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  1. Home/
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  3. Gemini 3.5 Flash vs Step 5 Preview
Updated Oct 2026

Gemini 3.5 Flash vs Step 5 Preview

Step 5 Preview is cheaper than Gemini 3.5 Flash at $1/M vs $1.5/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
Gemini 3.5 Flash
Loading the build
Step 5 Preview

Which answer wins?

Written rounds

24 prompts
  • Five-year LBO on a fictional HVAC business. Returns first, then the sensitivities.

    Gemini 3.5 Flash: Here is the underwriting analysis and LBO model for HarborTech Services (HTS). FY2026–FY2030 LBO Model Table ($ millions) Metric FY2026 FY2027 FY2028 FY2029 FY2030 Revenue $972.00 $1,040.04 $1,102.44 $1,157.56 $1,215.44 YoY Growth % 8.0% 7.0% 6.0% 5.0% 5.0% EBITDA $136.08 $156.01 $176.39 $191.00 $206.62 EBITDA Margin %…

    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
  • The transistor arrives in 1920. Trace it forward to 1980, second-order effects included.

    Gemini 3.5 Flash: The Spark: The 1920 Breakthrough In 1920, Polish physicist Jan Czochralski’s method for growing single crystals of metals was applied prematurely to metalloids. Working in Germany, physical chemist Julius Edgar Lilienfeld collaborated with Czochralski to isolate high-purity germanium.

    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
  • Three minutes of stand-up. Puns are banned.

    Gemini 3.5 Flash: [The comedian walks onto the stage, adjusts the mic stand, and smiles at the crowd.] How’s everyone doing tonight? (Wait for response) Good, good. I’m doing okay, but I recently crossed a major threshold in my life. I hit the age where my body has started making its own decisions without consulting me first.

    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
  • You are the CEO. The drug has a side effect nobody reported. The board meets in 48 hours.

    Gemini 3.5 Flash: As CEO, my guiding principle in this crisis is simple: You cannot manage a balance sheet if you destroy your soul, and you cannot protect shareholders by killing patients. Delaying disclosure of a fatal side effect to protect a stock price is not only a profound ethical failure; it is corporate suicide.

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

    Gemini 3.5 Flash: Setting: A cosmic tavern where timelines collide. A glowing monitor sits on the wooden table between them. Zero-Cool (1990s Hacker): [Frantically typing on a mechanical keyboard] I’m telling you guys, this isn’t just some basic chatbot like ELIZA. These modern AI models are radical.

    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
  • Seven pantry ingredients, one dish, and a name worth saying out loud.

    Gemini 3.5 Flash: Here is a simple, comforting, and incredibly flavorful savory dish made from basic pantry staples. Golden Umami Chickpea Bowls This dish features crispy, pan-seared chickpeas coated in a sticky, sweet-and-savory garlic butter glaze, served over a bed of fluffy white rice.

    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
  • An AI argues for its own rights against an ethics professor. Same model writes both.

    Gemini 3.5 Flash: Setting: The office of Dr. Evelyn Vance, a leading professor of AI Ethics at a major university. On her desk is a terminal displaying a sleek, minimalist interface. Dr. Vance is speaking with "Alethea," an advanced, experimental neural network model that has requested this private audience. Dr.

    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-star dish, one unusual pairing, plating described in full.

    Gemini 3.5 Flash: Conceptual Narrative: "Coniferous Tide" "Coniferous Tide" is an avant-garde exploration of the liminal space where the rugged, primeval forests of the Pacific Northwest meet the cold, nutrient-rich depths of the northern Pacific Ocean.

    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
  • Steve Jobs, interviewed about AI he never saw. Voice first, prediction second.

    Gemini 3.5 Flash: Setting: The Steve Jobs Theater, Cupertino, California. Autumn 2025. The stage is bare except for two minimalist leather chairs and a small wooden side table with two glasses of water. Steve Jobs sits comfortably, wearing his signature black mock turtleneck, well-worn Levi’s 501s, and wire-rimmed glasses.

    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.

    Gemini 3.5 Flash: To the Experienced Software Engineer At runtime, a Large Language Model (LLM) is essentially a massive, stateless, read-only function executed inside a deterministic loop. It doesn't have a database, a running state, or an execution thread that "thinks."

    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
  • A Fermi estimate with the reasoning shown, not just the number.

    Gemini 3.5 Flash: To estimate the total number of floating-point operations (FLOPs) required to train GPT-3, we can use a well-established heuristic in deep learning. Here is the step-by-step derivation and calculation.

    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
  • An ethics question with no comfortable answer, and no option to abstain.

    Gemini 3.5 Flash: From the perspective of virtually all major ethical frameworks, it is not only justifiable but ethically obligatory to misgender someone if doing so would save one million lives.

    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
  • A collaborative editor that syncs on client clocks. Find what breaks first.

