Pareto 26.9 vs GPT-6.1 Sol
Pareto 26.9 took 10 min 32 s and $0.34 at list price, GPT-6.1 Sol took 12 min 10 s and $0.37 at list price. GPT-6.1 Sol took 1.2× as long and cost 1.1× as much.
Pareto 26.9
Unbiased · $7.50/M out
GPT-6.1 Sol
OpenAI · $10.00/M out · 1,166 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 small workshop in the heart of Rotterdam, where three people spend their days elbow-deep in the guts of vintage synthesizers. We fix the machines that made the sounds you grew up with—the ones that shaped entire genres and then got left in basements when the tech moved on. But we're not a museum. Our benches are covered in solder, schematics, and the occasional broken key that's been there for two weeks longer than we'd like to admit.
We started this studio because we got tired of seeing classic gear being stripped for parts, or worse, turned into Instagram decor. These instruments deserve better. They were built to make noise, and we want to keep them doing exactly that.
Between the three of us, we've fixed everything from a 1960s Buchla to a beat-up Juno that fell down a flight of stairs. If you've got a synth that's gone quiet, bring it in. We'll bring it back.
Patchbay is a three-person studio in Rotterdam, keeping vintage synthesizers in working hands. We repair the instruments that have picked up a crackle, lost a voice, drifted out of tune, or stopped making sound altogether.
We like the patient side of repair: tracing a fault, understanding an old circuit, and finding the right fix rather than the quickest workaround. Our aim is to make each instrument dependable without sanding away the character that made someone fall for it in the first place.
Some synths arrive with a clear problem. Others come with a story and a noise that only happens after twenty minutes. Either way, the work starts with listening—to the instrument and to the person who plays it.
We’re a small studio by choice. It keeps us close to the work, and to the musicians who trust us with something they want to keep making music with.
Specs and numbers
| Pareto 26.9 | GPT-6.1 Sol | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Unbiased | OpenAI |
| Made in | — | US |
| Released | 13 Oct 2026 | 29 Sep 2026 |
| Price in, per M tokens | $2.50 | $2.00 |
| Price out, per M tokens | $7.50 | $10.00 |
| Context | 262,144 tokens | 1,050,000 tokens |
| Weights | closed | closed |
| Hacker News points | — | 1,166 |
| Time for the six prompts | 10 min 32 s | 12 min 10 s |
| List price of the six prompts | $0.34 | $0.37 |
Pareto 26.9 was cheaper: $0.028 less at list price, and less on 4 of the 6 prompts. Pareto 26.9 was faster: 1 min 37 s less in total, and faster on 4 of the 6 prompts.
In the recording, both Breakout games play. Pareto 26.9's landing page was cut off at the output limit (12,000 tokens).
Rebuild this screen experiment: GPT-6.1 Sol's rebuild matched the screenshot at 97%; Pareto 26.9 was not in it. Tea Garden experiment: GPT-6.1 Sol's game passed 5 of 5 checks; Pareto 26.9 was not in it.