Step 5 Preview API pricing
StepFun · Mid-range price tier · StepFun Model License · released 2026-10. Prices in USD per 1 million tokens. Data snapshot: 2026-10-22.
Step 5 Preview has held the same list price since 2026-10-18 and is the 32nd cheapest of 113 models in the Mid-range price tier. None of its 4 hosts undercuts the price we quote. Its name marks it as a preview, beta or experimental release, so both the model and its price are provisional.
- Input: $1.00 per 1M tokens
- Output: $2.70 per 1M tokens
- Batch API (in/out): Not published
- Prompt-cache read: $0.10 per 1M tokens
- Context window: 1M tokens
- Arena ELO: 1447 as of 2026-10-08
Market position
On blended price ($2.19 per 1M tokens at 30% input, 70% output) it is cheaper than 72% of models in the Mid-range price tier: 32nd cheapest of 113. Across every price tier it is cheaper than 36% of priced text models in the catalogue: 196th cheapest of 308. Its Arena ELO of 1447 ranks 56th of the 156 models that carry one, tied with one other, above 64% of them. With an Arena score of 1447, Step 5 Preview clears OptimNow's Standard working quality threshold: Standard (Arena 1415+), used for meeting summary, invoice processing and call summary. It is 18 points under the Strong bar (Arena 1465+), within the benchmark's 20-point noise. Each threshold is a distance below the best ranked model, which scores 1525 on Arena scores as of 8 Oct 2026.
Licence, size and capabilities
Step 5 Preview is open weights, which is not the same as open source: the weights are published, but under StepFun Model License, a licence that restricts some uses. Read it before self-hosting commercially. Its published size is 600B parameters. Listed capabilities: Text, Vision, Reasoning, Agents. Filling its 1M context window once costs $1.00 in input tokens at list price.
Pricing by host
A host is a company that runs the model and sells it by the token: the model maker, a cloud platform like Amazon Bedrock, Azure or Vertex, or an independent host. One model, several hosts, and often several prices. This model is sold by 4 different hosts. The price we quote elsewhere on this page is marked. We quote one host's rate so that models stay comparable; it is not a recommendation to buy there.
The price we quote is already the cheapest of the 4 hosts: StepFun at $1.00 input / $2.70 output per 1M tokens. It serves a quantized fp8 build, which is not the same product as the full-precision model. All of them charge within 10% of one another.
| Host | Input $/1M | Output $/1M | Precision |
|---|---|---|---|
| StepFun (model maker, price we quote) | $1.00 | $2.70 | fp8 |
| InferenceNet (price we quote) | $1.00 | $2.70 | fp4 |
| Featherless (price we quote) | $1.00 | $2.70 | fp4 |
| DeepInfra (price we quote) | $1.00 | $2.70 | fp8 |
List prices as published on 2026-10-22, via OpenRouter. Negotiated rates, committed-use discounts and provisioned capacity are not shown. These hosts do not all serve the model at the same numeric precision, so the cheapest is not a like-for-like substitute for the dearest.
Monthly cost at 100K requests, by business use case
From the after-discounts figure (prompt caching on the cached input share, batch API for async workloads, only where StepFun publishes those rates), which assumes you implement both, to the list price. One figure means no discount is published.
| Use case | Tokens (in/out) | Monthly (after discounts – list) |
|---|---|---|
| Support Ticket | 1,500 / 500 | $204 – $285 |
| Knowledge Q&A | 2,000 / 800 | $290 – $416 |
| Meeting Summary | 10,000 / 1,200 | $1.2K – $1.3K |
| Marketing Content | 2,500 / 1,800 | $691 – $736 |
| Coding Task | 3,000 / 2,000 | $705 – $840 |
| Invoice Processing | 1,500 / 600 | $272 – $312 |
| Call Summary | 2,000 / 700 | $371 – $389 |
| Agent Workflow | 6,000 / 3,000 | $1.0K – $1.4K |
Price history
Step 5 Preview entered our daily price archive on 2026-10-18; tracking began on 2026-08-15. It listed at $1.00 input / $2.70 output per 1M tokens that day. No list price change since 2026-10-18. Last checked against the 2026-10-22 snapshot.
Alternatives to Step 5 Preview
- Next cheaper model in the Mid-range price tier: Grok 4.20 (xAI) at $2.125 blended, 3% less.
- Next more expensive: Seed-2.0-Code (ByteDance) at $2.25 blended, 3% more.
The nearest models in the Mid-range price tier on Arena ELO, each with its blended price and score difference against Step 5 Preview.
- GPT-5.4 Mini (OpenAI): $0.75 in / $4.50 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1447 (54% more expensive, same Arena ELO)
- Gemini 2.5 Pro (Google): $1.25 in / $10.00 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1445 (237% more expensive, 2 ELO points lower)
- Kimi K2.5 (Moonshot): $0.50 in / $2.50 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1450 (13% cheaper, 3 ELO points higher)
- Grok 4.7 (xAI): $2.00 in / $6.00 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1443 (119% more expensive, 4 ELO points lower)
- Cheapest within 15 Arena points: DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423 (DeepSeek), 93% cheaper, 11 ELO points lower, out of 35 models in that band.
- Highest Arena ELO within 20% of this price: Grok 4.20 (xAI), 3% cheaper, 28 ELO points higher, out of 14 models in that price band.
Other models from StepFun
StepFun has 2 other models in the catalogue. Prices per 1M tokens, input then output.
- Step 3.5 Flash: $0.10 / $0.30
- Step 3.7 Flash: $0.20 / $1.15
All 3 StepFun models and prices
Common questions about Step 5 Preview pricing
- How much does Step 5 Preview cost?
- Step 5 Preview costs $1.00 per 1M input tokens and $2.70 per 1M output tokens. That is the model maker's own rate (StepFun). Prices as listed on 2026-10-22.
- Which host is cheapest for Step 5 Preview?
- The price we quote is already the cheapest of the 4 hosts: StepFun at $1.00 input / $2.70 output per 1M tokens. It serves a quantized fp8 build, which is not the same product as the full-precision model. All of them charge within 10% of one another. Host rates as listed on 2026-10-22.
- Does Step 5 Preview offer batch or cached pricing?
- Yes, for prompt caching only. Cache reads cost $0.10 per 1M tokens, as listed on 2026-10-22. No batch pricing is published.
- What would Step 5 Preview cost per month?
- With the Support Ticket profile (1,500 input and 500 output tokens per request), 100,000 requests a month cost about $285 on Step 5 Preview at the list price quoted on 2026-10-22.
- Can Step 5 Preview be self-hosted?
- Yes, within the terms of its licence. Step 5 Preview is open weights, which is not the same as open source: the weights are published, but under StepFun Model License, a licence that restricts some uses. Read it before self-hosting commercially.
- Has the price of Step 5 Preview changed?
- Step 5 Preview entered our daily price archive on 2026-10-18; tracking began on 2026-08-15. It listed at $1.00 input / $2.70 output per 1M tokens that day. No list price change since 2026-10-18. Last checked against the 2026-10-22 snapshot.
These are list prices. Your real cost also depends on caching and batching, negotiated discounts, marketplace agreements, and the contracts you already have. OptimNow audits exactly that.
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