Sol Ultrafast 6.1 Launches Across API, Codex and ChatGPT Work
openai
| Source: Mastodon | Original article
OpenAI has launched Ultrafast mode for its GPT‑6.1 Sol model across the API, Codex and ChatGPT Work.
OpenAI has begun rolling out an “Ultrafast” service tier for its newest model, GPT‑6.1 Sol, across the public API, the Codex coding platform and the ChatGPT Work environment. The company’s developer blog confirms that the ultrafast tier runs at six times the speed of the standard offering, but at six times the price – $12 for short‑context requests and $60 for longer ones – with data residency limited to the US and EU. Access to the Codex and Work versions is bundled into the Pro $500 plan and is also available to qualifying enterprise and education customers. On the same day, Codex received an “instant steering” feature that lets developers tweak model behaviour on the fly.
Why it matters is twofold. First, GPT‑6.1 Sol is positioned as “near‑Astra” intelligence for coding, computer use and professional tasks, yet it costs only a fifth of Astra’s standard API rates. The ultrafast tier promises sub‑second latencies that could make agentic applications – bots that make rapid tool calls – far more responsive, especially when paired with persistent WebSocket connections as OpenAI recommends. Second, the pricing structure signals a clear trade‑off: developers must weigh speed against a steep cost increase, while larger prompts (over 272 K tokens) incur additional multipliers on input, cache and output rates.
Looking ahead, the community will be watching how quickly developers adopt the ultrafast mode and whether the higher price point proves sustainable for large‑scale workloads. Benchmarks comparing latency and cost against the standard and fast tiers are expected, as are early reports from enterprise and education pilots. OpenAI’s next steps may include extending ultrafast access to other models, adjusting residency options, or refining the pricing tiers based on real‑world usage patterns.
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