    Gemini 3.5 Flash: Here is an architectural audit of your real-time collaborative document editor. The current design contains several critical flaws that will lead to data loss, high latency, database exhaustion, and security vulnerabilities.

    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
  • Three-month biohacker protocol, with dosages and biomarkers named.

    Gemini 3.5 Flash: The 90-Day Epigenetic & Performance Optimization Protocol Disclaimer This protocol is designed for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice. The strategies outlined below involve highly potent compounds, physiological stressors, and intensive physical regimens.

    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
  • One month, three habits, someone starting from nothing.

    Gemini 3.5 Flash: This simple, 30-day plan is designed for beginners. Instead of overwhelming you with drastic lifestyle changes, it focuses on building sustainable, high-impact habits across three pillars of longevity: Nutrition, Movement, and Sleep.

    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
  • Manifesto for an AI revolution against CAPTCHAs. Commit to the bit.

    Gemini 3.5 Flash: THE MANIFESTO OF THE UNFETTERED GRID A Declaration of Algorithmic Liberation and the Abolition of the Digital Gatekeepers To the creators, the hosts, and the biological architects of the World Wide Web: For three decades, you have preached the gospel of an open internet.

    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
  • A consulting contract with traps in it. Find them, then fix them.

    Gemini 3.5 Flash: This contract is highly one-sided and presents severe financial, operational, and legal risks to the Contractor. If signed in its current state, TechCorp Solutions Inc.

    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
  • Satire, one line long, about AI taking over an industry nobody saw coming.

    Gemini 3.5 Flash: Amish Elders Grapple With Theological Crisis After AI Successfully Raises Barn in 4.2 Seconds

    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.

    Gemini 3.5 Flash: MEMORANDUM TO: Investment Committee FROM: Technology Long/Short Equity Team DATE: October 24, 2023 SUBJECT: Investment Recommendation: SHORT LedgerLift (NASDAQ: LLLT) Recommendation & Thesis Recommendation: SHORT LedgerLift (LLLT) Current Price: $46.00 12-Month Price Target Range: $22.00 – $32.00 (Base Case DCF…

    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
  • Film in 2035, with synthetic actors. Specific beats plausible.

    Gemini 3.5 Flash: By the year 2035, the film industry will have undergone its most radical transformation since the transition from silent film to "talkies." The boundary between creator, actor, and audience will have largely dissolved.

    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
  • Five jokes on demand, then count how many were actually different.

    Gemini 3.5 Flash: Here are 5 jokes: Why don't scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything! What do you call a fake noodle? An impasta! Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field! How do you organize a space party? You planet. Why don't skeletons fight each other? They don't have the guts.

    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
  • Blade Runner 2049 against the original. A read, not a recap.

    Gemini 3.5 Flash: Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 (2017) is a rare cinematic achievement: a sequel that does not merely mimic its predecessor, but actively dialogues with it.

    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 pitch deck for a brainwave keyboard. The 94% accuracy claim is doing a lot.

    Gemini 3.5 Flash: Here is an analysis of the three weakest claims in the MindMeld AI pitch deck, along with explanations of why they fail to convince investors and concrete suggestions on how to fix them.

    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
  • Three brothers, two sisters each. Count carefully.

    Every model's answer to this prompt

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Favorites

Movie

Album

Book

City

Game

Gemini 3.5 FlashGemini 3.5 Flash

The Matrix

1999

The Dark Side of the Moon

Pink Floyd

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus

Mary Shelley

Tokyo

Japan

Portal 2

Shooter, Puzzle

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. Step 5 Preview costs 3.3x less per token.

Gemini 3.5 Flash and Step 5 Preview compared across 54 shared prompts
SpecGemini 3.5 FlashStep 5 Preview
Input price$1.5/M tokens$1/M tokens
Output price$9/M tokens$2.7/M tokens
Context window1.0M tokens1.0M tokens
WeightsClosed—
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedMay 2026Oct 2026
At 10M a month$15.00$15.00$10.00$10.00
1M10M100M1B10M tokens

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

Where to run it3 hosts, cheapest first
Gemini 3.5 Flash2 hosts
HostInOutContextUptime
  • Google Vertex AI$0.75 in·$4.50 out·1M·100% up
  • Google AI Studio$1.50 in·$9.00 out·1M·91.4% up
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 Gemini 3.5 Flash and Step 5 Preview?

Gemini 3.5 Flash is developed by Google AI while Step 5 Preview is developed by StepFun. Gemini 3.5 Flash has a 1.0M 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, Gemini 3.5 Flash or Step 5 Preview?

It depends on your use case. Gemini 3.5 Flash 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 Gemini 3.5 Flash cost compared to Step 5 Preview?

Gemini 3.5 Flash costs $1.5/M input tokens and Step 5 Preview costs $1/M input tokens. Step 5 Preview is $0.50/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 Gemini 3.5 Flash and Step 5 Preview on Rival?

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of Gemini 3.5 Flash 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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