AI model comparison
Step 5 Preview vs Solar Pro 4
Side by side comparison of Step 5 Preview and Solar Pro 4 on pricing, benchmark scores, context window, and more.
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
Solar Pro 4 is Upstage's cost-efficient large language model, featuring a 524K context window.
- Input / 1M
- $0.15
- Output / 1M
- $0.60
- Context
- 524K
Comparing image generators? Compare image models
At a glance
Quick verdict
How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.
Lower price
Solar Pro 4
5.6x cheaper for a typical chat
Higher intelligence score
Step 5 Preview
28.5 vs 28.2 on Artificial Analysis
Larger context window
Step 5 Preview
1.05M vs 524K 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 Solar Pro 4 API pricing
Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.
| Metric | ||
|---|---|---|
| Input tokensPer 1M tokens | $1 | $0.15 |
| Output tokensPer 1M tokens | $2.70 | $0.60 |
| Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens | $0.10 | $0.03 |
| 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 | 1.05M tokens | 524K tokens |
| Max output | 64K tokens | 131K tokens |
| Input types | Image, Text, Video | Text |
| Output types | Text | Text |
| Reasoning effort levels | High, Medium, Low | Max, Extra high, High, Medium, Low, Minimal, None |
| Default reasoning effort | Medium | Medium |
| Release date | October 8, 2026 | August 10, 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 | Not supported |
| Deterministic seed | Supported | Not 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.
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- Solar Pro 4 vs Claude Haiku 5.5
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- Solar Pro 4 vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
- Solar Pro 4 vs MiMo-V2.6-Pro
- Solar Pro 4 vs MiniMax M3.1 Flash
- Solar Pro 4 vs GPT-6 Luna
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- Solar Pro 4 vs Mistral Large 4
- Solar Pro 4 vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017
- Solar Pro 4 vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
- Solar Pro 4 vs Solar Mini 4
Our take
Solar Pro 4 is 5.6x cheaper for a typical chat. Step 5 Preview scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (28.5 vs 28.2). Step 5 Preview has the larger context window (1.05M vs 524K 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 Solar Pro 4 cheaper?
Solar Pro 4 is cheaper for a typical chat (2K input tokens and 500 output tokens). Solar Pro 4 costs $0.15 per 1M input tokens and $0.60 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 Solar Pro 4?
Step 5 Preview supports up to 1.05M tokens of context, compared with 524K for Solar Pro 4.
Is Step 5 Preview smarter than Solar Pro 4?
On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Step 5 Preview scores 28.5 and Solar Pro 4 scores 28.2, 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 Solar Pro 4 at the same time?
Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see Step 5 Preview and Solar Pro 4 answer side by side and keep the better response.
Why choose? Ask both.
Send one prompt to Step 5 Preview and Solar Pro 4 at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.