AI model comparison
Step 5 Preview vs Gemini 3.8 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 3.8 Flash
Gemini 3.8 Flash is Google's most intelligent Flash model with significant gains from 3.7 Flash across software engineering, agentic tasks, and multi-step reasoning.
- Input / 1M
- $0.75
- Output / 1M
- $3.75
- Context
- 1.05M
At a glance
Quick verdict
How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.
Lower price
Step 5 Preview
1.0x cheaper for a typical chat
Higher intelligence score
Tie
Not enough benchmark data
Larger context window
Gemini 3.8 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 3.8 Flash40.9Coding index
Gemini 3.8 Flash76.3Agentic index
Gemini 3.8 Flash40.2Pricing
Step 5 Preview vs Gemini 3.8 Flash API pricing
Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.
| Metric | Gemini 3.8 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Input tokensPer 1M tokens | $1 | $0.75 |
| Output tokensPer 1M tokens | $2.70 | $3.75 |
| Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens | $0.05 | $0.08 |
| Cache writePer 1M tokens | Not available | $0.04 |
| 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 3.8 Flash$3.38Coding task
30K in, 4K out
Gemini 3.8 Flash$37.50$17.25 cachedLong document summary
150K in, 2K out
Gemini 3.8 Flash$120$18.75 cachedSpecs
Context window and capabilities
How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.
| Metric | Gemini 3.8 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 | High, Medium, Low |
| Default reasoning effort | Medium | Medium |
| Release date | October 8, 2026 | September 2, 2026 |
Features
Supported features
API features available for each model.
| Metric | Gemini 3.8 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 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
Gemini 3.8 FlashView full model details- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs GLM 5.3 Flash
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs MiMo-V2.6-Flash
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Hy4 preview
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs GPT-6 Luna
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Claude Opus 5.5
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs GLM 5.3
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Hy3
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs GPT-5.6 Luna
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs GPT-6 Astra
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Kimi K3
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Muse Spark 1.3
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Grok 4.7
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Grok 4.6
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Claude Haiku 5.5
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs GPT-5.6 Terra
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Claude Sonnet 5
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Claude Opus 4.8
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Ling 3.1 Flash
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Claude Opus 4.7
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Gemini 3.7 Flash
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Muse Spark 1.2
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs GPT-5.4
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Grok 4.5
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs GPT-5.5
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Gemini 3.6 Flash
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Muse Spark 1.1
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Gemini 3.5 Flash
Our take
Step 5 Preview is 1.0x cheaper for a typical chat. Gemini 3.8 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 3.8 Flash 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 Gemini 3.8 Flash costs $0.75 per 1M input tokens and $3.75 per 1M output tokens.
Which has a bigger context window, Step 5 Preview or Gemini 3.8 Flash?
Gemini 3.8 Flash supports up to 1.05M tokens of context, compared with 1M for Step 5 Preview.
Can I use Step 5 Preview and Gemini 3.8 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 3.8 Flash answer side by side and keep the better response.
Why choose? Ask both.
Send one prompt to Step 5 Preview and Gemini 3.8 Flash at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.