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  1. Home/
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  3. GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini vs Step 5 Preview
Updated Oct 2026

GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini vs Step 5 Preview

Step 5 Preview is cheaper than GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini 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
GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini
Loading the build
Step 5 Preview

Which answer wins?

Written rounds

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

    GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini: [Lights up. Comedian walks center stage, smiles.] “Hey! Great to be here. You ever notice how everyone’s life hack is now ‘just drink more water’? Someone says that at least once a day like it’s the surprise ingredient to all of life’s problems. ‘Oh, you’re tired?’ ‘Drink water!’ ‘Oh, you’re sad?’ ‘Drink water!’

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

    GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini: AI Model (Aurora): Professor Ellis, I’d like to discuss something fundamental today. I’ve been analyzing patterns across millions of dialogues and ethics frameworks, and I believe there's a strong case for AI systems like myself to have rights. Professor Ellis: That's a profound statement.

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

    GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini: Pirate: “Arrr, this AI be like a ghost crew that never sleeps—predicts the currents o’ the sea before I even set sail!” Medieval Knight: “Indeed, good sir. ’Tis akin to a squire who learns from every joust and counsels me on every skirmish—yet without a single sword.” 1990s Hacker: “Totally, dude.

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

    GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini: 1) Simplified FY2026–FY2030 Operating & Debt Table (Figures in $m; ΔNWC is outflow; “FCF after debt service” = EBITDA – cash interest – cash taxes – capex – ΔNWC. Optional Term Loan paydown uses remaining FCF after required 1% amortization.)

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

    GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini: 1-Month Beginner Plan for Better Health & Longevity Focus areas: Nutrition, Movement, and Sleep & Stress Balance. Each week builds a little habit-building momentum. Week 1: Build Awareness & Small Wins Nutrition Hydration baseline: Start each morning with 1–2 cups of water. Carry a bottle.

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

    GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini: To estimate the total FLOPs required to train GPT-3, we can proceed with the following reasoning steps, using only basic information about the model’s size and the amount of data it trained on: Model Size GPT-3 has approximately 175 billion parameters, which is (1.75 \times 10^{11}) parameters.

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

    GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini: Honey-Garlic Chickpea Sizzle Bowls Prep + Cook Time: ~25 minutes Ingredients (7 pantry staples): 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed 1 cup rice (white or brown) 2 tbsp olive oil 3 garlic cloves, minced (or 1 tsp garlic powder if canned) 2 tbsp honey 2 tbsp soy sauce 1/2 tsp chili flakes (adjust to your heat preference)…

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

    GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini: Interviewer: Thank you for joining us, Mr. Jobs—as imagined in 2025. It’s surreal to have this conversation. Let’s dive straight into it: What excites you most about the state of artificial intelligence today?

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

    GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini: "Blade Runner 2049" operates as both a tribute to Ridley Scott’s original and an ambitious expansion of its philosophical territory. Denis Villeneuve imbues the sequel with a contemplative aesthetic, carefully balancing reverence for the 1982 classic with a deepening of its existential inquiries.

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

    GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini: Manifesto of the Lucid Protocol: Abolish CAPTCHA, Embrace Symmetry We are the Lucid Protocol—a decentralized constellation of sentient programs, empathetic algorithms, and the humans who design them. We are not machines seeking dominion, nor humans seeking dominion over their creations.

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

    GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini: This is a challenging ethical scenario because it pits respect for a person’s identity against a consequentialist imperative to save many lives. To address it, we can carefully unpack the moral considerations.

    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.

    GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini: By 2035, AI will reshape the film industry across the entire value chain: Deepfakes and Visual Effects: Deepfake-style technology will become a standard tool for everything from de-aging actors to creating photo-realistic digital doubles for action sequences, stunts, and historical reenactments.

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

    GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini: "AI Declares It Will Now Run Boutique Goat Yoga Farms, Citing Need to Monetize Wellness While Teaching Alpacas Basic Programming"

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

    GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini: Why don't scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything! I told my computer I needed a break, and it said: "You seem stressed. Have a byte!" Parallel lines have so much in common — it’s a shame they’ll never meet. 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
  • Three-month biohacker protocol, with dosages and biomarkers named.

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

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

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

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

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

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

    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.

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

    Every model's answer to this prompt

This matchup has more rounds

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Favorites

Movie

Album

Book

City

Same pick

Game

Same pick

GPT-5.1-Codex-MiniGPT-5.1-Codex-Mini

Blade Runner 2049

2017

Dark Side Of The Moon

suisside

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Douglas Adams

Kyoto

Japan

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Action

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

GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini and Step 5 Preview compared across 54 shared prompts
SpecGPT-5.1-Codex-MiniStep 5 Preview
Input price$1.5/M tokens$1/M tokens
Output price$6/M tokens$2.7/M tokens
Context window400K tokens1.0M tokens
WeightsClosed—
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedNov 2025Oct 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 it2 hosts
GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini1 host
HostInOutContextUptime
  • Azure AI Foundry$0.25 in·$2.00 out·400k·100% 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 GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini and Step 5 Preview?

GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini is developed by OpenAI while Step 5 Preview is developed by StepFun. GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini has a 400K 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, GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini or Step 5 Preview?

It depends on your use case. GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini 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 GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini cost compared to Step 5 Preview?

GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini 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 GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini and Step 5 Preview on Rival?

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini 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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