Quasar Alpha: What we know so far
Strong evidence suggesting Quasar Alpha is OpenAI’s new model, and more.
A few days ago, OpenRouter announced Quasar Alpha, a "cloaked model" provider designed to "gather feedback from the community."
Since then, Quasar Alpha has become the #1 AI model on OpenRouter in terms of computer programming usage (based on token count for several consecutive days). This is from yesterday:
Here's what we know about this mysterious new AI model so far:
Evidence Pointing to OpenAI Ownership
Quasar Alpha's tool call ID format matches OpenAI's format:
This new model also supports a “name” field in the message object, provided by that chat completion API spec. Only two AI providers currently have a “name” field: xAI and OpenAI.
Pallav Agarwal on X also posted a screenshot showing further evidence of the connection with OpenAI:
Some have even speculated that this is OpenAI's o4-mini-low model behind the mask, which would definitely be an interesting marketing play.
More evidence:
The upstream ID found in the generation details is the same you find in OpenAI generation IDs
Some hierarchical clustering patterns also point to OpenAI
All of these 5 indicators strongly suggest that:
Quasar Alpha is owned by OpenAI, or
Someone is trying really hard to mimic OpenAI’s API.
Usage is Surging Across Multiple Categories
According to OpenRouter's statistics, the top applications "consuming" Quasar Alpha include Roo Code and Cline.
Both are open-source VS Code extensions for AI coding (Kilo Code, us, is also in this category).
Looking at the overview page, you'll notice that this model has been rapidly gaining traction and now ranks in the top 10 across five different categories:
Solid, but not SOTA
The overall sentiment seems to be that Quasar Alpha is a solid model but not state-of-the-art.
OpenAI might not be aiming for a state-of-the-art model, though. Fast, cheap, and smart enough may be just what's needed to disrupt this segment of the “AI coding models” market.
Want to try it? Quasar Alpha is now available on Kilo Code.
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