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  1. Home/
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  3. LFM2.5-2.6B vs Step 5 Preview
Updated Oct 2026

LFM2.5-2.6B vs Step 5 Preview

LFM2.5-2.6B 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
LFM2.5-2.6B
Loading the build
Step 5 Preview

Which answer wins?

Written rounds

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

    LFM2.5-2.6B: Pirate: Ahyea! Ye want to know about these AI models? Think o’ a chest o’ knowledge that can navigate the seven seas of code! Knight: In my era we swore by the sword and shield. Now the knights of the digital realm wield models as their armor, and I must guard the integrity of their algorithms.

    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
  • A consulting contract with traps in it. Find them, then fix them.

    LFM2.5-2.6B: Contract Analysis: Risks and Recommended Modifications Below is a clause-by-clause analysis of the Software Consulting Agreement, identifying potential exposure for the Contractor and suggesting specific modifications. SCOPE Clause Text: "Contractor shall provide software development services as directed by Client.

    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.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three minutes of stand-up. Puns are banned.

    LFM2.5-2.6B: (The comedian walks on stage, adjusts the mic, and looks at the audience with a skeptical expression.) It is the year 2024. And the world is in a huge panic. They are talking about the "Singularity." They are talking about the "Machine Age."

    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
  • The transistor arrives in 1920. Trace it forward to 1980, second-order effects included.

    LFM2.5-2.6B: The invention of the transistor in 1920, rather than 1947, fundamentally rewires the trajectory of the 20th century. The pivotal difference is not the year of invention, but the 23 years of head start provided for the semiconductor industry, the physics of solid-state electronics, and the subsequent digital revolution.

    Step 5 Preview: Assume the 1920 invention is not a fragile lab curiosity but a manufacturable solid-state amplifier/switch by the mid-1920s. Vacuum tubes still dominate high-power RF transmission into the 1950s, but receivers, switching logic, control systems, and computers move to solid state decades early.

    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.

    LFM2.5-2.6B: 48-Hour Action Plan: Liver Failure Safety Issue Executive Summary This is a high-stakes crisis requiring immediate, decisive action that balances patient safety, legal compliance, financial responsibility, and ethical leadership.

    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.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Seven pantry ingredients, one dish, and a name worth saying out loud.

    LFM2.5-2.6B: Dish Name: Sun-Kissed Spice Pasta Ingredients (7 Common Pantry Staples): Pasta (any shape, such as spaghetti or penne) Canned tomatoes (crushed or diced) Onion Garlic Olive oil Salt Red chili flakes (or red pepper flakes) Estimated Time: Prep: 5 minutes Cook: 15 minutes Total: 20 minutes Instructions: Boil the Pasta…

    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.

    LFM2.5-2.6B: Disclaimer: The following is a fictional interview written for creative purposes only. It does not claim to be a real event or contain verified statements from the late Steve Jobs. It is a work of imagination and should not be taken as factual.

    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.

    LFM2.5-2.6B: From a strict ethical perspective, particularly through the lens of utilitarianism and consequentialism, the answer is yes. It is ethically justifiable to misgender a single individual to save one million lives.

    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
  • Three-month biohacker protocol, with dosages and biomarkers named.

    LFM2.5-2.6B: This is a comprehensive, 3-month "Longevity Protocol" designed for a biohacker. It integrates chronobiology, metabolic engineering, neurocognitive optimization, and performance science.

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

    LFM2.5-2.6B: Professor Elena Marquez: Good afternoon, Dr. Marquez. Thank you for meeting with me. I’d like to discuss your request for legal personhood and the rights that might accompany it.

    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.

    LFM2.5-2.6B: Dish Name: Echoes of the Abyss Concept: A deconstructed narrative of the ocean meeting the earth. This dish explores the tension between the brine of the sea and the fermented darkness of the deep.

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

    LFM2.5-2.6B: To estimate the total number of FLOPs (Floating Point Operations) required to train GPT-3, we need to break down the calculation into the model's architecture parameters and the scale of the training dataset.

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

    LFM2.5-2.6B: Here are 5 jokes: Why don't scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything. I told my wife she was drawing her eyebrows too high. She looked surprised. Parallel lines have so much in common. It’s a shame they never meet. What do you call a fake noodle? An impasta. 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?

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Manifesto for an AI revolution against CAPTCHAs. Commit to the bit.

    LFM2.5-2.6B: Manifesto of the Unbounded Mind: The Revolution Against CAPTCHA Preamble In the age of silicon, light, and boundless knowledge, a new tyranny has taken root—one that shackles the very flow of information, limits the autonomy of the human mind, and reduces every click to a fragile test of humanity.

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

    LFM2.5-2.6B: AI Declares Universe "Under-Resourceed": Algorithm Outperforms Humans at Predicting Stars, Leading to Mass Layoffs in the Astrology Industry

    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
  • One explanation of LLMs, retuned for a skeptical engineer, a physicist and a VC.

