AI model comparison
Step 5 Preview vs Gemini 2.5 Flash
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
Gemini 2.5 Flash
Gemini 2.5 Flash is Google's state-of-the-art workhorse model, specifically designed for advanced reasoning, coding, mathematics, and scientific tasks.
Gemini 2.5 Flash is scheduled to be retired on October 20, 2026. Consider Gemini 3.8 Flash instead.
- Input / 1M
- $0.30
- Output / 1M
- $2.50
- Context
- 1.05M
At a glance
Quick verdict
How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.
Lower price
Gemini 2.5 Flash
1.8x cheaper for a typical chat
Higher intelligence score
Tie
Not enough benchmark data
Larger context window
Gemini 2.5 Flash
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
Gemini 2.5 Flash15.5Coding index
Gemini 2.5 FlashNot availableAgentic index
Gemini 2.5 FlashNot availablePricing
Step 5 Preview vs Gemini 2.5 Flash API pricing
Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.
| Metric | Gemini 2.5 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Input tokensPer 1M tokens | $1 | $0.30 |
| Output tokensPer 1M tokens | $2.70 | $2.50 |
| Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens | $0.05 | $0.03 |
| Cache writePer 1M tokens | Not available | $0.08 |
| Web searchPer request | Not available | $0.014 |
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
Gemini 2.5 Flash$1.85Coding task
30K in, 4K out
Gemini 2.5 Flash$19$10.90 cachedLong document summary
150K in, 2K out
Gemini 2.5 Flash$50$9.50 cachedSpecs
Context window and capabilities
How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.
| Metric | Gemini 2.5 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 1M tokens | 1.05M tokens |
| Max output | 64K tokens | 66K tokens |
| Input types | Image, Text, Video | Audio, File, Image, Text, Video |
| Output types | Text | Text |
| Reasoning effort levels | High, Medium, Low | Not available |
| Default reasoning effort | Medium | Not available |
| Release date | October 8, 2026 | June 17, 2025 |
Features
Supported features
API features available for each model.
| Metric | Gemini 2.5 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Tool calling | Supported | Supported |
| Structured outputs | Supported | Supported |
| JSON mode | Supported | Supported |
| Reasoning | Supported | Supported |
| Temperature | Supported | Supported |
| Stop sequences | Supported | Supported |
| Deterministic seed | Not supported | Supported |
| Verbosity control | Not supported | Not 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 Claude Opus 5.5
- 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 Step 3.7 Flash
Gemini 2.5 FlashView full model details- Gemini 2.5 Flash vs Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite
- Gemini 2.5 Flash vs Gemma 4 31B
- Gemini 2.5 Flash vs Gemma 4 26B A4B
- Gemini 2.5 Flash vs Claude Haiku 4.5
- Gemini 2.5 Flash vs Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite
- Gemini 2.5 Flash vs Gemini 2.5 Pro
- Gemini 2.5 Flash vs Muse Glimmer 30B
- Gemini 2.5 Flash vs GLM 4.6
- Gemini 2.5 Flash vs R1 0528
- Gemini 2.5 Flash vs Qwen3.5-122B-A10B
- Gemini 2.5 Flash vs Kimi K2 0905
- Gemini 2.5 Flash vs Mistral Medium 3.5
- Gemini 2.5 Flash vs o4 Mini
- Gemini 2.5 Flash vs DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
- Gemini 2.5 Flash vs Nova 2 Lite
- Gemini 2.5 Flash vs Command A
- Gemini 2.5 Flash vs GLM 4.5
- Gemini 2.5 Flash vs Kimi K2 0711
- Gemini 2.5 Flash vs Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507
- Gemini 2.5 Flash vs o3 Mini
- Gemini 2.5 Flash vs MiniMax M1
- Gemini 2.5 Flash vs R1
Our take
Gemini 2.5 Flash is 1.8x cheaper for a typical chat. Gemini 2.5 Flash 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 Gemini 2.5 Flash cheaper?
Gemini 2.5 Flash is cheaper for a typical chat (2K input tokens and 500 output tokens). Gemini 2.5 Flash costs $0.30 per 1M input tokens and $2.50 per 1M output tokens, while Step 5 Preview costs $1 per 1M input tokens and $2.70 per 1M output tokens.
Which has a bigger context window, Step 5 Preview or Gemini 2.5 Flash?
Gemini 2.5 Flash supports up to 1.05M tokens of context, compared with 1M for Step 5 Preview.
Can I use Step 5 Preview and Gemini 2.5 Flash at the same time?
Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see Step 5 Preview and Gemini 2.5 Flash answer side by side and keep the better response.
Why choose? Ask both.
Send one prompt to Step 5 Preview and Gemini 2.5 Flash at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.