# Ember-1

11 Hacker News commenters recommended Ember-1 and 4 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 1 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended for using far fewer tokens per task, which can cut cost in long conversations. Critics report hallucinations and higher pricing than its base model.

## Why people recommend it

- Far fewer tokens per task (4 comments): "Because you care about how many tokens are used per task." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49871428)) "Half the tokens can also mean quicker task completion" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49880607)) "For long conversations, you end up paying much less." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49875553))
- Praised as a great iteration (2 comments): "Well done, and great iteration." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49869336)) "This is undoubtedly great." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49870901))

## What people warn about

- Higher cost per token than base (2 comments): "Half the tokens, but triple the cost on Open Router? So I pay more?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49879835)) "But the pricing is double the pricing of K3." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49871383))
- Hallucinates and claims false completion (2 comments): "Their Ember-1 model (Kimi K3 tuned to think less) hallucinates to high hell, I have no trust of it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50156800)) "It hallucinated and claimed task completion almost every session." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50216984))
- Poor past experience with Ember-2 (2 comments): "Given what an experience i had with Ember-2" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49870841)) "Not what I signed up for though." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49872266))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Claude Opus](https://hackerapproved.com/p/claude-opus.md): 3331 recommend
- [OpenAI GPT](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gpt-5-5.md): 1205 recommend
- [Claude Sonnet](https://hackerapproved.com/p/claude-sonnet.md): 854 recommend
- [DeepSeek V4 Flash](https://hackerapproved.com/p/deepseek-v4-flash.md): 828 recommend
- [Fable](https://hackerapproved.com/p/fable.md): 823 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Ember-1", https://hackerapproved.com/p/ember-1/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).