Quick Overview
In this benchmark review, Nate Herk tests OpenAI Codex's newly released Ultrafast mode against standard execution modes. The video evaluates performance across summarization, heavy video generation, and document extraction tasks to determine whether the real-world speed and output justify the 500 dollar monthly price tag.
Key Points
- 1.Codex introduced an Ultrafast mode priced on a 500 dollar per month plan, marketed as up to eight times faster than standard mode.
- 2.In a transcript summarization test of a 54-minute community call, Ultrafast completed the task in 19 seconds.
- 3.On a complex video editing task involving over 145 gigabytes of footage, Ultrafast finished in 19 minutes and 13 seconds compared to 49 minutes and 53 seconds for standard mode.
- 4.For the heavy video creation prompt, Ultrafast consumed 17 percent of weekly usage compared to 4 percent on standard mode.
- 5.On a simpler document generation task, Ultrafast took 1 minute and 43 seconds versus 13 minutes and 3 seconds for standard, aligning closely with the 8x speed claim.
Summary
Nate Herk evaluates the real-world performance and costs of Codex's new Ultrafast mode, a tier available on a 500 dollar per month plan. OpenAI marketing materials state that Ultrafast is up to eight times faster than Astra Standard and four times faster than Astra Fast. Herk begins by testing the system's quick-retrieval capability on a personal workload, asking Codex to identify what was discussed during a recent weekly community Q and A call. Codex searches the project files, locates a 54-minute call recording, extracts the transcript, and produces a structured summary with timestamps in 19 seconds.
To evaluate complex multimodal tasks, Herk prompts Astra to generate a 60-second video showreel using two voiceover audio tracks and raw footage from a visit to the Google campus in San Jose. The input folder contains over 145 gigabytes of video footage across 245 files. Ultrafast mode completes the showreel generation in 19 minutes and 13 seconds, consuming 17 percent of the account's total weekly usage allowance. When standard mode executes the exact same prompt with extra high reasoning, it takes 49 minutes and 53 seconds while consuming 4 percent of weekly usage.
Comparing the two video outputs, Herk observes that Ultrafast produces a noticeably superior final edit with better Google branding and smoother pacing. The standard mode output appears lower in quality, resembling the output of a weaker model despite the longer runtime. In this heavy workflow, Ultrafast achieves roughly a 2.5x speed increase rather than the advertised 8x speedup, while consuming 4.25 times more weekly usage quota.
Herk then tests a lighter task by asking the system to generate a structured YouTube resource guide document from a video link. Standard mode takes 13 minutes and 3 seconds to complete the guide and consumes 1 percent of weekly usage. Ultrafast finishes in 1 minute and 43 seconds, using 3 percent of weekly quota. For this simpler task, the execution speed closely matches the advertised 8x acceleration without heavily depleting the user's weekly usage quota.
Initial Speed Demonstration and Pricing
Nate Herk tests the processing speed of Codex's Ultrafast mode on a 54-minute community Q and A call recording, which it locates, parses, and summarizes in 19 seconds. He notes that Ultrafast mode is exclusive to a newly announced tier costing 500 dollars per month. According to marketing materials, the mode is designed to run up to eight times faster than Astra Standard and four times faster than Astra Fast.
Heavy Video Editing Benchmark
A benchmark task prompts the system to create a 60-second showreel from a folder containing over 145 gigabytes of raw video files from a Google campus visit. Ultrafast completes the task in 19 minutes and 13 seconds while consuming 17 percent of the weekly usage limit. Standard mode finishes in 49 minutes and 53 seconds while using only 4 percent of weekly usage. In addition to being roughly 2.5 times faster, the Ultrafast output exhibits higher quality and closer adherence to branding compared to the standard output.
Document Generation and Usage Considerations
A second test assesses a lighter workload, asking the agent to generate a multi-page YouTube resource guide from a video URL. Standard mode takes 13 minutes and 3 seconds while using 1 percent of weekly quota, whereas Ultrafast mode finishes in 1 minute and 43 seconds using 3 percent of weekly quota. This result approaches the advertised 8x speed improvement, making Ultrafast mode a practical option for tight deadlines despite its higher financial and quota costs.
The Bottom Line
The video demonstrates that while Codex Ultrafast mode delivers dramatic speed gains and improved output quality across both heavy and light agent tasks, real-world acceleration varies between 2.5x and nearly 8x depending on task complexity. These speed advantages come with significant trade-offs in financial cost and weekly usage quota consumption. The evaluation leaves open how performance scales across other domain-specific workflows or larger team environments.
FAQ
What is Codex Ultrafast mode and how is it priced?
Codex Ultrafast mode is an accelerated execution mode for Astra and Codex tasks available on a 500 dollar per month subscription plan.
How fast did Codex Ultrafast mode summarize a 54-minute community Q and A call?
Codex Ultrafast mode located the recording, extracted the transcript, and generated a structured summary of the 54-minute call in 19 seconds.
How did Codex Ultrafast mode perform against standard mode on a 145 gigabyte video editing task?
Ultrafast mode completed the 145-gigabyte video editing task in 19 minutes and 13 seconds using 17 percent of weekly quota, while standard mode took 49 minutes and 53 seconds using 4 percent of weekly quota.
Did Codex Ultrafast mode achieve the advertised 8x speedup on video creation?
No, on the complex 145-gigabyte video editing task, Ultrafast mode ran approximately 2.5 times faster than standard mode rather than the advertised 8 times faster.
How quickly did Codex Ultrafast mode generate a YouTube resource guide compared to standard mode?
Ultrafast mode created the resource guide in 1 minute and 43 seconds using 3 percent of weekly usage, compared to standard mode which took 13 minutes and 3 seconds using 1 percent of weekly usage.
Worth watching for
Developers and AI practitioners evaluating high-tier automation subscriptions and benchmark performance between standard and accelerated agent execution modes.
- codex
- astra
- ai-agents
- benchmarking
- productivity