Sol Medium
Shares rank 71 of 72 language models by recommenders
Recommended for a good balance of speed and thoroughness and for finding alternatives when the obvious approach fails; one caveat is needing more care for planning and implementation.
Recommended for a good balance of speed and thoroughness and for finding alternatives when the obvious approach fails; one caveat is needing more care for planning and implementation.
5 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Default model for most work
“I have been using Sol Medium and it works great.”
Comment from 28 Aug 2026 in “Small Models Have Arrived” “I run sol on medium about 90% of the time.”
Comment from 21 Aug 2026 in “Quick impressions: A week of using Codex more than Claude” Used for planning and implementation
“Defaulting to Sol Medium/Light for most planning and implementation I think is tricky or want more care in.”
Comment from 12 Sep 2026 in “Ask HN: What default model do you use and why?” “Plan with sol-med, implement with luna-high. Rarely a problem.”
Comment from 12 Aug 2026 in “DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Needs more care for planning
“Defaulting to Sol Medium/Light for most planning and implementation I think is tricky or want more care in.”
Comment from 12 Sep 2026 in “Ask HN: What default model do you use and why?”
Other language models people recommend
The four most recommended other language models, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Opus | 3,331 | 2,746 | 55% | 13 | 4 mo156 owners | — |
| OpenAI GPT | 1,205 | 987 | 55% | 13 | 6 mo47 owners | — |
| Claude Sonnet | 854 | 586 | 59% | 13 | 6 mo46 owners | — |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 828 | 223 | 79% | 8 | 1 mo24 owners | Approved |
| Sol MediumThis page | 5 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
6 of the 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Defaulting to Sol Medium/Light for most planning and implementation I think is tricky or want more care in.”
“I have been using Sol Medium and it works great.”
“Sol is noticeably better at navigating around issues, exploring alternatives, and being creative when the obvious approach doesn't work.”
“Sol medium is a great balance between speed and being thorough”
“I run sol on medium about 90% of the time.”
“Plan with sol-med, implement with luna-high. Rarely a problem.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.