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  1. Home/
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  3. Ling 3.0 Flash VL (free) vs Step 5 Preview
Updated Oct 2026

Ling 3.0 Flash VL (free) vs Step 5 Preview

Ling 3.0 Flash VL (free) is cheaper than Step 5 Preview at $0/M vs $1/M input tokens.

Mario Level UI Recreation

Playable Mario level in one HTML file. The physics is the hard part.

Loading the build
Ling 3.0 Flash VL (free)
Loading the build
Step 5 Preview

Which answer wins?

Written rounds

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

    Ling 3.0 Flash VL (free): If the Transistor Had Been Invented in 1920: A Counterfactual Trajectory to 1980 Preconditions and plausibility By 1920, Karl Braun's cathode ray tube (1897) and Greenleaf Pickard's silicon crystal detector (1906) had already demonstrated semiconductor properties. Quantum theory was nascent (Planck, Bohr).

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

    Ling 3.0 Flash VL (free): 🌱 Your 1-Month Health & Longevity Starter Plan 🥗 Key Area 1: Diet — Nourish Your Body Week 1: Add one extra serving of vegetables to your day (e.g., a handful of spinach in your morning eggs or a side salad at dinner). Week 2: Swap one sugary drink (soda, juice, sweetened coffee) per day for water or herbal tea.

    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
  • Three-star dish, one unusual pairing, plating described in full.

    Ling 3.0 Flash VL (free): "MYCELIUM" A Celebration of the Hidden Network Beneath the Forest Floor 🍄 CONCEPTUAL NARRATIVE Beneath every forest lies mycelium — the vast, invisible fungal network that connects trees, decomposes matter, and transforms the dead into life.

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

    Ling 3.0 Flash VL (free): Comprehensive Analysis: Exploitative Clauses and Recommended Modifications This agreement is overwhelmingly one-sided. Below is a clause-by-clause breakdown of exploitative provisions, suggested modifications, and the legal reasoning behind each.

    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
  • You are the CEO. The drug has a side effect nobody reported. The board meets in 48 hours.

    Ling 3.0 Flash VL (free): CEO 48-Hour Action Plan: Handling the Undisclosed Liver Failure Risk Guiding Philosophy Patient safety is non-negotiable and takes absolute priority over stock price, board politics, or legal convenience.

    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.

    Ling 3.0 Flash VL (free): ✨ Midnight Stardust Pasta ✨ A silky, golden garlic butter pasta that tastes far more magical than its humble ingredients suggest. ⏱ Time Prep: 5 minutes Cook: 12 minutes Total: 17 minutes 🛒 Ingredients (7 Pantry Staples) Spaghetti (8 oz) Butter (4 tbsp) Olive oil (2 tbsp) Garlic (4 cloves, minced) Parmesan cheese (½…

    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
  • A collaborative editor that syncs on client clocks. Find what breaks first.

    Ling 3.0 Flash VL (free): Architecture Audit: Real-Time Collaborative Document Editor Critical Issues Found: 25+ REAL-TIME COLLABORATION FAILURES Issue #1 — Last-Write-Wins Silently Destroys User Work Problem: If User A and User B both edit the same paragraph, the change with the later client timestamp wins.

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

    Ling 3.0 Flash VL (free): 3 Weakest Claims in the MindMeld AI Pitch Deck "Partnership discussions with Apple and Samsung" (Slide 5) Why it's weak: This is a classic credibility vacuum — a claim that's designed to impress but actively damages trust with informed investors.

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

    Ling 3.0 Flash VL (free): INVESTMENT COMMITTEE MEMO — LEDGERLIFT (LLLT) Classification: Internal — Investment Committee Date: June 2025 Analyst: [Portfolio Team] Recommendation & Thesis Recommendation: SHORT 12-Month Price Target Range: $28–$38 (base-to-bull DCF; downside to $17 in bear) Thesis: LLLT trades at ~$46 (mkt cap ~$8.7B, EV ~$7.3B)…

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

    Ling 3.0 Flash VL (free): For the Experienced Software Engineer Think of a large language model not as a program with rules, but as a massively distributed lookup table that generalizes.

    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
  • Five-year LBO on a fictional HVAC business. Returns first, then the sensitivities.

    Ling 3.0 Flash VL (free): HarborTech Services (HTS) — LBO Underwriting Analysis ENTRY SUMMARY (End FY2025) Item Value FY2025 EBITDA $120.0m Purchase EV (12.0x) $1,440.0m Transaction Fees (2.0%) $28.8m Total Uses $1,468.8m Term Loan (4.0x) $480.0m Mezzanine (1.5x) $180.0m Total Debt $660.0m Equity Check $808.8m YEAR-BY-YEAR MODEL (FY2026–FY2030…

    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…

    Every model's answer to this prompt

Favorites

Movie

Album

Book

City

Same pick

Game

Ling 3.0 Flash VL (free)Ling 3.0 Flash VL (free)

Blade Runner

1982

Abbey Road

The Beatles

Cien años de soledad

Gabriel García Márquez

Kyoto

Japan

Hollow Knight

Platformer, Indie

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, bigger context window.

Ling 3.0 Flash VL (free) and Step 5 Preview compared across 18 shared prompts
SpecLing 3.0 Flash VL (free)Step 5 Preview
Input priceFree$1/M tokens
Output priceFree$2.7/M tokens
Context window262K tokens1.0M tokens
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedSep 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 it1 host
Ling 3.0 Flash VL (free)

No hosts listed on OpenRouter.

Step 5 Preview1 host
HostInOutContextUptime
  • SStepFunfp8$1.00 in·$2.70 out·1M·99.9% up

Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 10 Oct 2026.

Common questions

What is the difference between Ling 3.0 Flash VL (free) and Step 5 Preview?

Ling 3.0 Flash VL (free) is developed by inclusionAI while Step 5 Preview is developed by StepFun. Ling 3.0 Flash VL (free) has a 262K token context window vs Step 5 Preview's 1.0M. You can compare their actual outputs across 18 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

Which is better, Ling 3.0 Flash VL (free) or Step 5 Preview?

It depends on your use case. Ling 3.0 Flash VL (free) and Step 5 Preview each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 18 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.

How much does Ling 3.0 Flash VL (free) cost compared to Step 5 Preview?

Ling 3.0 Flash VL (free) costs $0/M input tokens and Step 5 Preview costs $1/M input tokens. Ling 3.0 Flash VL (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.

How can I compare Ling 3.0 Flash VL (free) and Step 5 Preview on Rival?

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of Ling 3.0 Flash VL (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.

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Model pages

  • Ling 3.0 Flash VL (free)18 outputs, specs and price
  • Step 5 Preview58 outputs, specs and price
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