AI model comparison
Step 5 Preview vs Claude Sonnet 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
- 1.05M
Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 5
Sonnet 5 is Anthropic's most capable Sonnet-class model, with frontier performance across coding, agents, and professional work.
- Input / 1M
- $2
- Output / 1M
- $10
- 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
2.7x cheaper for a typical chat
Higher intelligence score
Step 5 Preview
43.7 vs 38.2 on Artificial Analysis
Larger context window
Step 5 Preview
1.05M 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 Sonnet 538.2Coding index
Claude Sonnet 571.5Agentic index
Claude Sonnet 543.6Pricing
Step 5 Preview vs Claude Sonnet 5 API pricing
Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 | |
|---|---|---|
| Input tokensPer 1M tokens | $1 | $2 |
| Output tokensPer 1M tokens | $2.70 | $10 |
| Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens | $0.05 | $0.20 |
| Cache writePer 1M tokens | Not available | $2.50 |
| 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 Sonnet 5$9Coding task
30K in, 4K out
Claude Sonnet 5$100$46 cachedLong document summary
150K in, 2K out
Claude Sonnet 5$320$50 cachedSpecs
Context window and capabilities
How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 | |
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 1.05M 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 | June 30, 2026 |
Features
Supported features
API features available for each model.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 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 | 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 Claude Opus 5.5
- Step 5 Preview vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731
- Step 5 Preview vs GLM 5.3
- Step 5 Preview vs Hy3
- Step 5 Preview vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423
- Step 5 Preview vs Muse Spark 1.3 Contributor
- Step 5 Preview vs Claude Sonnet 5.5
- Step 5 Preview vs Kimi K3
- Step 5 Preview vs GPT-6.1 Sol
- Step 5 Preview vs Claude Haiku 5.5
- Step 5 Preview vs Claude Fable 5.1
- Step 5 Preview vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
- Step 5 Preview vs GPT-6 Astra
- Step 5 Preview vs GPT-5.6 Luna
- Step 5 Preview vs Gemini 4 Argon
- Step 5 Preview vs MiMo-V2.6-Pro
- Step 5 Preview vs DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813
- Step 5 Preview vs Muse Spark 1.3
- Step 5 Preview vs GPT-6 Sol
- Step 5 Preview vs GPT-5.6 Sol
- Step 5 Preview vs Grok 4.7
- Step 5 Preview vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
- Step 5 Preview vs Grok 4.6
- Step 5 Preview vs GPT-5.6 Terra
- Step 5 Preview vs Claude Opus 4.8
- Step 5 Preview vs Ling 3.1 Flash
- Step 5 Preview vs Claude Opus 4.7
- Step 5 Preview vs Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B
- Step 5 Preview vs Gemini 3.7 Flash
- Step 5 Preview vs Muse Spark 1.2
- Step 5 Preview vs Grok 4.5
- Step 5 Preview vs Qwen3.8 27B
- Step 5 Preview vs Mistral Large 4
- Step 5 Preview vs Muse Spark 1.1
- Step 5 Preview vs GLM 5.3 FlashX
- Step 5 Preview vs GPT-5.6 Luna Pro
Claude Sonnet 5View full model details- Claude Sonnet 5 vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
- Claude Sonnet 5 vs Kimi K3
- Claude Sonnet 5 vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
- Claude Sonnet 5 vs GPT-5.6 Terra
- Claude Sonnet 5 vs GLM 5.2
- Claude Sonnet 5 vs Claude Opus 4.8
- Claude Sonnet 5 vs Claude Opus 4.7
- Claude Sonnet 5 vs Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B
- Claude Sonnet 5 vs Gemini 3.7 Flash
- Claude Sonnet 5 vs Muse Spark 1.2
- Claude Sonnet 5 vs GPT-5.4
- Claude Sonnet 5 vs Grok 4.5
- Claude Sonnet 5 vs GPT-5.5
- Claude Sonnet 5 vs Gemini 3.5 Flash
- Claude Sonnet 5 vs GPT-5.3-Codex
- Claude Sonnet 5 vs Claude Opus 4.6
- Claude Sonnet 5 vs Claude Sonnet 4.6
- Claude Sonnet 5 vs Claude Opus 4.5
Our take
Step 5 Preview is 2.7x cheaper for a typical chat. Step 5 Preview scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (43.7 vs 38.2). Step 5 Preview has the larger context window (1.05M vs 1M tokens). 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 Sonnet 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 Sonnet 5 costs $2 per 1M input tokens and $10 per 1M output tokens.
Which has a bigger context window, Step 5 Preview or Claude Sonnet 5?
Step 5 Preview supports up to 1.05M tokens of context, compared with 1M for Claude Sonnet 5.
Is Step 5 Preview smarter than Claude Sonnet 5?
On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Step 5 Preview scores 43.7 and Claude Sonnet 5 scores 38.2, putting Step 5 Preview ahead. Benchmarks don't capture everything, so the best test is running your own prompts through both.
Can I use Step 5 Preview and Claude Sonnet 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 Sonnet 5 answer side by side and keep the better response.
Why choose? Ask both.
Send one prompt to Step 5 Preview and Claude Sonnet 5 at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.