AI model comparison
Step 5 Preview vs Gemini 3 Flash Preview
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 Flash Preview
Gemini 3 Flash Preview is a high speed, high value thinking model designed for agentic workflows, multi turn chat, and coding assistance.
- Input / 1M
- $0.50
- Output / 1M
- $3
- Context
- 1.05M
At a glance
Quick verdict
How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.
Lower price
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
1.3x cheaper for a typical chat
Higher intelligence score
Tie
Not enough benchmark data
Larger context window
Gemini 3 Flash 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
Gemini 3 Flash Preview26.3Coding index
Gemini 3 Flash PreviewNot availableAgentic index
Gemini 3 Flash PreviewNot availablePricing
Step 5 Preview vs Gemini 3 Flash Preview API pricing
Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.
| Metric | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | |
|---|---|---|
| Input tokensPer 1M tokens | $1 | $0.50 |
| Output tokensPer 1M tokens | $2.70 | $3 |
| Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens | $0.05 | $0.05 |
| 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 3 Flash Preview$2.50Coding task
30K in, 4K out
Gemini 3 Flash Preview$27$13.50 cachedLong document summary
150K in, 2K out
Gemini 3 Flash Preview$81$13.50 cachedSpecs
Context window and capabilities
How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.
| Metric | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | |
|---|---|---|
| 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, Minimal |
| Default reasoning effort | Medium | Medium |
| Release date | October 8, 2026 | December 17, 2025 |
Features
Supported features
API features available for each model.
| Metric | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | |
|---|---|---|
| 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 Qwen3.8 27B
- Step 5 Preview vs Gemini 2.5 Flash
- Step 5 Preview vs Step 3.7 Flash
Gemini 3 Flash PreviewView full model details- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Hy4 preview
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs MiniMax M3
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs MiMo-V2.5-Pro
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Gemini 3.6 Flash
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Kimi K2.6
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs GPT-5.4 Mini
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Qwen3.7 Max
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs GLM 5
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Grok Build 0.1
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Qwen3.6 Plus
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Qwen3.7 Plus
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs GLM 5 Turbo
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs GLM 5.1
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Kimi K2.7 Code
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Grok 4.20
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Inkling Small
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Inkling
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Grok 4.3
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs GPT-5.1
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs GPT-5.1-Codex
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Kimi K2.5
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs GLM 5V Turbo
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs GPT-5
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Nemotron 3 Ultra
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Qwen3.5-27B
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Qwen3.6 27B
Our take
Gemini 3 Flash Preview is 1.3x cheaper for a typical chat. Gemini 3 Flash 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 Gemini 3 Flash Preview cheaper?
Gemini 3 Flash Preview is cheaper for a typical chat (2K input tokens and 500 output tokens). Gemini 3 Flash Preview costs $0.50 per 1M input tokens and $3 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 3 Flash Preview?
Gemini 3 Flash Preview supports up to 1.05M tokens of context, compared with 1M for Step 5 Preview.
Can I use Step 5 Preview and Gemini 3 Flash Preview 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 Flash Preview answer side by side and keep the better response.
Why choose? Ask both.
Send one prompt to Step 5 Preview and Gemini 3 Flash Preview at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.