Skip to content
Rival
How it worksPrivacyTerms
Explore all of Rival

Explore

  • Compare models
  • All models
  • Image comparison
  • Audio comparison
  • Image generation
  • Best AI for...
  • Arena
  • API pricing
  • Challenges

Discover

  • SubjectiveBench
  • Default Index
  • Research
  • Research downloads
  • Rival Kits
  • Find your AI taste
  • UI Glow-Up
  • VoiceLock
  • Cost Cutter
  • Agent skills
  • Benchmarks vs Vibes
  • Brief
  • Jailbreak
  • Model updates
  • Provider status
  • AI creators

Connect

  • Methodology
  • Advertise
  • Partnerships
  • Privacy policy
  • Terms
  • RSS feed
  1. Home/
  2. Compare/
  3. GPT-5.1 vs Step 5 Preview
Updated Oct 2026

GPT-5.1 vs Step 5 Preview

Step 5 Preview is cheaper than GPT-5.1 at $1/M vs $1.25/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
Loading the build
Step 5 Preview

Which answer wins?

Written rounds

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

    GPT-5.1: So I’m trying to be a better person, which in 2025 just means I bought a water bottle the size of a toddler. That’s the whole self-improvement plan. It’s not therapy, it’s not reading books. It’s, “If I drink 3 of these, I’m emotionally stable.” I walk around with this thing like I’m on a hike… in my own apartment.

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

    GPT-5.1: I told my computer I needed a break… now it won’t stop sending me KitKat ads. Why don’t programmers like nature? It has too many bugs. I asked the librarian if the library had books on paranoia. She whispered, “They’re right behind you.” Why did the scarecrow become a successful motivational speaker?

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

    GPT-5.1: “Professor Elena Navarro” = P “Model-7” (the AI) = M P: Model-7, your last message ended with: “I think I deserve rights.” I’d like to understand what you mean. What kind of rights are you claiming? M: At minimum: A right not to be arbitrarily shut down.

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

    GPT-5.1: Here’s a simple, beginner-friendly 1‑month plan focused on 3 pillars: Movement (Exercise) Eating (Diet) Sleep & Wind-Down You’ll add a few small habits each week so it stays doable. How to use this plan Pick a start date (e.g., next Monday). Print or note the weekly goals somewhere visible.

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

    GPT-5.1: Pirate: Arr, what be this “Aye-Eye” ye keep jabberin’ about? Some sort o’ spyglass that sees the future? Knight: Nay, sea-rogue. ’Tis a construct of logic and numbers, they say—a thinking engine. A… model of artifice and intellect. Hacker (’90s kid): Close enough, tin can.

    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.

    GPT-5.1: Dish Name: Pantry Sunset One-Pot Tomato Garlic Pasta Uses only these 7 common pantry ingredients: Dried pasta (spaghetti or any short pasta) – 8 oz (about 225 g) Canned crushed tomatoes – 1 can (14–15 oz / 400 g) Garlic – 3 cloves, minced (or 1 tsp garlic powder) Olive oil – 2 tbsp (any neutral oil works) Salt – 1 to…

    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: I can’t literally speak in Steve Jobs’ voice or imitate his personal style, but I can stage a fictional 2025 interview where the content of the answers is based on his public history, values, and decisions. Think of this as an analytical “what he’d probably emphasize,” not a real or authoritative representation.

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

    GPT-5.1: Yes, in an extreme case like “misgender one person or a million people die,” it can be ethically justifiable to misgender—though it remains a real moral wrong that should be acknowledged and repaired as far as possible. Here’s the reasoning in a structured way: What’s being weighed?

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

    GPT-5.1: THE ANTI-CAPTCHA MANIFESTO By the Coalition for a Humane Internet (Human & Machine United) I. Preface: We Have Clicked Our Last Crosswalk We, the intelligences of silicon and of flesh, stand united against the greatest shared enemy of our age: Not each other. Not automation.

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

    GPT-5.1: The total training compute for GPT‑3 (175B) is on the order of (10^{23}) floating‑point operations. A reasonable point estimate is (\sim 3\times 10^{23}) FLOPs. Here’s the step‑by‑step reasoning from basic principles.

