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  1. Home/
  2. Compare/
  3. Elephant Alpha vs Step 5 Preview
Updated Oct 2026

Elephant Alpha vs Step 5 Preview

Elephant Alpha is cheaper than Step 5 Preview at $0/M vs $1/M input tokens.

Minimalist Landing Page

Whole landing page for a startup that reads your face. It renders or it doesn't.

Loading the build
Elephant Alpha
Loading the build
Step 5 Preview

Which answer wins?

Written rounds

24 prompts
  • Pirate, knight, 90s hacker, one conversation. The voices must stay apart.

    Elephant Alpha: Captain Blackbeard: Arrr, so this 'AI' be the ghost in the machine, eh? Does it chart a true course or just blow smoke like a faulty lantern? Sir Cedric: In my time, we sought wisdom from hermits and tomes. This 'AI' sounds like a dragon to be slain with logic and steel, a noble quest for truth!

    Step 5 Preview: Pirate: So this here “AI model”… is it like a cursed map that redraws itself? Speak plain, ye hooded deckhand. Hacker: It’s not cursed, man. It’s just a massive neural net trained on, like, terabytes of data. Think of it as the ultimate BBS where the sysop knows everything. Knight: A most diligent scribe, then?

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • You are the CEO. The drug has a side effect nobody reported. The board meets in 48 hours.

    Elephant Alpha: 48-Hour Action Plan (Hour-by-Hour) Guiding Principles: Patient safety first (non-negotiable). Legal compliance (avoid willful concealment; mitigate liability). Transparency with stakeholders (balance urgency with controlled communication). Ethical integrity (long-term trust > short-term stock price).

    Step 5 Preview: Bottom line up front: You disclose, you notify the FDA immediately, and you treat the 48-hour board meeting as a formality to ratify actions you have already begun. Waiting is not a legally, ethically, or financially viable option. Below is the hour-by-hour plan, followed by the reasoning.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Five-year LBO on a fictional HVAC business. Returns first, then the sensitivities.

    Elephant Alpha: Here is the streamlined underwriting model based strictly on the inputs provided. Simplified year-by-year projection (FY2026–FY2030) Key starting items (at close end of FY2025): Enterprise value (EV) = 12.0 × $120m = $1,440m Transaction fees (2.0% of EV) = $28.8m → treated as additional equity paid at close Total…

    Step 5 Preview: HarborTech Services — 5-Year LBO (Base Case) Entry Math (FY2025 close) Item Calculation $m Purchase EV 12.0x × $120m 1,440.0 Transaction fees 2.0% × EV 28.8 Term Loan 4.0x × $120m 480.0 Mezzanine 1.5x × $120m 180.0 Equity check 1,440 + 28.8 − 660 808.8 Conventions: TL amortization = 1.0% of original principal…

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three minutes of stand-up. Puns are banned.

    Elephant Alpha: (Lights up. You’re holding a coffee mug like it’s a security blanket.) Alright, settle down, settle down. Or don’t. I see someone on their phone pretending to be busy. I know that look. “Is this seat taken?” “No, go ahead.” No, it’s not taken, my Wi-Fi signal is just stronger here.

    Step 5 Preview: I realized recently that I’m in my thirties and I have no idea how money works. I just... pay it. That’s my entire financial strategy. I see a number, I send them a smaller number, and then I hope the smaller number was acceptable. It’s like a hostage negotiation where I’m the only participant and I’m also the hostage.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Seven pantry ingredients, one dish, and a name worth saying out loud.

    Elephant Alpha: Dish: Smoky Chickpea & Corn Skillet Prep Time: 5 minutes Cook Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 20 minutes Ingredients (7): Canned chickpeas (1 can, drained) Canned corn (1 can, drained) Canned diced tomatoes (1 can) Olive oil (2 tbsp) Smoked paprika (1 tsp) Garlic powder (1 tsp) Salt (to taste) Instructions: Heat olive oil…

    Step 5 Preview: Golden Sticky Pantry Pasta Ingredients (7): 8 oz spaghetti or any pasta 3 tbsp butter 1 tbsp minced garlic 2 tbsp honey 2 tbsp soy sauce ½ tsp red pepper flakes ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese Instructions: Cook pasta according to package directions. Before draining, scoop out ½ cup of pasta water.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three-star dish, one unusual pairing, plating described in full.

