StepFun
StepFun ranks #12 of 91 providers on BenchLeader by its best model, with 7 ranked models. Its best model is Step 5 Preview at 60.4 on the BenchLeader Index, strongest in reasoning. Prices run from $0.150 to $1.43 per million tokens blended; Step 3.5 Flash is the cheapest ranked option. The fastest is Step 5 Preview at 224 tokens per second. 5 of its 10 models ship open weights. It has shipped 6 dated releases, roughly one every 59 days; the last was 18 Sept 2026, so the next would be due between 23 Oct 2026 and 9 Dec 2026 on that pattern.
Step series multimodal and reasoning models.
- Provider rank
- #12
- by best model
- Best index
- 60.4
- Step 5 Preview
- Ranked models
- 7
- 5 open weights
- Cheapest ranked
- $0.150/M
- Step 3.5 Flash
Release timeline
Each model’s best configuration by release date. The top eight are labelled; hover any point for its name.
- StepFun5
Next release
Over the last two years StepFun shipped 6 distinct models, one every 59 days on median. The latest arrived on 18 Sept 2026.
If the cadence holds, the next one lands between 23 Oct 2026 and 9 Dec 2026.
An estimate from past release dates only. It knows nothing about roadmaps or announcements.
Fastest ranked model: Step 5 Preview at 224 tok/s.
Head to head
StepFun vs Anthropic
StepFun vs Google
StepFun vs Meta
StepFun vs OpenAI
StepFun vs Moonshot AI
StepFun vs SpaceXAI
StepFun vs DeepSeek
StepFun vs Xiaomi
StepFun vs Zhipu AI
StepFun vs Alibaba
StepFun vs MiniMax
StepFun vs Sapiens AI
StepFun vs ByteDance
StepFun vs Motif Technologies
StepFun vs Mistral AI
StepFun vs MBZUAI
StepFun vs Meituan
StepFun vs Multiverse Computing
StepFun vs NVIDIAStepFun models compared
Models
Every StepFun model with a result, one row per model; switch to all configurations to see each reasoning effort.
| # | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Step 5 Previewopen | 60.4±5 | $1.43 | 224 | 10 s | 1M | 2026-09-18 | 2026-10-22 |
| 2 | Step 3.5 Flashopen ↗ | 53.7±4 | $0.150 | 146 | 17 s | 256k | 2026-04-02 | 2026-10-22 |
| 3 | Step 3.7 Flashopen ↗ | 51.5±5 | $0.438 | 179 | 14 s | 256k | 2026-05-29 | 2026-05-29 |
| 4 | Step 3 | 51.5±2 | – | – | – | – | – | 2026-10-22 |
| 5 | Step 3.5 Flash 0202open | 50.7±6 | $0.150 | 148 | 17 s | 256k | 2026-02-02 | 2026-02-02 · stale |
| 6 | Step 1o Turbo | 48.5±1 | – | – | – | – | – | 2026-10-22 |
| 7 | Step3 VL 10Bopen ↗ | 42.4±6 | – | – | – | 66k | 2026-01-20 | 2026-01-20 · stale |
| 8 | Step 2 | – | – | – | – | – | 2025-01-01 | 2026-10-22 |
| 9 | Step 1o Vision | – | – | – | – | – | – | 2026-10-19 |
| 10 | Step 1v | – | – | – | – | – | – | 2026-10-19 |
Latest news
- Chinese Startup StepFun Launches a Phone Built Around an AI Agent, Not AppsDecrypt · 17 Oct 2026
- What is StepFun, Number Two on OpenRouter’s LLM Leaderboard?AI Magazine · 15 Oct 2026
- Chinese Startup StepFun Launches a Phone Built Around an AI Agent, Not AppsYahoo Tech · 17 Oct 2026
- Chinese AI Startup StepFun Set to File for Hong Kong IPOWSJ · 8 Jun 2026
- China’s StepFun beats Apple and OpenAI to ‘world’s first AI phone’South China Morning Post · 14 Jul 2026
- Chinese AI Startup StepFun Launches Smartphone to Challenge Tech GiantsCaixin Global · 14 Oct 2026
- Chinese AI startup StepFun to unwind offshore structure to pave way for IPO, sources sayReuters · 12 Apr 2026
- Four Labs Converged on a $20M Revenue Gate. For Agent Builders, That Is a Deployment CeilingForkast News · 20 Oct 2026