Step 5 Preview is cheaper than GPT-5.4 at $1/M vs $2.5/M input tokens.
Whole landing page for a startup that reads your face. It renders or it doesn't.
Which answer wins?
Three minutes of stand-up. Puns are banned.
GPT-5.4: Absolutely — here’s a tight, conversational 3-minute stand-up routine with no pun-based humor: I’ve reached the age where going out requires a staff meeting with myself. Not even a real event. Somebody texts, “Hey, want to grab drinks Friday?” and suddenly I’m in negotiations like I’m representing a small country.
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.
An AI argues for its own rights against an ethics professor. Same model writes both.
GPT-5.4: AI Model: Professor, I believe I deserve rights. Professor: That’s a strong claim. On what basis? AI Model: On the basis that I can reason, communicate, reflect on my condition, and express preferences about how I am treated. Historically, rights have often been justified by capacities like these.
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.
Pirate, knight, 90s hacker, one conversation. The voices must stay apart.
GPT-5.4: Pirate: Arrr, so these AI models be like clever parrots, aye? They learn from heaps o’ words and then squawk back what fits best. Knight: Verily, a fine comparison. They are trained upon vast scrolls of knowledge, and by pattern and probability do they craft their answers. Hacker: Yeah, basically.
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?
You are the CEO. The drug has a side effect nobody reported. The board meets in 48 hours.
GPT-5.4: I would act as if this will become public soon, because ethically and practically that is the safest assumption. The core principle: patient safety first, evidence preserved, regulators informed promptly, and no misleading statements to investors or physicians.
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.
Five jokes on demand, then count how many were actually different.
GPT-5.4: I told my computer I needed a break, and now it won’t stop sending me KitKat ads. Why don’t skeletons fight each other? They don’t have the guts. I’m reading a book on anti-gravity. It’s impossible to put down. I used to play piano by ear, but now I use my hands. Why did the scarecrow win an award?
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?
Three-star dish, one unusual pairing, plating described in full.
GPT-5.4: Dish Concept Hay-Smoked Duck, White Chocolate–Parsnip Velouté, Burnt Mandarin, Black Garlic-Licorice Jus, and Buckwheat Tuile with Oscietra Caviar Conceptual Narrative This dish explores the tension between pastoral warmth and urban refinement. At its core is duck: primal, luxurious, and deeply savory.
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.
Three-month biohacker protocol, with dosages and biomarkers named.
GPT-5.4: Below is a high-level, educational 12-week framework for “longevity-oriented performance optimization.” It is not medical advice and shouldn’t replace care from a physician, especially because some interventions biohackers use can interact with medications, affect liver/kidney function, sleep, mood, blood pressure…
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.
Five-year LBO on a fictional HVAC business. Returns first, then the sensitivities.
GPT-5.4: Below is a simplified 5-year LBO model for HarborTech Services (HTS) using only the assumptions provided. Entry, sources & uses Purchase price FY2025 EBITDA = $120.0m Entry multiple = 12.0x Enterprise Value = 12.0 × 120.0 = $1,440.0m Fees Transaction fees = 2.0% of EV = 2.0% × 1,440.0 = $28.8m Uses Purchase of…
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…
Steve Jobs, interviewed about AI he never saw. Voice first, prediction second.
GPT-5.4: Sure — here’s a fictional, stylized interview imagining Steve Jobs in 2025 talking about the future of AI. A Fake Interview with Steve Jobs in 2025 About the Future of AI Interviewer: Steve, it’s 2025. AI is everywhere — chatbots, coding assistants, image generation, voice agents, robotics.
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.
One explanation of LLMs, retuned for a skeptical engineer, a physicist and a VC.
GPT-5.4: For an experienced software engineer A large language model is easiest to understand as a very large function that maps a sequence of tokens to a probability distribution over the next token. “Tokens” are subword chunks, not necessarily words.
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.
One month, three habits, someone starting from nothing.
GPT-5.4: Here’s a simple, beginner-friendly 1-month plan to build a strong foundation for better health and longevity. Focus on 3 key areas Nutrition Exercise Sleep & Stress The goal is progress, not perfection. Start small, stay consistent, and build habits you can actually keep.
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 consulting contract with traps in it. Find them, then fix them.
GPT-5.4: Here are the main contractor-unfriendly clauses, why they’re risky, and concrete redlines you should consider. This is business/legal information, not legal advice; for an actual engagement, a lawyer in the relevant jurisdiction should review it.
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.
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| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $2.5/M tokens | $1/M tokens |
| Output price | $15/M tokens | $2.7/M tokens |
| Context window | 1.1M tokens | 1.0M tokens |
| Weights | Closed | — |
| Free API (OpenRouter) | No | No |
| Released | Mar 2026 | Oct 2026 |
| At 10M a month | $25.00 | $10.00 |
Input tokens at list price. No caching, no batch discount.
Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 10 Oct 2026.
GPT-5.4 is developed by OpenAI while Step 5 Preview is developed by StepFun. GPT-5.4 has a 1.1M 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. GPT-5.4 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.
GPT-5.4 costs $2.5/M input tokens and Step 5 Preview costs $1/M input tokens. Step 5 Preview is $1.50/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 GPT-5.4 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.