AI model comparison
Step 5 Preview vs Mistral Large 4
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
Mistral
Mistral Large 4
Mistral Large 4 is a frontier multimodal (text and image input) model from Mistral AI built for reasoning, coding, and agentic workloads.
- Input / 1M
- $0.68
- Output / 1M
- $2.09
- Context
- 1.05M
At a glance
Quick verdict
How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.
Lower price
Mistral Large 4
1.4x cheaper for a typical chat
Higher intelligence score
Step 5 Preview
43.7 vs 38.4 on Artificial Analysis
Larger context window
Tie
1.05M vs 1.05M tokens
Newer release
Step 5 Preview
Released October 8, 2026
Benchmarks
Benchmark scores
Independent scores from Artificial Analysis. Higher is better.
Intelligence index
Mistral Large 438.4Coding index
Mistral Large 4Not availableAgentic index
Mistral Large 4Not availablePricing
Step 5 Preview vs Mistral Large 4 API pricing
Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.
| Metric | Mistral Large 4 | |
|---|---|---|
| Input tokensPer 1M tokens | $1 | $0.68 |
| Output tokensPer 1M tokens | $2.70 | $2.09 |
| Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens | $0.05 | $0.07 |
| 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
Mistral Large 4$2.40Coding task
30K in, 4K out
Mistral Large 4$28.76$10.46 cachedLong document summary
150K in, 2K out
Mistral Large 4$106.18$14.68 cachedSpecs
Context window and capabilities
How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.
| Metric | Mistral Large 4 | |
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 1.05M tokens | 1.05M tokens |
| Max output | 64K tokens | 262K tokens |
| Input types | Image, Text, Video | Image, Text |
| Output types | Text | Text |
| Reasoning effort levels | High, Medium, Low | High, None |
| Default reasoning effort | Medium | High |
| Release date | October 8, 2026 | October 6, 2026 |
Features
Supported features
API features available for each model.
| Metric | Mistral Large 4 | |
|---|---|---|
| Tool calling | Supported | Supported |
| Structured outputs | Supported | Supported |
| JSON mode | Supported | Supported |
| Reasoning | Supported | Supported |
| Temperature | Supported | Supported |
| Stop sequences | Supported | Supported |
| Deterministic seed | 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 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 Claude Sonnet 5
- 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 Muse Spark 1.1
- Step 5 Preview vs GLM 5.3 FlashX
- Step 5 Preview vs GPT-5.6 Luna Pro
Mistral Large 4View full model details- Mistral Large 4 vs GLM 5.3 Flash
- Mistral Large 4 vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
- Mistral Large 4 vs Gemini 3.7 Flash
- Mistral Large 4 vs Muse Spark 1.2
- Mistral Large 4 vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
- Mistral Large 4 vs GPT-6 Luna
- Mistral Large 4 vs MiMo-V2.6-Flash
- Mistral Large 4 vs GPT-5.6 Luna
- Mistral Large 4 vs DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813
- Mistral Large 4 vs Qwen3.8 27B
Our take
Mistral Large 4 is 1.4x cheaper for a typical chat. Step 5 Preview scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (43.7 vs 38.4). 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 Mistral Large 4 cheaper?
Mistral Large 4 is cheaper for a typical chat (2K input tokens and 500 output tokens). Mistral Large 4 costs $0.68 per 1M input tokens and $2.09 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 Mistral Large 4?
Step 5 Preview supports up to 1.05M tokens of context, compared with 1.05M for Mistral Large 4.
Is Step 5 Preview smarter than Mistral Large 4?
On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Step 5 Preview scores 43.7 and Mistral Large 4 scores 38.4, 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 Mistral Large 4 at the same time?
Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see Step 5 Preview and Mistral Large 4 answer side by side and keep the better response.
Why choose? Ask both.
Send one prompt to Step 5 Preview and Mistral Large 4 at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.