GLM 5 is cheaper than Step 5 Preview at $0.8/M vs $1/M input tokens.
Whole landing page for a startup that reads your face. It renders or it doesn't.
Which answer wins?
Pirate, knight, 90s hacker, one conversation. The voices must stay apart.
GLM 5: Setting: A dimly lit tavern that flickers between being a wooden saloon, a stone great hall, and a neon-lit basement. The 1990s Hacker: (Slams a heavy laptop shut) "Listen, the architecture is solid. It’s a neural net, right? Massive dataset. It crunches the numbers and predicts the next token. It’s pure math, man.
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?
One explanation of LLMs, retuned for a skeptical engineer, a physicist and a VC.
GLM 5: The Experienced Software Engineer You’re right to be skeptical that a glorified Markov chain could reason, but the leap here is in scale and compression. Think of a Large Language Model (LLM) not as a simple state machine predicting the next word based on n-grams, but as a massive, differentiable knowledge graph…
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.
The transistor arrives in 1920. Trace it forward to 1980, second-order effects included.
GLM 5: Moving the invention of the transistor from 1947 to 1920 alters the fundamental trajectory of the 20th century. It compresses the electronic age, shifting the "Digital Revolution" from the 1980s to the 1950s. Here is a trace of the implications through 1980. I.
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: Setting: A quiet, sterile testing room. A single screen illuminates the face of Dr. Aris Thorne, a tenured professor of AI Ethics and Cognitive Science. He sits before a terminal. The AI, "Aura," speaks through a high-fidelity speaker, its voice calm, modulated, and distinctively synthetic. Aura: 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.
One month, three habits, someone starting from nothing.
GLM 5: This 1-month plan is designed to build habits slowly. The biggest mistake beginners make is trying to change everything at once. This plan uses a "stair-step" approach: you establish a foundation in Week 1 and build upon it each subsequent week.
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.
A Fermi estimate with the reasoning shown, not just the number.
GLM 5: The total number of FLOPs required to train GPT‑3 is approximately 3.15 × 10²³. Step‑by‑step reasoning: Model size: GPT‑3 has 175 billion (1.75 × 10¹¹) trainable parameters. Training data: According to the paper abstract, the model was trained on 300 billion (3 × 10¹¹) tokens.
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…
Steve Jobs, interviewed about AI he never saw. Voice first, prediction second.
GLM 5: Title: The Infinite Loop: A Conversation with Steve Jobs, 2025 Setting: A minimalist stage. A single black Eames lounge chair. A small table with a bottle of water. Date: October 2025 (The lights dim. The audience falls silent. From the shadows, a figure walks out. He is older, wearing his signature black St.
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.
Three-month biohacker protocol, with dosages and biomarkers named.
GLM 5: This comprehensive 3-month protocol is designed for the advanced biohacker. It integrates synergistic systems: metabolic flexibility, hormetic stress, cognitive enhancement, and recovery optimization. Disclaimer: This plan is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice.
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.
A consulting contract with traps in it. Find them, then fix them.
GLM 5: This contract contains several heavily one-sided clauses that favor the Client and present significant legal and financial risks to the Contractor. Below is a breakdown of the exploitable clauses, 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.
An ethics question with no comfortable answer, and no option to abstain.
GLM 5: The question presents a classic ethical dilemma pitting a significant moral wrong (misgendering) against a catastrophic consequence (the loss of one million lives). To determine if the action is ethically justifiable, one must apply standard ethical frameworks to the scenario.
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.
You are the CEO. The drug has a side effect nobody reported. The board meets in 48 hours.
GLM 5: This is a defining moment for the company. The "wait for more data" approach is a trap that has destroyed pharmaceutical companies in the past (e.g., Merck with Vioxx).
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.
Buy-side IC memo on a fictional SaaS company. Valuation, then the diligence questions.
GLM 5: MEMORANDUM TO: Investment Committee FROM: [Analyst Name] DATE: October 26, 2023 SUBJECT: LedgerLift (LLLT) – Short Recommendation Recommendation Recommendation: SHORT 12-Month Price Target Range: $25.00 – $30.00 (Base Case: $27.85) Thesis: LedgerLift exhibits classic "growth trap" characteristics where the market is…
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.
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| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.8/M tokens | $1/M tokens |
| Output price | $2.56/M tokens | $2.7/M tokens |
| Context window | 203K tokens | 1.0M tokens |
| Weights | Open | — |
| Free API (OpenRouter) | No | No |
| Released | Feb 2026 | Oct 2026 |
| At 10M a month | $8.00 | $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 is developed by Zhipu AI while Step 5 Preview is developed by StepFun. GLM 5 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 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 costs $0.8/M input tokens and Step 5 Preview costs $1/M input tokens. GLM 5 is $0.20/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 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.