AI model comparison
Step 5 Preview vs GLM 5.3
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
Z.ai
GLM 5.3
GLM-5.3 is a large-scale reasoning model from Z.ai, built for complex software engineering and long-horizon agent tasks.
- Input / 1M
- $0.04
- Output / 1M
- $7
- 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
1.1x cheaper for a typical chat
Higher intelligence score
Tie
Not enough benchmark data
Larger context window
GLM 5.3
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
Coding index
Agentic index
Pricing
Step 5 Preview vs GLM 5.3 API pricing
Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.
| Metric | ||
|---|---|---|
| Input tokensPer 1M tokens | $1 | $0.04 |
| Output tokensPer 1M tokens | $2.70 | $7 |
| Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens | $0.05 | $0.04 |
| Cache writePer 1M tokens | Not available | Not available |
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
Coding task
30K in, 4K out
Long document summary
150K in, 2K out
Specs
Context window and capabilities
How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.
| Metric | ||
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 1M tokens | 1.05M tokens |
| Max output | 64K tokens | 944K tokens |
| Input types | Image, Text, Video | Text |
| Output types | Text | Text |
| Reasoning effort levels | High, Medium, Low | Max, High, Low |
| Default reasoning effort | Medium | Max |
| Release date | October 8, 2026 | August 18, 2026 |
Features
Supported features
API features available for each model.
| Metric | ||
|---|---|---|
| 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 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
- GLM 5.3 vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
- GLM 5.3 vs GLM 5.3 Flash
- GLM 5.3 vs MiMo-V2.6-Flash
- GLM 5.3 vs Hy4 preview
- GLM 5.3 vs GPT-6 Luna
- GLM 5.3 vs Claude Opus 5.5
- GLM 5.3 vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731
- GLM 5.3 vs Claude Sonnet 5.5
- GLM 5.3 vs GPT-6 Astra
- GLM 5.3 vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423
- GLM 5.3 vs GPT-6.1 Sol
- GLM 5.3 vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
- GLM 5.3 vs Hy3
- GLM 5.3 vs Muse Spark 1.3
- GLM 5.3 vs GPT-6 Sol
- GLM 5.3 vs Kimi K3
- GLM 5.3 vs GPT-5.6 Sol
- GLM 5.3 vs Grok 4.7
- GLM 5.3 vs MiMo-V2.6-Pro
- GLM 5.3 vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
- GLM 5.3 vs GLM 5.2
- GLM 5.3 vs Grok 4.6
- GLM 5.3 vs Claude Haiku 5.5
- GLM 5.3 vs GPT-5.6 Terra
- GLM 5.3 vs Claude Opus 4.8
- GLM 5.3 vs Ling 3.1 Flash
- GLM 5.3 vs Claude Opus 4.7
- GLM 5.3 vs Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B
- GLM 5.3 vs Gemini 3.7 Flash
- GLM 5.3 vs Muse Spark 1.2
- GLM 5.3 vs Grok 4.5
Our take
Step 5 Preview is 1.1x cheaper for a typical chat. GLM 5.3 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 GLM 5.3 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 GLM 5.3 costs $0.04 per 1M input tokens and $7 per 1M output tokens.
Which has a bigger context window, Step 5 Preview or GLM 5.3?
GLM 5.3 supports up to 1.05M tokens of context, compared with 1M for Step 5 Preview.
Can I use Step 5 Preview and GLM 5.3 at the same time?
Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see Step 5 Preview and GLM 5.3 answer side by side and keep the better response.
Why choose? Ask both.
Send one prompt to Step 5 Preview and GLM 5.3 at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.