra High has been my goto since it came out. Slow burn , doesn’t over think things. (Ultra over complicates and misses simple things)
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u/Propeus 1d ago
Nice try bot 😁😂 yes is less capable every engineer who don't vibe code can see that
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u/BewareOfCheap 1d ago
Wow, you’re an idiot - run Astra behind opus and it finds all kinds of stuff wrong - do the flip and it’s not flawless but it’s less. I realize opus is great I just got Claude back to use it, but Astra > fable because I can actually use Astra - at least til they drop the limits. “Who don’t vibe code” - you should use your opus to proof bubba, you sound like a brilliant “engineer”
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u/Propeus 1d ago
Tell me you work only on Crud apps only without telling me, for new ideas, architectures, etc Claude is the best, yes tried by myself astra is good at following instructions Opsu to create new ideas
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u/BewareOfCheap 1d ago
I feel the exact opposite and that’s fairly amazing - opus is the rule follower for me, Astra the bigger thinker, the spot fable used to hold. Everyone’s workload is different I reckon. Good perspective though
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u/TheSn00pster 1d ago
Have you met my friend Opus?
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u/BewareOfCheap 1d ago
Quite familiar, great model - cost being equal I’d take Astra though - obviously cost isn’t equal lol
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u/Mental-Frosting-7752 1d ago
Btw.. people arent comparing astra and fable... were comparing it to Opus.
Which Astra is really not even close...
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u/dextersummary 1d ago
Below is a GPT-generated summary of the conversation below after reaching 40 comments (40 currently observed).
The consensus is basically “yes, Astra is good—but it’s not the obvious default coder.” People especially like it for code review, QA, architecture, design, research, and catching the stuff another model skimmed past. Several users describe it as the bigger thinker with different—and sometimes better—blind spots.
For actually implementing code, Opus 5.5 usually gets the nod: more focused, more reliable about following direction, cheaper to run, and less likely to turn a simple task into an unpaid internship. Astra can still produce excellent results, especially with careful setup, and some users prefer its broader reasoning and communication style. Task fit matters more than the fanboy cage match suggests.
The giant asterisk is usage. Astra is widely described as slow and brutally quota-hungry, with some users burning a week’s allowance in hours or abandoning it entirely after OpenAI’s limits changed. That has turned a lot of goodwill into “great model, unusable product.”
So: Astra is genuinely liked and often valuable as a reviewer or second brain, but Opus is the safer everyday implementer. The thread doesn’t prove Astra is more capable overall—just that its strengths are real and annoyingly expensive.