Per the link someone else posted, the actual difference in $/task is not nearly so stark:

https://artificialanalysis.ai/models/releases/claude-opus-5-...

  Opus 5.5 Medium = $1.34
  GPT-6-Astra High = $1.76

And that assumes Opus 5.5 Medium is actually equivalent to Astra High in all real-world usage/personal work loads, which isn't guaranteed as benchmarks saturate. The High vs. High comparison (probably not equivalent, but for reference):

  Opus 5.5 High = $1.82
  GPT-6-Astra High = $1.76

If Opus 5.5 Medium isn't equal/better for what you're working on vs. Astra High across the board, the price difference would narrow a bit more each time you had to switch to High.

So, if you're happy with Codex already it's not like Opus is now 1/2 the price and you'd be leaving a crazy amount of money/tokens on the table. Plus you have way more flexibility on the low end of the intelligence curve with GPT 5.6 Luna: Haiku (and Sonnet) can't touch that price/value ratio.

In the end what matters is how much you pay for the task you want completed. And Astra will usually do that using less token and offer a better quality solution so in the end it might be cheaper.

A cheaper price has no value if I can’t use the thing I’m paying for.

The Claude lock-in simply disqualifies anthropic entirely (for my use).

> Even on a subscription you'll get considerably more usage out of Opus.

That's an incredibly bold assumption.

yeah, Astra burned through 70% of my weekly usage in ~5hrs on a $100 plan. even fable doesn't run out that quickly for me. it's great, but it's on the same tier as fable for me - use it sparingly, only when really necessary.