Reddit Cursor: one backend implementation comparison with Sol medium

Summary

Comparing Grok 4.6 extra high with GPT-5.6 Sol medium in Cursor using the same backend plan and starting point, the poster found Sol better at handling financial edge cases, race-condition risks, and test quality, giving it an approximate 60/40 result.

Original article

The following is the visible body text extracted during this visit. It includes page navigation, machine translation, advertising, comments, and other page elements; verify against the original link before citing it.

Skip to main content I compared grok 4.6 and gpt 5.6 sol : r/cursor Advertise on Reddit Open chat Create Create a post Open inbox Expand user menu Repost Go to “cursor” r/cursor • 3 days ago Rashe39 I compared grok 4.6 and gpt 5.6 sol Question / Discussion

I compared grok 4.6 extra high with gpt 5.6 sol medium in cursor. Asked both models to implement the same detailed backend plan (fairly big feature, about 2.5k lines of code). They had exactly the same plan and starting point. Fable 5 high was the independent judge.

Sol wins with approximate score 60/40.

It was better at handling edge cases with money (which is critical), didn’t expose race conditions risks and overall the architecture was clear and the tests were more meaningful.

When it comes to the cost, grok cost nothing (idk if it’s a bug but the usage % didn’t change). Sol cost 5% of the 200$ subscription monthly limit.

Share RedditforBusiness • Promoted Reach 443M+ high-intent audiences on Reddit. Sign up ads.reddit.com Sort by: Comments bonerfleximus • 3 days ago

What order did you do them in? I did a similar experiment and the second model found the branch I created for the first test and just copied it, so almost no credits used. I had to scrub my system of any evidence of the first branch (even stashed commits) to keep the second model from finding it ( which leads to polluting the context or copying completely.)

Wouldn't explain why their scores would be different but something to watch out for

Reply Share Rashe39 • 3 days ago

Grok was first. I took quick glance at the gpt thoughts, didn’t look like it was reading git history

Reply Share Fickle_Grocery_9717 • 23 hours ago

Oh you were talking about usd200 chatgpt subscription or cursor subscription?

Reply Share Rashe39 • 23 hours ago

Cursor

Reply Share neudarkness • 3 days ago

I think models will love most of the time the sol because of the edge cases. But many edge cases are like really super edge cases.

It did stuff like input protection in it in my typescript project to protect a function that nobody can do an "as" to just put it in and stuff like nobody cares.

ActionOrganic4617 • 2 days ago

After trying cheaper models in data engineering (looking at you composer 2.5), I’ve now resolved myself to stick with frontier. It’s just too easy to have outputs that look correct and then have to fix a bunch of things later in production.

It’s easier to tolerate bugs when you are dealing with websites that can be easily tested locally.

Rashe39 • 2 days ago

Yeah same here. Used to be a fan of grok code fast with all the handholding it needed. Now with the latest gpt models I’m too spoiled to get one shots quite often

u/shopify • Promoted Hey redditors, ever wonder about growing your online business? Shopify answers your top questions. Swipe to learn more. shopify.com Sign up vincentlius • 2 days ago

have you tried the same task in Codex directly? supposedly cursor and Codex are basically different harness

Rashe39 • 2 days ago

That would be an interesting experiment but I don’t have a codex subscription now. I used gpt models in vscode copilot and they felt as good as in cursor so I don’t think it matters that much

vincentlius • 2 days ago

oh I thought the'$200 subscription you mentioned was ChatGPT pro 20x

though personally I don't really trust GitHub Copilot coming all the way from last 2 years' drama...

Rashe39 • 2 days ago

Yeah I mean I used copilot on a different occasion. This test was both models in cursor. Copilot works pretty good too though

only1nameleft • 3 days ago

Yeah, that is the think with Grok 4.6. If it takes two attempts it is cheaper and faster.

michaelfrieze • 3 days ago

4.5 is a lot cheaper and faster than 4.6.