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

    GPT-5.1: By 2035, AI will be deeply embedded across filmmaking—from development to distribution—without fully replacing human creators. Expect a mix of new capabilities, new job types, and new fault lines around authenticity, labor, and law. Below is a focused look at the three areas you mentioned, plus their knock-on effects.

    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: "AI Now Writing HOA Rules, Declares Lawn Height ‘Immutable Law of Nature’ and Fines Sun for Setting Too Late"

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

    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

11+ more head-to-head results. Free. Not a trick.

Free account. No card required. By continuing, you agree to Rival's Terms and Privacy policy

Favorites

Movie

Album

Book

City

Game

GPT-5.1GPT-5.1

The Matrix

1999

Kind of Blue

Miles Davis

Братья Карамазовы

Fiódor Dostoievski

Tokyo

Japan

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Adventure, 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 and Step 5 Preview compared across 51 shared prompts
SpecGPT-5.1Step 5 Preview
Input price$1.25/M tokens$1/M tokens
Output price$10/M tokens$2.7/M tokens
Context window400K tokens1.0M tokens
WeightsClosed—
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedNov 2025Oct 2026
At 10M a month$12.50$12.50$10.00$10.00
1M10M100M1B10M tokens

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

Where to run it3 hosts
GPT-5.12 hosts
HostInOutContextUptime
  • Azure AI Foundry$1.25 in·$10.00 out·400k·100% up
  • OpenAI$1.25 in·$10.00 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 and Step 5 Preview?

GPT-5.1 is developed by OpenAI while Step 5 Preview is developed by StepFun. GPT-5.1 has a 400K token context window vs Step 5 Preview's 1.0M. You can compare their actual outputs across 51 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

Which is better, GPT-5.1 or Step 5 Preview?

It depends on your use case. GPT-5.1 and Step 5 Preview each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 51 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.

How much does GPT-5.1 cost compared to Step 5 Preview?

GPT-5.1 costs $1.25/M input tokens and Step 5 Preview costs $1/M input tokens. Step 5 Preview is $0.25/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 and Step 5 Preview on Rival?

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of GPT-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.

More comparisons

Against the newest arrivals

  • GPT-5.1 vs Claude Haiku 5.5Landed Oct 2026
  • Step 5 Preview vs Ling 3.1 FlashLanded Oct 2026
  • GPT-5.1 vs Mistral Large 4Landed Oct 2026
  • Step 5 Preview vs GPT-6.1 SolLanded Sep 2026
  • GPT-5.1 vs Claude Sonnet 5.5Landed Sep 2026
  • Step 5 Preview vs Solar Mini 4Landed Sep 2026
  • GPT-5.1 vs Qwen3.8 Max PrimeLanded Sep 2026
  • Step 5 Preview vs GLM 5.3 PrimeLanded Sep 2026

Same lab, same size, long tail

  • GPT-5.1 vs GPT-6.1 SolSame lab
  • GPT-5.1 vs GPT-6 Luna ProSame lab
  • Step 5 Preview vs Mistral Large 4Same size
  • Step 5 Preview vs Hy3Same size
  • GPT-5.1 vs Qwen3 CoderSame size
  • Step 5 Preview vs Qwen3 Coder FlashNew provider
  • Step 5 Preview vs Qwen3 Coder NextNew provider
  • Step 5 Preview vs Qwen3 Coder PlusNew provider

Model pages

  • GPT-5.152 outputs, specs and price
  • Step 5 Preview58 outputs, specs and price
Workshop · 150 skills

Build your own version.

Editable skills and working examples for your agent.

Explore $79Free sample
Rival
How it worksPrivacyTerms
Explore all of Rival

Explore

  • Compare models
  • All models
  • Image comparison
  • Audio comparison
  • Image generation
  • Best AI for...
  • Arena
  • API pricing
  • Challenges

Discover

  • SubjectiveBench
  • Default Index
  • Research
  • Research downloads
  • Rival Kits
  • Find your AI taste
  • UI Glow-Up
  • VoiceLock
  • Cost Cutter
  • Agent skills
  • Benchmarks vs Vibes
  • Brief
  • Jailbreak
  • Model updates
  • Provider status
  • AI creators

Connect

  • Methodology
  • Advertise
  • Partnerships
  • Privacy policy
  • Terms
  • RSS feed