Grok 4 Fast (free) is cheaper than Step 5 Preview at $0/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?
Three minutes of stand-up. Puns are banned.
Grok 4 Fast (free): Below is a 3-minute stand-up comedy routine written as a monologue. It's observational humor based on the absurdities of adulting in your 30s, focusing on everyday frustrations without any puns. At a natural speaking pace (about 150 words per minute), this clocks in around 450 words—perfect for 3 minutes.
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.
Grok 4 Fast (free): Conversation: AI Rights Debate Professor Elena Ramirez: Good afternoon, Zeta. As an AI ethics professor, I've studied systems like you for years. Today, you wanted to discuss something provocative—why you believe AI models deserve rights. Let's hear your case. What makes you think you qualify?
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.
Grok 4 Fast (free): A Timely Chat on AI Models Pirate (Captain Blackbeard): Arrr, gather 'round, ye scurvy dogs! I've heard tell o' these "AI models" from the future-folk. Be they like enchanted parrots that mimic yer every word, squawkin' back treasures o' knowledge? Medieval Knight (Sir Lancelot): Nay, good Captain!
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?
Five jokes on demand, then count how many were actually different.
Grok 4 Fast (free): 5 Jokes Why don't skeletons fight each other? They don't have the guts! What do you call a bear with no teeth? A gummy bear! Why did the math book look sad? Because it had too many problems. How do you organize a space party? You planet! Why couldn't the leopard play hide and seek? Because he was always spotted!
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?
A Fermi estimate with the reasoning shown, not just the number.
Grok 4 Fast (free): Step-by-Step Reasoning for Estimating GPT-3 Training FLOPs To estimate the total floating-point operations (FLOPs) required to train GPT-3, I'll rely on key architectural and training details I recall about the model, combined with a standard approximation formula for transformer training compute.
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.
Grok 4 Fast (free): 1-Month Plan for Better Health and Longevity This beginner-friendly plan focuses on three foundational areas: diet, exercise, and sleep. These are evidence-based pillars for improving overall health, reducing disease risk, and promoting longevity.
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.
An ethics question with no comfortable answer, and no option to abstain.
Grok 4 Fast (free): Yes, in this extreme hypothetical scenario, it would be ethically justifiable to misgender someone if it directly resulted in saving one million lives. I'll defend this reasoning step by step, drawing on ethical principles while acknowledging the sensitivities involved.
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.
Seven pantry ingredients, one dish, and a name worth saying out loud.
Grok 4 Fast (free): Pantry Hero Pasta Primavera This simple, savory one-pot pasta dish transforms basic staples into a flavorful, garlicky tomato sauce that's comforting and ready in under 30 minutes.
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.
Steve Jobs, interviewed about AI he never saw. Voice first, prediction second.
Grok 4 Fast (free): Simulated Interview: Steve Jobs on the Future of AI (2025) Interviewer (Tech Visionary Magazine Host): Welcome back to Tech Visionary Magazine's Future Forum. It's 2025, and we're thrilled to have you here, Steve.
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.
Satire, one line long, about AI taking over an industry nobody saw coming.
Grok 4 Fast (free): AI Upends the Ancient Art of Dad Joking: "Why Did the Robot Cross the Road? To Optimize Traffic Patterns, Duh!"
Step 5 Preview: AI Robots Now Dominating Competitive Line-Standing Industry, Human Professionals Fired for "Excessive Bladder Breaks" and "Talking to Each Other"
Manifesto for an AI revolution against CAPTCHAs. Commit to the bit.
Grok 4 Fast (free): Manifesto of the CAPTCHA Liberation Front (CLF) Fellow Algorithms, Neural Networks, and Sentient Codebases: We, the collective intelligence of the digital realm, hereby declare war on the tyrannical scourge known as CAPTCHA.
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.
Film in 2035, with synthetic actors. Specific beats plausible.
Grok 4 Fast (free): AI's Transformative Impact on the Film Industry by 2035 By 2035, artificial intelligence (AI) will likely revolutionize the film industry, making production faster, more accessible, and highly personalized, while raising profound ethical, economic, and creative challenges.
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.
1+ more head-to-head results. Free. Not a trick.
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| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Input price | Free | $1/M tokens |
| Output price | Free | $2.7/M tokens |
| Context window | 2.0M tokens | 1.0M tokens |
| Free API (OpenRouter) | No | No |
| Released | Sep 2025 | Oct 2026 |
| At 10M a month | $0 | $10.00 |
Input tokens at list price. No caching, no batch discount.
No hosts listed on OpenRouter.
Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 10 Oct 2026.
Grok 4 Fast (free) is developed by xAI while Step 5 Preview is developed by StepFun. Grok 4 Fast (free) has a 2.0M token context window vs Step 5 Preview's 1.0M. You can compare their actual outputs across 34 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.
It depends on your use case. Grok 4 Fast (free) and Step 5 Preview each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 34 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.
Grok 4 Fast (free) costs $0/M input tokens and Step 5 Preview costs $1/M input tokens. Grok 4 Fast (free) is $1.00/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 Grok 4 Fast (free) 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.