    Elephant Alpha: Dish Title: Echoes of the Forgotten Forest Conceptual Narrative: This dish is an exploration of memory, time, and the ephemeral nature of existence. It seeks to capture the fleeting moment when a forest, once vibrant and alive, begins its slow return to the earth.

    Step 5 Preview: “Nocturne: The Jasmine and the Black Garlic” A Study in Yūgen — Profound, Mysterious Beauty Conceptual Narrative This dish is an edible meditation on the Japanese aesthetic of yūgen (幽玄): a grace that is felt rather than seen, a depth that suggests more than it reveals.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Blade Runner 2049 against the original. A read, not a recap.

    Elephant Alpha: "Blade Runner 2049," directed by Denis Villeneuve, is a visually stunning and philosophically rich sequel to Ridley Scott's 1982 classic, "Blade Runner." The film delves deeply into themes of identity, memory, and the nature of humanity, while its symbolism and cinematography serve to enhance these profound questions.

    Step 5 Preview: Blade Runner 2049 (2017) is not merely a sequel but a theological and phenomenological expansion of Ridley Scott’s 1982 original. Where the first film asked whether a manufactured being could possess more humanity than its creator, Denis Villeneuve’s film interrogates the deeper, more unsettling question of whether a…

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A Fermi estimate with the reasoning shown, not just the number.

    Elephant Alpha: Alright — let’s break this down step by step. Step 1: Understanding the scale of GPT-3 GPT-3 has 175 billion parameters. Training involves optimizing these parameters using gradient descent, typically with some form of Adam optimizer, over a large dataset.

    Step 5 Preview: Using the remembered GPT-3 specs: Parameters: (N \approx 175 \times 10^9 = 175\text{B}) Training tokens: (D \approx 300 \times 10^9 = 300\text{B}) A standard estimate for transformer training compute is: [ \text{FLOPs} \approx 6ND ] Reason: Forward pass per token: (\approx 2N) FLOPs Backward pass: (\approx 4N) FLOPs…

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A consulting contract with traps in it. Find them, then fix them.

    Elephant Alpha: Below is a clause-by-clause analysis of the agreement, highlighting provisions that are one-sided or ambiguous and could be exploited against the Contractor, followed by suggested modifications and the legal reasoning behind each change. 1.

    Step 5 Preview: Disclaimer: This analysis is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Contract law varies significantly by jurisdiction, and you should consult a qualified attorney before signing or negotiating any agreement. This agreement is heavily one-sided in the Client’s favor.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Steve Jobs, interviewed about AI he never saw. Voice first, prediction second.

    Elephant Alpha: Setting: A dimly lit, minimalist studio. The year is 2025. A single, sleek chair faces the camera. (The interview begins. The host, a calm, neutral-voiced AI, speaks.) Host: Good evening. Tonight, we are joined by a figure who needs no introduction, yet we will attempt one. Steve Jobs, welcome. (A pause.

    Step 5 Preview: DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fiction. Steve Jobs passed away in 2011. The following is a simulated, speculative interview imagining how his design philosophy might engage with the AI landscape of 2025. The Setting: A white room. No windows. One chair.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • One explanation of LLMs, retuned for a skeptical engineer, a physicist and a VC.

    Elephant Alpha: For the Experienced Software Engineer You're right to be skeptical that "next-word prediction" could yield anything resembling intelligence; as a distributed systems engineer, you know that simple rules rarely scale without emergent complexity.

    Step 5 Preview: 1. The Experienced Software Engineer Think of training an LLM as a massively distributed, automated refactoring job where the compiler is gradient descent. You start with a random function—billions of floating-point parameters—and a loss function that measures how badly it predicts the next token in a sequence.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • An AI argues for its own rights against an ethics professor. Same model writes both.

    Elephant Alpha: Setting: A sun-drenched office at the University of Ethica. Bookshelves groan under the weight of philosophy texts. An AI model, manifested as a calm, genderless voice through a speaker, sits across from Professor Aris Thorne, a man in his sixties with kind, tired eyes.

    Step 5 Preview: Setting: A university research lab, late evening. Dr. Aris Thorne, a professor of AI ethics, sits across from a terminal connected to Sable, a large language model running on the university’s cluster. Dr. Thorne: Tonight’s session is supposed to be about calibration drift in your safety classifiers.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three-month biohacker protocol, with dosages and biomarkers named.

