GPT-5.6 Sol Uses Twice the Tokens of GPT-5.5 (2 minute read)

# GPT-5.6 Sol Uses Twice the Tokens of GPT-5.5 Source: [https://www.vincentschmalbach.com/gpt-5-6-sol-xhigh-uses-twice-tokens-gpt-5-5/](https://www.vincentschmalbach.com/gpt-5-6-sol-xhigh-uses-twice-tokens-gpt-5-5/) GPT\-5\.6 Sol xhigh now uses more than twice as many tokens per session as GPT\-5\.5 xhigh in my Codex workflow\. For Codex users, tokens per session means the total token count divided by the number of sessions\. I compared two equal 14\-day windows from deduplicated local logs\. The sessions were different, but 1,667 sessions before and 1,715 after are similar enough to show why the new model drains my subscriptions\. Like\-for\-like, equal 14\-day windows: Model / effortSessionsTokensTokens per sessionGPT\-5\.5 xhigh1,66712\.17B7\.30MGPT\-5\.6 Sol xhigh1,71528\.22B16\.45MThe session count rose by only 2\.9%\. Tokens per session rose by 125%\. GPT\-5\.6 Sol xhigh used 16\.45M tokens per session, compared with 7\.30M for GPT\-5\.5 xhigh\. That is 2\.25x as many tokens for each session\. Total usage rose from 12\.17B tokens to 28\.22B, a 2\.32x increase\. Roughly the same number of sessions now consumes more than twice the usage allocation\. That cuts the effective value of a token\-based quota by more than half\. My three subscriptions used to survive roughly a week of extreme work\. Since GPT\-5\.6 Sol became the top xhigh model, about one day of medium work can drain them\. I also had three to four banked usage resets on each account\. I rarely needed them before\. Now they are all gone\. [OpenAI lists the same fresh\-input, cached\-input, and output token prices](https://platform.openai.com/docs/pricing)for GPT\-5\.5 and GPT\-5\.6 Sol\. At the same token price, 2\.25x the tokens means roughly 2\.25x the cost for a similar token mix\. GPT\-5\.6 Sol also adds a cache\-write charge that GPT\-5\.5 did not have\. [What I'm building## Delegate tasks\. Get software\. Give Vroni a GitHub issue, bug report, spec, or rough idea\. It reads the repo, plans the change, writes code, runs checks, and works toward a review\-ready pull request\. Take a look at vroni\.com](https://www.vroni.com/?utm_source=vincentschmalbach.com&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=blog_post_vroni&utm_content=after_post_card) I respect your privacy\. Unsubscribe at any time\.