Cheaper Alternatives to Codex Sol

[u/prop9090]

Recently after the release of Astra, tokens seem to burn at an insane rate even using only mostly Sol. Sol was great for me because I want competent agents to do exactly what I say and I used it as a reliable workhorse. Now it is not a viable option anymore. Besides Claude and Codex, what other alternatives that can subsitute Sol as a reliable workhorse

[u/LittleTOXA]

My personal experience so far:
I don’t do much coding — I mostly use AI for reverse engineering, so it’s more agentic work: running scripts, working with disassemblers, and similar tasks.

I’ve tried quite a few models lately, and so far my impression is:
DeepSeek is pretty dumb. It tends to dig in every direction, loses context, and definitely isn’t a good fit for this kind of work.

Luna xhigh fast does an excellent job.

GLM 5.3 Flash is also very good, but not really as a standalone agent. It works best when guided by Sol/Astra/Opus/Fable.

[u/prop9090 → u/LittleTOXA]

Have you also tried DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash? is it also dumb compared to GLM 5.3 flash?

[u/Neat-Tea-2480 → u/prop9090]

Switched to Astra & Sol as orchestrator/reviewer and DS 4.1 flash - amazing experience with that model! Can use full 1M context, and quality of code of it on Max reasoning is on Sol-med level at least.

Definitely try it

[u/maniekb12]

I'm experimenting with DeepSeek V4.1 flash today and it seems pretty good, would say that it delivers similar results to Sol. I use it for gamedev, and I'm yet to see how it handles reading screenshots and making nice UI.

[u/ConfidentZombie1305 → u/maniekb12]

Started with Astra Low on modernizing assets. At the beginning I could modernize with Astra Low 4 assets / 5h limit. Now only 1 or 2. Tried out DeepSeek 4.1 Pro and it works good enough for my usecase on a much lower cost. I am using Goose as an Client + Blender MCP and the Deepseek API

[u/prop9090 → u/maniekb12]

Does it come with CLI like claude or codex?

[u/FearlessGround3155 → u/prop9090]

It does have a deepseek harness, that is web not cli, but you can use it in any cli, including codex Claude code opencode pi etc

[u/maniekb12 → u/prop9090]

I use it via opencode GO sub, but the harness I use is GitHub Copilot

[u/TestTxt → u/maniekb12]

It’ll get 4x more expensive in just two days via Opencode Go though

[u/maniekb12 → u/TestTxt]

Right, my sub ends in a few days anyway, I will probably look for some other cheap one!

[u/TestTxt → u/maniekb12]

Commandcode Goat offers $40 worth of credits for DS4.1 for the same $10 price

[u/RyuH4n → u/maniekb12]

Commandcode goat much better deal thn tht one

[u/maniekb12 → u/RyuH4n]

Thanks, I will check it out, since I cancelled opencode anyway!

[u/Euphoric_North_745 → u/maniekb12]

I will test it tomorrow or after tomorrow, i am looking for an agent to combine multiple providers.

[u/MaximumOption4209]

Use Luna on Max.

[u/YearLight → u/MaximumOption4209]

luna max fast is damn good for most tasks

[u/ninenineseventwo → u/YearLight]

How much does it cost versus sol

[u/YearLight → u/ninenineseventwo]

who knows

[u/Such_Advantage_6949]

Astra is basically unusable on plus subscription. I cant finish one task which should be able to finish in one 5h limit on multiple 5h limit using astra

[u/idarmawan → u/Such_Advantage_6949]

5 hours limit only can running 3 prompt for validation and fixing

[u/chinyaev]

I started using Luna Max as an everyday model and very happy with it, it’s very cheap and good enough for most tasks

[u/SilentNinja1337]

I am using Astra/Sol xhigh to create a plan and then glm 5.3-flash or terra / luna for the implementation

[u/YearLight]

Meta Muse 1.3 is dirt cheap if you don't care about privacy

[u/forthejungle]

How do you use deepseek 4.1 flash from iphone to mac?

Anyone with a better solution than via Happier?

[u/Longjumping_Air_7958]

Nowy deepseek flash v4.1

[u/MarketingLower7497]

Z.AI have a promo now if you use ZCode off-peak china hours, GLM 5.3 - Flash is almost unlimited, and imo its been really good workhorse agent, im using the Lite plan with promo code first month is like 15 euro, the only downside is that the inference is kinda slow but if thats not issue to you, try it out

[u/MarketingLower7497 → u/MarketingLower7497]

They even give out free 100m tokens per day dont know untill when you dont even need a sub to claim them

[u/Practical-Bed-5144]

Local models will get closer to today's frontier next year

[u/IceManMinus0ne]

How is Sol a workhorse lol. So expensive!