Particle-1 vs Ember-1
Particle-1 took 7 min 13 s and $0.056 at list price, Ember-1 took 25 min 56 s and $1.78 at list price. Ember-1 took 3.6× as long and cost 32× as much.
Particle-1
Particle AI · $0.50/M out · 18 HN pts
Ember-1
Fireworks · $15.00/M out · 589 HN pts
Pelican
Generate an SVG of a pelican riding a bicycle
Watch
Draw a mechanical wristwatch that shows the current local time, with a sweeping seconds hand and a date window. Make it look expensive.
Landing
Build the landing page for Lumen Cycles, a Copenhagen workshop that builds custom cargo bikes to order. Make it look like a real brand you would trust with 4,000 euros.
Breakout
Make a Breakout game I can play right now with the keyboard or the mouse. Give it several levels, a score and some juice.
Logo
Design a logo for Night Heron, an independent bookshop that only opens after dark.
About
Write the opening of the About us page for Patchbay, a three-person studio in Rotterdam that repairs vintage synthesizers. About 150 words.
Patchbay is a three-person studio in Rotterdam dedicated to the repair and restoration of vintage synthesizers. We are engineers, musicians, and collectors who believe these instruments are not museum pieces but tools meant to be played, heard, and trusted on stage or in the studio. Our bench has seen everything from stubborn Moogs and fragile ARP boards to polysynths with corroded traces and keyboards that have traveled too many miles. We approach each repair with patience, documentation, and respect for the original design, while making sensible updates only where reliability demands them. Because we are a small team, you work directly with the person handling your instrument, from the first diagnosis to the final calibration. We also advise on maintenance, source hard-to-find parts, and help you decide when a repair is worthwhile. Patchbay exists to keep old synthesizers making new music.
Patchbay is a three-person workshop in Rotterdam dedicated to keeping vintage synthesizers alive. We work on the machines that shaped electronic music — analog polysynths, temperamental drum machines, early digital oddities — replacing tired capacitors, rebuilding keybeds, and coaxing silent oscillators back into tune.
Between us we bring decades of experience in electronics, instrument design, and music-making, but what unites us is simpler: we believe these machines were built to be played, not displayed. Every repair happens by hand at our benches, with period-correct components wherever possible and thoughtful modern solutions where reliability demands it. We test everything the only way that matters — by listening.
Whether your Juno has lost a voice, your 808 has lost its kick, or a flea-market find needs a full restoration, we treat each instrument as if it were heading back to a studio, a stage, and a long life of making noise. Because it is.
Specs and numbers
| Particle-1 | Ember-1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Particle AI | Fireworks |
| Made in | — | US |
| Released | 28 Oct 2026 | 24 Sep 2026 |
| Price in, per M tokens | $0.05 | $3.00 |
| Price out, per M tokens | $0.50 | $15.00 |
| Context | 1,048,576 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Weights | closed | closed |
| Hacker News points | 18 | 589 |
| Time for the six prompts | 7 min 13 s | 25 min 56 s |
| List price of the six prompts | $0.056 | $1.78 |
Particle-1 was cheaper: $1.72 less at list price, and less on each of the 6 prompts. Particle-1 was faster: 18 min 43 s less in total, and faster on each of the 6 prompts.
In the recording, both Breakout games play.
Rebuild this screen experiment: Ember-1's rebuild matched the screenshot at 67%; Particle-1 was not in it. Tea Garden experiment: Ember-1's game passed 5 of 5 checks; Particle-1 was not in it.