AI model comparison
Step 5 Preview vs Claude Opus 5.5
Pricing, context window, benchmarks, and features compared side by side. Or skip the guesswork and send one prompt to both.
StepFun
Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview is StepFun's flagship model for agentic work, built on a sparse Mixture-of-Experts architecture (27B active / 600B total parameters).
- Input / 1M
- $1
- Output / 1M
- $2.70
- Context
- 1M
Anthropic
Claude Opus 5.5
Claude Opus 5.5 is Anthropic's flagship model for demanding reasoning, coding, and long-horizon agentic work, succeeding Claude Opus 5.
- Input / 1M
- $4
- Output / 1M
- $20
- Context
- 1M
At a glance
Quick verdict
How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.
Lower price
Step 5 Preview
5.4x cheaper for a typical chat
Higher intelligence score
Tie
Not enough benchmark data
Larger context window
Tie
1M vs 1M tokens
Newer release
Step 5 Preview
Released October 8, 2026
Benchmarks
Benchmark scores
Independent scores from Artificial Analysis. Higher is better.
Intelligence index
Claude Opus 5.557.6Coding index
Claude Opus 5.5Not availableAgentic index
Claude Opus 5.5Not availablePricing
Step 5 Preview vs Claude Opus 5.5 API pricing
Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 | |
|---|---|---|
| Input tokensPer 1M tokens | $1 | $4 |
| Output tokensPer 1M tokens | $2.70 | $20 |
| Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens | $0.05 | $0.20 |
| Cache writePer 1M tokens | Not available | $5 |
| Web searchPer request | Not available | $0.01 |
What it costs in practice
Estimated cost per 1,000 requests at standard rates. Coding and long-document figures also show the cost when the input is already cached.
Chat message
2K in, 500 out
Claude Opus 5.5$18Coding task
30K in, 4K out
Claude Opus 5.5$200$86 cachedLong document summary
150K in, 2K out
Claude Opus 5.5$640$70 cachedSpecs
Context window and capabilities
How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 | |
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 1M tokens | 1M tokens |
| Max output | 64K tokens | 128K tokens |
| Input types | Image, Text, Video | File, Image, Text |
| Output types | Text | Text |
| Reasoning effort levels | High, Medium, Low | Max, Extra high, High, Medium, Low |
| Default reasoning effort | Medium | High |
| Release date | October 8, 2026 | September 22, 2026 |
Features
Supported features
API features available for each model.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 | |
|---|---|---|
| Tool calling | Supported | Supported |
| Structured outputs | Supported | Supported |
| JSON mode | Supported | Supported |
| Reasoning | Supported | Supported |
| Temperature | Supported | Not supported |
| Stop sequences | Supported | Supported |
| Deterministic seed | Not supported | Not supported |
| Verbosity control | Not supported | Supported |
Keep exploring
More on these models
Other head-to-heads, the full model page, and the alternatives list for each model.
- Step 5 Preview vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
- Step 5 Preview vs GLM 5.3 Flash
- Step 5 Preview vs MiMo-V2.6-Flash
- Step 5 Preview vs Hy4 preview
- Step 5 Preview vs GPT-6 Luna
- Step 5 Preview vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731
- Step 5 Preview vs GLM 5.3
- Step 5 Preview vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423
- Step 5 Preview vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
- Step 5 Preview vs Hy3
- Step 5 Preview vs DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813
- Step 5 Preview vs Gemini 3 Flash Preview
- Step 5 Preview vs Qwen3.8 27B
- Step 5 Preview vs Gemini 2.5 Flash
- Step 5 Preview vs Step 3.7 Flash
Claude Opus 5.5View full model details- Claude Opus 5.5 vs Claude Sonnet 5.5
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs Claude Fable 5.1
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs GPT-6 Astra
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs GPT-6.1 Sol
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs Claude Opus 5
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs Claude Fable 5
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs Muse Spark 1.3
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs GLM 5.3 Flash
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs GPT-6 Sol
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs MiMo-V2.6-Flash
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs GPT-5.6 Sol
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs Hy4 preview
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs Grok 4.7
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs GPT-6 Luna
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs GLM 5.3
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs Kimi K3
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs Hy3
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview
Our take
Step 5 Preview is 5.4x cheaper for a typical chat. The right pick depends on your workload, so the quickest way to settle it is to send the same prompt to both and compare.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is Step 5 Preview or Claude Opus 5.5 cheaper?
Step 5 Preview is cheaper for a typical chat (2K input tokens and 500 output tokens). Step 5 Preview costs $1 per 1M input tokens and $2.70 per 1M output tokens, while Claude Opus 5.5 costs $4 per 1M input tokens and $20 per 1M output tokens.
Which has a bigger context window, Step 5 Preview or Claude Opus 5.5?
Step 5 Preview supports up to 1M tokens of context, compared with 1M for Claude Opus 5.5.
Can I use Step 5 Preview and Claude Opus 5.5 at the same time?
Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see Step 5 Preview and Claude Opus 5.5 answer side by side and keep the better response.
Why choose? Ask both.
Send one prompt to Step 5 Preview and Claude Opus 5.5 at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.