Of course, 4.6 is somewhat more intelligent, but 4.5 is still really good as a general-purpose coding model. If you are building large complex features then intelligence matters more, but at that point I'm just going to use GPT-5.6 Sol (I also have a ChatGPT sub).

I'm struggling to find a purpose for Grok 4.6, but I'm looking forward to 4.7.

InfiniteKraft • 3 days ago

How is Grok 4.5 cheaper than Grok 4.6? It costs the same.

Junior_Age_1909 • 2 days ago

Because the price of the API is one thing, and the model’s efficiency is another. For example, GPT-5.6 Sol is more expensive than Opus 5; however, in all benchmarks, if you look at cost per task (the total cost of running a benchmark task), it’s always much cheaper. So, in the case of Grok, version 4.6 generates many more reasoning tokens than 4.5, in fact, my hypothesis regarding the improvement in intelligence is that it’s largely due to the increase in the reasoning token budget per level; if you set both to “High,” version 4.6 generates many more tokens. In fact, if you look at the three charts (cost, output tokens, and tools used per task), version 4.6 outperforms version 4.5 across the board: version 4.6 on “Medium” generates far more tokens (50k vs. 36k) and also uses more tools to solve the same problem (70 vs. 61) than version 4.5 on “High.” This isn’t necessarily a bad thing—thanks to all these improvements, it’s “smarter”—but it’s good to know this, especially so you can save on your plans. Once the 50% discount promotion for version 4.6 on Cursor ends, it will use up your quota faster than version 4.5, and it’s good to be aware of that.

DayriseA • 2 days ago

Don't confuse price (per M tokens) and cost which also involves how many tokens was used at this price, cache hit rate, etc.

michaelfrieze • 3 days ago

That's obviously not true. They are not the same model.

On artificial analysis, Grok 4.6 increased the tokens per run by over 30%. Grok 4.5 is a lot more efficient. What I loved about the model was that it was cheap, fast, and actually did a pretty good job as a general-purpose coding model.

Fickle_Grocery_9717 • 23 hours ago

Do you mean 5% of the weekly quota? That's what shown in usage, not monthly. But 5% is still huge for planning

Rashe39 • 23 hours ago

The implementation done by sol cost me 5% of the monthly limit on 200$ subscription which is pretty expensive, right. I’m thinking switching to codex for this reason

Fickle_Grocery_9717 • 22 hours ago

Yes I think codex and anthropic give generous monthly use. But people have been bashing anthropic models lately for coding. I personally don't have much issue with opus 5 and sonnet 5

Open_Mission_1627 • 1 hour ago

If you didn’t run then in separate sandboxes then your test is tainted

Created February 21, 2024 Public 92K 2,719 Community bookmarks Forum Docs Status Page R/CURSOR rules 1 Keep it relevant 2 Be civil 3 No rants 4 No misinformation 5 Provide context 6 Limit self-promotion 7 No paid content 8 No spam 9 Write quality titles 10 Use flairs 11 No slop Moderators Message the moderators u/IveWastedMyLifeAgain

Mod u/IndraVahan

Founding Mod Indra u/dev-andrew-healey

Mod dev-capybara u/shaoruu

Dev u/cursor_dan

Dev Dan u/freshkoala

Mod u/ydaars

Dev u/mntruell

Dev u/eric-cursor u/NickCursor

Mod Nick Miller View all moderators Reddit rules Privacy Policy User Agreement Your Privacy Choices Accessibility Reddit, Inc. © 2026. All rights reserved. Collapse “Navigation” Create a community GAMES ON REDDIT Customize feed Create custom feed Recently visited r/opencodeCLI r/chrome r/Notion r/todoist Communities Manage communities Resources About Reddit Advertise Developer Platform Reddit Pro Beta Help Blog Careers News Best of Reddit Reddit rules Privacy Policy User Agreement Your Privacy Choices Accessibility Reddit, Inc. © 2026. All rights reserved.