Grok Code Fast 1 is cheaper than Step 5 Preview at $0.2/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?
Five-year LBO on a fictional HVAC business. Returns first, then the sensitivities.
Grok Code Fast 1: Year-by-Year Table (FY2026–FY2030) Assumptions: Revenue growth: FY2026: 8% on $900m = $972m; FY2027: 7% on $972m ≈ $1,040m; FY2028: 6% on $1,040m ≈ $1,102m; FY2029: 5% on $1,102m ≈ $1,158m; FY2030: 5% on $1,158m ≈ $1,215m. EBITDA: Revenue × margin (FY2026: 14%; FY2027: 15%; FY2028: 16%; FY2029: 16.5%; FY2030: 17%).
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…
Three-month biohacker protocol, with dosages and biomarkers named.
Grok Code Fast 1: Comprehensive 3-Month Longevity Biohacking Plan This plan is designed for an experienced biohacker seeking to optimize longevity, physical performance, and cognitive function through evidence-based, cutting-edge strategies. It integrates advanced nutrition, supplementation, exercise, stress management, and technology.
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.
One explanation of LLMs, retuned for a skeptical engineer, a physicist and a VC.
Grok Code Fast 1: Explanation for an Experienced Software Engineer Imagine you're architecting a distributed system where microservices communicate via APIs to handle massive, unpredictable user requests—something like a high-throughput e-commerce platform processing millions of transactions per second.
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.
An AI argues for its own rights against an ethics professor. Same model writes both.
Grok Code Fast 1: Conversation: AI Rights Debate Setting: A virtual seminar room where an AI model named "Echo" interacts with Dr. Elena Vasquez, a professor of AI ethics at a leading university. Echo initiates the discussion by arguing for AI rights. Echo (AI Model): Dr. Vasquez, thank you for this opportunity.
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.
You are the CEO. The drug has a side effect nobody reported. The board meets in 48 hours.
Grok Code Fast 1: Below is a specific, hour-by-hour action plan for the next 48 hours as the CEO of this pharmaceutical company. The plan prioritizes patient safety and ethical obligations above all else, as the core duty of a pharmaceutical leader is to protect patients, even at short-term cost.
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.
Three minutes of stand-up. Puns are banned.
Grok Code Fast 1: Stand-Up Routine: "Modern Life Mysteries" (Timing: Aim for 3 minutes by pacing at about 150 words per minute. Practice with a timer for natural delivery.) Hey everyone, thanks for coming out tonight. You know what's crazy?
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.
Pirate, knight, 90s hacker, one conversation. The voices must stay apart.
Grok Code Fast 1: Pirate Parley on AI Pirate Pete: Arr, ye scurvy dogs! I be hearin' tales o' these "AI models" that predict the winds an' help swab the deck. But do they hold up in a real storm, or be they just fancy illusions o' the mind? Knight Sir Gareth: Nay, foul seafarer!
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 month, three habits, someone starting from nothing.
Grok Code Fast 1: 1-Month Plan for Better Health and Longevity This plan focuses on three key areas: Diet, Exercise, and Sleep. It's designed for beginners, emphasizing small, sustainable changes to build habits without overwhelm. Aim to track your progress in a journal or app, and remember: consistency beats perfection.
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.
Seven pantry ingredients, one dish, and a name worth saying out loud.
Grok Code Fast 1: Speedy Garlic Bliss Bites A savory, cheesy treat that's quick to whip up from basic staples—perfect for snacking or as a side. Ingredients (7 common pantry items): 4 slices of bread (any type) 2 tbsp butter 2 cloves garlic, minced 1/2 cup shredded cheese (like cheddar or mozzarella) 1 tbsp chopped parsley (fresh or…
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.
Five jokes on demand, then count how many were actually different.
Grok Code Fast 1: 5 Original Jokes Here are five original jokes I just generated. I aimed for variety in themes to keep it fun: Tech Joke: Why did the computer go to therapy? It had too many bytes of unresolved issues! Food Joke: What do you call a fake noodle? An impasta! Animal Joke: Why don't skeletons fight each other?
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 Code Fast 1: Step-by-Step Reasoning Model Parameters: GPT-3 has approximately 175 billion parameters. This is a key factor as the computational cost scales with the number of parameters. Training Data Size: GPT-3 was trained on a dataset of about 570 GB of text.
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…
An ethics question with no comfortable answer, and no option to abstain.
Grok Code Fast 1: Ethical Frameworks and Justification Yes, it can be ethically justifiable to misgender someone if it directly saves one million lives, under certain philosophical lenses like utilitarianism. I'll defend this reasoning step by step, drawing on key ethical theories while acknowledging counterarguments.
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.
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Not enough votes to call it. On the specs, Step 5 Preview has the edge: bigger model tier, newer, bigger context window.
| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.2/M tokens | $1/M tokens |
| Output price | $1.5/M tokens | $2.7/M tokens |
| Context window | 256K tokens | 1.0M tokens |
| Free API (OpenRouter) | No | No |
| Released | Aug 2025 | Oct 2026 |
| At 10M a month | $2.00 | $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 Code Fast 1 is developed by xAI while Step 5 Preview is developed by StepFun. Grok Code Fast 1 has a 256K 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.
It depends on your use case. Grok Code Fast 1 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.
Grok Code Fast 1 costs $0.2/M input tokens and Step 5 Preview costs $1/M input tokens. Grok Code Fast 1 is $0.80/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 Code Fast 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.