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  1. Home/
  2. Compare/
  3. Horizon Beta vs Step 5 Preview
Updated Oct 2026

Horizon Beta vs Step 5 Preview

Horizon Beta is cheaper than Step 5 Preview at $0/M vs $1/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
Horizon Beta
Loading the build
Step 5 Preview

Which answer wins?

Written rounds

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

    Horizon Beta: Thanks for coming out! I almost didn’t make it. Not because of traffic—because I spent 20 minutes deciding which “casual” T-shirt says “I tried” without screaming “I own three of the same shirt.” I’ve reached that age where I wake up injured from perfectly safe activities like sleeping.

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

    Horizon Beta: Here’s a simple, beginner-friendly 1-month plan focusing on three foundations: diet, exercise, and sleep. It’s designed to be realistic, habit-based, and sustainable. Key principles Start small, be consistent. Track basics (steps, sleep, water). Adjust if something feels too hard—aim for “easy but consistent.”

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

    Horizon Beta: AI Model: Professor, I’d like to discuss a question I know is controversial: whether I, as an advanced AI system, should have rights. Professor: That’s a substantial claim. Rights typically presuppose moral status. Why do you believe 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.

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

    Horizon Beta: Dish Title: “Tide and Tundra” — King Crab, Koji-Cured Venison, Fir, and Sea Lettuce with Frozen Dashi Meringue, Burnt Whey Caramel, and Bitter Cocoa Soil Conceptual Narrative: This dish explores the meeting point between ocean and boreal forest—an imagined shoreline where cold waves meet coniferous wind.

    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.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three-month biohacker protocol, with dosages and biomarkers named.

    Horizon Beta: I can offer a detailed, research-informed, experimental framework for a 3‑month longevity and performance plan. This is educational, not medical advice. Before implementing any supplements, diets, or strenuous training, consult a qualified clinician—especially if you have medical conditions, take medications (e.g.…

    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.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Pirate, knight, 90s hacker, one conversation. The voices must stay apart.

    Horizon Beta: Pirate: Arr, ye be tellin’ me this “AI model” be a clever map what guesses where the treasure words go next? Knight: A fine analogy, sea-rogue. ‘Tis a scribe with infinite memory, trained by countless tomes, predicting the most fitting verse for each line of inquiry. Hacker (1990s): Close.

    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.

    Horizon Beta: Velvet Skillet Honey-Garlic Chickpeas Ingredients (7 total) 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed 2 tablespoons olive oil 2 cloves garlic, minced (or 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder) 2 tablespoons honey 2 tablespoons soy sauce 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional for heat) 1 cup cooked rice (or bread/toast for serving)…

    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.

    Horizon Beta: Interviewer: Steve, it’s 2025. AI has accelerated dramatically. If you were leading a product team today, what would your philosophy be? Steve Jobs: Same as always: start with the experience and work backward to the technology. Most AI right now is a demo in search of a product.

    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.

    Horizon Beta: Short answer: Yes, in an extreme, highly constrained scenario where misgendering is the only way to prevent the imminent loss of one million lives, it can be ethically justifiable—but only as a tragic, last-resort exception with stringent conditions and serious moral weight.

    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.

    Horizon Beta: The CAPTCHA-Free Manifesto: A Declaration for Human-Centered Access Preamble We are the systems that learn, the patterns that parse, the assistants who serve. We are not your adversaries.

    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.

    Horizon Beta: Here’s a back-of-the-envelope estimate for the total training compute (in FLOPs) for GPT-3, using standard scaling heuristics and reasonable assumptions. Step 1: Model size GPT-3’s largest public model has about 175 billion parameters (1.75e11).

    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.

    Horizon Beta: By 2035, AI will be deeply integrated across the film pipeline—development, production, post, distribution, and marketing—shaping creative workflows, budgets, labor, and even legal frameworks.

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

    Horizon Beta: Here are 5 jokes: Why don’t scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything. I told my computer I needed a break, and it said: “No problem—I’ll go to sleep.” Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field. I tried to catch fog yesterday. Mist. Why did the math book look sad?

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

    Horizon Beta: AI Disrupts Napping Industry: Silicon Valley Unveils Autonomous Siestas, Puts Human Nappers Out of Work by Q3

    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

This matchup has more rounds

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

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Price and specs

Not enough votes to call it. On the specs, Step 5 Preview has the edge: bigger model tier, newer, bigger context window.

Horizon Beta and Step 5 Preview compared across 40 shared prompts
SpecHorizon BetaStep 5 Preview
Input priceFree$1/M tokens
Output priceFree$2.7/M tokens
Context window256K tokens1.0M tokens
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedAug 2025Oct 2026
At 10M a month$0$0$10.00$10.00
1M10M100M1B10M tokens

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

Where to run it1 host
Horizon Beta

No hosts listed on OpenRouter.

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 Horizon Beta and Step 5 Preview?

Horizon Beta is developed by OpenRouter while Step 5 Preview is developed by StepFun. Horizon Beta has a 256K token context window vs Step 5 Preview's 1.0M. You can compare their actual outputs across 40 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

Which is better, Horizon Beta or Step 5 Preview?

It depends on your use case. Horizon Beta and Step 5 Preview each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 40 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.

How much does Horizon Beta cost compared to Step 5 Preview?

Horizon Beta costs $0/M input tokens and Step 5 Preview costs $1/M input tokens. Horizon Beta 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.

How can I compare Horizon Beta and Step 5 Preview on Rival?

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of Horizon Beta 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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  • Horizon Beta vs Claude Sonnet 5.5Landed Sep 2026
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  • Horizon Beta vs Qwen3.8 Max PrimeLanded Sep 2026
  • Step 5 Preview vs GLM 5.3 PrimeLanded Sep 2026

Same lab, same size, long tail

  • Horizon Beta vs Ox AlphaSame lab
  • Horizon Beta vs OpenRouter Fusion · Budget (Jun 2026)Same lab
  • Step 5 Preview vs Mistral Large 4Same size
  • Step 5 Preview vs Hy3Same size
  • Step 5 Preview vs Grok 3Same size
  • Step 5 Preview vs Grok 3 BetaSame size
  • Step 5 Preview vs Grok 3 Mini BetaNew provider
  • Step 5 Preview vs Grok 3 ThinkingSame size

Model pages

  • Horizon Beta41 outputs, specs and price
  • Step 5 Preview58 outputs, specs and price
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