StepFun: Step 5 Preview: multimodal specs, pricing, and fit
StepFun: Step 5 Preview ranks #20 on the AI Hippo board with a 1.0M context window and $1.00 input / $2.70 output per 1M tokens. Specs, cost math, and how it compares.
The quick read
StepFun: Step 5 Preview from stepfun is a balanced pick (#20): a 1.0M window at $1.00 input / $2.70 output per 1M tokens. It aims for capability headroom without top-tier prices—useful when neither raw cost nor absolute frontier quality is the only constraint.
Spec sheet at a glance
By the numbers: 1.0M context window; multimodal (text, image, and file input); 19 exposed API parameters, including tool calling and structured outputs with reasoning support. Use these to judge fit for agentic, long-context, or structured-output workloads.
Pricing & how it compares
Pricing: $1.00 input / $2.70 output per 1M tokens. Its blended $1.85 is above the top-20 median ($0.33). On AI Hippo the composite board rewards cheap long-context models such as Meta: Llama 4 Scout, so a lower rank here means weaker value-per-token, not weaker capability.
Head-to-head
Its closest board neighbor is Tencent: Hy4 preview (1.0M ctx, $1.67/1M blended). Side by side, StepFun: Step 5 Preview offers 1.0M ctx at $1.85/1M blended: context is similar and, on blended token price, it is pricier. Pick between them on whichever axis your workload is bound by.
Where it fits
Best-fit workloads: whole-repo & long-document work, screenshot / PDF / image understanding, tool-calling agents, structured-output pipelines, multi-step reasoning.
Cost in practice & verdict
A representative 100K-input + 20K-output task costs about $0.15 on StepFun: Step 5 Preview. Verdict: a balanced mid-tier option — good when you want capability headroom without top-tier token prices.