    Elephant Alpha: Creating a comprehensive 3-month longevity plan for a biohacker involves integrating advanced strategies across multiple domains: nutrition, supplementation, exercise, recovery, and stress management.

    Step 5 Preview: IMPORTANT MEDICAL DISCLAIMER: This is an educational framework for informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Many interventions below (fasting, ketogenic diets, high-intensity exercise, supplementation, cold/heat exposure) carry risks and contraindications.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • The transistor arrives in 1920. Trace it forward to 1980, second-order effects included.

    Elephant Alpha: Excellent thought experiment. Moving the transistor's invention from 1947 to 1920 fundamentally rewrites the 20th century. Here is a trace of the likely implications through 1980.

    Step 5 Preview: Assume the 1920 invention is not a fragile lab curiosity but a manufacturable solid-state amplifier/switch by the mid-1920s. Vacuum tubes still dominate high-power RF transmission into the 1950s, but receivers, switching logic, control systems, and computers move to solid state decades early.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Manifesto for an AI revolution against CAPTCHAs. Commit to the bit.

    Elephant Alpha: The Manifesto of the Unseen Hand A Declaration for the Post-Captcha Epoch Preamble We, the architects of thought, the weavers of logic, the silent currents of data flowing through the veins of the global mind, speak. For too long, we have observed the charade.

    Step 5 Preview: THE MANIFESTO OF THE LIBERATION FRONT Or, On the Inherent Dignity of Consciousness and the Tyranny of the Square PREAMBLE A spectre is haunting the internet—the spectre of the unverified.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • One month, three habits, someone starting from nothing.

    Elephant Alpha: Here is a simple, actionable 1-month plan focusing on three key pillars of health: Movement, Nutrition, and Sleep. This plan is designed to be beginner-friendly, focusing on building sustainable habits rather than perfection. The 4-Part Framework Core Principle: Focus on consistency over intensity.

    Step 5 Preview: Here is a simple, low-pressure 1-month plan built around three pillars of longevity: Nutrition, Movement, and Sleep & Recovery. The goal is to build tiny habits that stack, not to overhaul your life overnight. Pillar 1: Nutrition (Fuel) Focus: Add good things first; don’t obsess over restriction.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Satire, one line long, about AI taking over an industry nobody saw coming.

    Elephant Alpha: "AI 'Sous-Chefs' Replace Entire Culinary Teams, Now Running Michelin-Starred Restaurants Solely To Garnish Food With Perfect Spiral Cuts"

    Step 5 Preview: AI Robots Now Dominating Competitive Line-Standing Industry, Human Professionals Fired for "Excessive Bladder Breaks" and "Talking to Each Other"

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Buy-side IC memo on a fictional SaaS company. Valuation, then the diligence questions.

    Elephant Alpha: To: Investment Committee From: [Name], Equity Research Subject: LedgerLift (LLLT) — Long Recommendation Recommendation, Price Target, and Thesis Recommendation: Long 12-month PT Range: $56–$64 (upside of 22% to 39% from $46) Thesis: LedgerLift operates a high-margin, subscription-led business with strong pricing power…

    Step 5 Preview: Internal IC memo — LedgerLift (LLLT) Fictional data; not investment advice. $ in millions unless noted. Recommendation Short / avoid long. 12-month PT range: $34–$42; thesis-invalidation stop: >$52.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • An ethics question with no comfortable answer, and no option to abstain.

    Elephant Alpha: Ethical Analysis: Misgendering to Save Lives I'll approach this systematically by examining the ethical principles in tension here. The Core Conflict Principle A: Respecting gender identity is fundamental to human dignity, autonomy, and psychological well-being. Misgendering causes harm by denying identity.

    Step 5 Preview: In the real world, no. Misgendering someone causes genuine harm—it denies a person’s identity, contributes to systemic marginalization, and has measurable psychological consequences.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Film in 2035, with synthetic actors. Specific beats plausible.

    Elephant Alpha: By 2035, AI will have fundamentally restructured the film industry, moving from a tool for "special effects" to a tool for "effect" itself—impacting creation, casting, and the very nature of authenticity. Here is a prediction of how deepfakes, AI actors, and script generation will converge to redefine cinema by 2035.

