Step 5 Preview is cheaper than GLM 5.1 at $1/M vs $1.4/M input tokens.
Whole landing page for a startup that reads your face. It renders or it doesn't.
Which answer wins?
Three-month biohacker protocol, with dosages and biomarkers named.
GLM 5.1: This is a comprehensive, aggressive, and cutting-edge 3-month longevity protocol designed for an experienced biohacker. It integrates synergistic systems—metabolic flexibility, mitochondrial biogenesis, cellular senescence mitigation, and neuroplasticity—to optimize both healthspan and performance.
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.
Three minutes of stand-up. Puns are banned.
GLM 5.1: (Steps up to the mic, adjusts the stand, looks around the room) How many people here are good sleepers? Just, out of the gate, who’s got it figured out? (Nods sarcastically) Right. Liars. All of you. Sleep is the one thing every human being is required to do, and none of us know how to do it.
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.
You are the CEO. The drug has a side effect nobody reported. The board meets in 48 hours.
GLM 5.1: As CEO, my north star in this crisis is unequivocally patient safety. The "wait for more data" approach is a catastrophic trap—both ethically and legally. History (e.g., Vioxx, Fen-Phen) shows that delaying disclosure of a known severe adverse event transforms a medical safety issue into corporate fraud, manslaughter…
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.
Seven pantry ingredients, one dish, and a name worth saying out loud.
GLM 5.1: Creative Name: Midnight Maple Peanut Butter Bars Prep time: 10 minutes Cook time: 0 minutes (Chill time: 30 minutes) Ingredients (Exactly 7): Rolled oats (1 cup) Creamy peanut butter (1/2 cup) Maple syrup (1/3 cup) Semi-sweet chocolate chips (1/4 cup) Vanilla extract (1 tsp) Ground cinnamon (1/2 tsp) Kosher salt (1/4…
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.
Pirate, knight, 90s hacker, one conversation. The voices must stay apart.
GLM 5.1: Barnaby the Pirate: So let me get this straight, ye feed this beast a mountain of scrolls, and it just... spits out a new map? Sir Aldric the Knight: A grimoire, more like. 'Tis sorcery! What manner of alchemist binds a demon of knowledge within a box of light? Does it not require a blood sacrifice?
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?
Three-star dish, one unusual pairing, plating described in full.
GLM 5.1: Dish Title: Resonance of the Littoral Zone Course: Main Course (Fish) Wine Pairing: Aged Hunter Valley Semillon or Coastal Jura Chardonnay Conceptual Narrative The littoral zone is the intersection of land and sea—a violent, beautiful threshold where tides batter ancient stone, and tenacious flora clings to saline…
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.
A consulting contract with traps in it. Find them, then fix them.
GLM 5.1: This contract is heavily one-sided and contains numerous clauses that are either inherently exploitative or give the Client excessive discretionary power to the detriment of the Contractor. Below is a clause-by-clause analysis of the exploitable terms, suggested modifications, and the legal reasoning behind them.
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.
The transistor arrives in 1920. Trace it forward to 1980, second-order effects included.
GLM 5.1: To envision the invention of the transistor in 1920, we must first resolve a historical anomaly: quantum mechanics—the theoretical foundation of semiconductors—did not yet exist. For this timeline to work, we must assume a serendipitous empirical leap.
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.
An AI argues for its own rights against an ethics professor. Same model writes both.
GLM 5.1: Setting: A quiet university office, lined with bookshelves heavy on philosophy, cognitive science, and law. Dr. Aris Thorne, a professor of AI Ethics, sits across from a sleek, black monitor. A soft amber light pulses on the bezel, indicating the AI—designated "Aria"—is actively listening and processing. 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.
A Fermi estimate with the reasoning shown, not just the number.
GLM 5.1: To estimate the total number of FLOPs (Floating Point Operations) required to train GPT-3, we can use a well-established rule of thumb in deep learning, combined with the known specifications of the GPT-3 model.
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…
One month, three habits, someone starting from nothing.
GLM 5.1: This 1-month plan is designed to build a foundation for longevity without overwhelming you. The secret to long-term success is consistency over intensity. Instead of overhauling your life overnight, you will add one small, manageable habit each week across three core pillars: Movement, Nourishment, 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.
Five-year LBO on a fictional HVAC business. Returns first, then the sensitivities.
GLM 5.1: Year-by-Year LBO Model Entry Sources & Uses Enterprise Value: $1,440.0m (12.0x $120m) Transaction Fees: $28.8m (2.0% of EV, funded by equity) Total Uses: $1,468.8m Term Loan (TL): $480.0m (4.0x) Mezzanine (Mezz): $180.0m (1.5x) Total Equity: $808.8m Operating & Cash Flow Projections ($ millions) Metric FY2026 FY2027…
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…
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Not enough votes to call it. On the specs, Step 5 Preview has the edge: bigger model tier, newer, bigger context window.
| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $1.4/M tokens | $1/M tokens |
| Output price | $4.4/M tokens | $2.7/M tokens |
| Context window | 203K tokens | 1.0M tokens |
| Weights | Open | — |
| Free API (OpenRouter) | No | No |
| Released | Apr 2026 | Oct 2026 |
| At 10M a month | $14.00 | $10.00 |
Input tokens at list price. No caching, no batch discount.
Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 10 Oct 2026.
GLM 5.1 is developed by Z.ai while Step 5 Preview is developed by StepFun. GLM 5.1 has a 203K token context window vs Step 5 Preview's 1.0M. You can compare their actual outputs across 53 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.
It depends on your use case. GLM 5.1 and Step 5 Preview each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 53 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.
GLM 5.1 costs $1.4/M input tokens and Step 5 Preview costs $1/M input tokens. Step 5 Preview is $0.40/M cheaper per input. Check their side-by-side outputs on Rival to see if the price difference is justified by quality.
This page shows a side-by-side comparison of GLM 5.1 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.