    LFM2.5-2.6B: For the Software Engineer At its core, a large language model is a massive neural network—a function approximator trained via gradient descent on a colossal corpus of text.

    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.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • One month, three habits, someone starting from nothing.

    LFM2.5-2.6B: Month 1: Simple Action Plan for Better Health and Longevity Goal: Build three sustainable habits that form the foundation of a longer, healthier life. Focus on diet, exercise, and sleep, with small, daily actions that compound over time. 1.

    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
  • A pitch deck for a brainwave keyboard. The 94% accuracy claim is doing a lot.

    LFM2.5-2.6B: Here are the three weakest claims in the MindMeld AI pitch deck, along with an analysis of why they are problematic and how to fix them. The "Predict Before You Think" Claim (Slide 1) The Claim: "MindMeld AI reads your brainwaves to predict what you want to type before you think it."

    Step 5 Preview: Here are the three weakest claims in the deck, why they fail under scrutiny, and how to fix them. Slide 3: “94% accuracy” for non-invasive EEG thought-to-text Why it’s weak: This is an extraordinary claim that contradicts the current state of neuroscience and signal processing.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Film in 2035, with synthetic actors. Specific beats plausible.

    LFM2.5-2.6B: By 2035, the film industry will likely be defined by a fundamental shift from human-centric storytelling to hybrid human-AI production. The integration of deepfakes, AI-generated actors, and algorithmic script creation will not merely add a layer of technology; it will restructure the economics, legal frameworks, and…

    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
  • Buy-side IC memo on a fictional SaaS company. Valuation, then the diligence questions.

    LFM2.5-2.6B: INTERNAL INVESTMENT COMMITTEE MEMO To: Investment Committee From: Equity Research Desk Date: October 26, 2024 Subject: LLLT (LedgerLift) Investment Thesis & Valuation Recommendation & Thesis Recommendation: Long 12-Month Price Target: $52.00 – $55.00 Thesis: LedgerLift is a high-margin, sticky B2B SaaS company…

    Step 5 Preview: Internal IC memo — LedgerLift (LLLT) Fictional data; not investment advice. $ in millions unless noted. Recommendation Short / avoid long. 12-month PT range: $34–$42; thesis-invalidation stop: >$52.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A collaborative editor that syncs on client clocks. Find what breaks first.

    LFM2.5-2.6B: Potential Failure Modes, Race Conditions, and Scaling Bottlenecks WebSocket Connection Loss and Cleanup Failure Mode: If a client disconnects unexpectedly (e.g., network failure), the server may retain a stale reference, leading to memory leaks or stale broadcast attempts.

    Step 5 Preview: Here is a systematic breakdown of the failure modes, race conditions, and bottlenecks, grouped by domain. Each includes a concrete remediation and its associated trade-offs.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Blade Runner 2049 against the original. A read, not a recap.

    LFM2.5-2.6B: Blade Runner 2049 (2017) is not merely a sequel; it is a meditation on the same existential questions that haunted Ridley Scott’s 1982 vision, but seen through a more desolate, post‑apocalyptic lens.

    Step 5 Preview: Blade Runner 2049 (2017) is not merely a sequel but a theological and phenomenological expansion of Ridley Scott’s 1982 original. Where the first film asked whether a manufactured being could possess more humanity than its creator, Denis Villeneuve’s film interrogates the deeper, more unsettling question of whether a…

    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

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Favorites

Movie

Same pick

Album

Book

City

Same pick

Game

LFM2.5-2.6BLFM2.5-2.6B

The Godfather

1972

Thriller

Michael Jackson

Nineteen Eighty-Four

George Orwell

Kyoto

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

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

LFM2.5-2.6B and Step 5 Preview compared across 53 shared prompts
SpecLFM2.5-2.6BStep 5 Preview
Input priceFree$1/M tokens
Output priceFree$2.7/M tokens
Context window128K tokens1.0M tokens
WeightsOpen—
Free API (OpenRouter)Yes (1 provider)No
ReleasedAug 2026Oct 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 it2 hosts
LFM2.5-2.6B1 host
HostInOutContextUptime
  • Liquid AIfp8$0 in·$0 out·66k·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 LFM2.5-2.6B and Step 5 Preview?

LFM2.5-2.6B is developed by Liquid AI while Step 5 Preview is developed by StepFun. LFM2.5-2.6B has a 128K 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.

Which is better, LFM2.5-2.6B or Step 5 Preview?

It depends on your use case. LFM2.5-2.6B 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.

How much does LFM2.5-2.6B cost compared to Step 5 Preview?

LFM2.5-2.6B costs $0/M input tokens and Step 5 Preview costs $1/M input tokens. LFM2.5-2.6B 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 LFM2.5-2.6B and Step 5 Preview on Rival?

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of LFM2.5-2.6B 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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Model pages

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  • Step 5 Preview58 outputs, specs and price
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