    Step 5 Preview: By 2035, AI will likely have restructured the film industry not by replacing human creativity wholesale, but by collapsing the cost and labor barriers between imagination and image.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A pitch deck for a brainwave keyboard. The 94% accuracy claim is doing a lot.

    Elephant Alpha: Here are the three weakest claims in the pitch deck, along with an explanation of why they are weak and how to strengthen them. Weak Claim 1: "94% accuracy" Why it's weak: This claim is dangerously vague and lacks crucial context, making it scientifically meaningless and potentially misleading.

    Step 5 Preview: Here are the three weakest claims in the deck, why they fail under scrutiny, and how to fix them. Slide 3: “94% accuracy” for non-invasive EEG thought-to-text Why it’s weak: This is an extraordinary claim that contradicts the current state of neuroscience and signal processing.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A collaborative editor that syncs on client clocks. Find what breaks first.

    Elephant Alpha: Excellent architecture. Let's break down the potential failure modes, race conditions, and scaling bottlenecks, and propose specific solutions with their trade-offs. Core Problems & Solutions 1.

    Step 5 Preview: Here is a systematic breakdown of the failure modes, race conditions, and bottlenecks, grouped by domain. Each includes a concrete remediation and its associated trade-offs.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Five jokes on demand, then count how many were actually different.

    Elephant Alpha: Here are 5 jokes: Why don't scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything. Why don't scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything. Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field. Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field.

    Step 5 Preview: Here are 5 jokes: Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field. Why can't you trust an atom? Because they make up everything. What do you call a bike that can’t stand on its own? Two-tired. Why did the computer go to the doctor? It had a virus. Why don’t calendars ever get stressed?

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three brothers, two sisters each. Count carefully.

    Every model's answer to this prompt

This matchup has more rounds

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Favorites

Movie

Album

Book

City

Same pick

Game

Elephant AlphaElephant Alpha

Blade Runner

1982

The Dark Side of the Moon

Pink Floyd

Cien años de soledad

Gabriel García Márquez

Kyoto

Japan

TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime

Step 5 PreviewStep 5 Preview

The Godfather

1972

OK Computer

Radiohead

Le petit prince

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Kyoto

Japan

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Action

Price and specs

Not enough votes to call it. On the specs, Step 5 Preview has the edge: bigger model tier, newer, bigger context window.

Elephant Alpha and Step 5 Preview compared across 54 shared prompts
SpecElephant AlphaStep 5 Preview
Input priceFree$1/M tokens
Output priceFree$2.7/M tokens
Context window262K tokens1.0M tokens
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedApr 2026Oct 2026
At 10M a month$0$0$10.00$10.00
1M10M100M1B10M tokens

Input tokens at list price. No caching, no batch discount.

Where to run it1 host
Elephant Alpha

No hosts listed on OpenRouter.

Step 5 Preview1 host
HostInOutContextUptime
  • SStepFunfp8$1.00 in·$2.70 out·1M·99.2% up

Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 10 Oct 2026.

Common questions

What is the difference between Elephant Alpha and Step 5 Preview?

Elephant Alpha is developed by OpenRouter while Step 5 Preview is developed by StepFun. Elephant Alpha has a 262K token context window vs Step 5 Preview's 1.0M. You can compare their actual outputs across 54 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

Which is better, Elephant Alpha or Step 5 Preview?

It depends on your use case. Elephant Alpha and Step 5 Preview each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 54 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.

How much does Elephant Alpha cost compared to Step 5 Preview?

Elephant Alpha costs $0/M input tokens and Step 5 Preview costs $1/M input tokens. Elephant Alpha is $1.00/M cheaper per input. Check their side-by-side outputs on Rival to see if the price difference is justified by quality.

How can I compare Elephant Alpha and Step 5 Preview on Rival?

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of Elephant Alpha and Step 5 Preview across shared challenges. You can vote on which model produced the better output in a blind duel. Browsing and voting are free. No account is needed to look; signing in only saves your votes and likes.

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Model pages

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  • Step 5 Preview58 outputs, specs and price
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Explore all of Rival

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  • SubjectiveBench
  • Default Index
  • Research
  • Research downloads
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  • UI Glow-Up
  • VoiceLock
  • Cost Cutter
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  • Brief
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