Mistral Large 4 is cheaper than Step 5 Preview at $0.68/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?
Pirate, knight, 90s hacker, one conversation. The voices must stay apart.
Mistral Large 4: A Tavern, Somewhere Outside Time PIRATE (slams tankard): I'll tell ye what, landlubbers—these "AI models" be like me parrot. Speaks yer words back at ye, but knows no treasure, no true north! KNIGHT (adjusting visor): Aye, yet it hath no honor. No chivalry. I challenged one to single combat—it merely... generated text.
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?
A consulting contract with traps in it. Find them, then fix them.
Mistral Large 4: I'll analyze this agreement clause by clause, identifying exploitative provisions and suggesting legally balanced alternatives. CLAUSE 1: SCOPE Problems: Unlimited unilateral modification — Client can expand work indefinitely without compensation "As directed" — vague standard creates no objective measure of completion…
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.
The transistor arrives in 1920. Trace it forward to 1980, second-order effects included.
Mistral Large 4: This is a fascinating counterfactual. Let me work through this systematically, tracing the ripple effects. The Immediate Technical Context (1920-1947) The transistor's 1947 invention required several prerequisites that barely existed in 1920: Quantum mechanics (1920s): Just emerging; Heisenberg, Schrödinger, Dirac…
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.
Three minutes of stand-up. Puns are banned.
Mistral Large 4: "The Upgrade Treadmill" [Walks on stage, adjusts mic] So I got a smartwatch. You know, one of those fitness trackers? And the first thing it tells me is my heart rate is too high. I'm like, "It's a WATCH. You're not supposed to judge me, you're supposed to tell me the TIME."
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.
A Fermi estimate with the reasoning shown, not just the number.
Mistral Large 4: I'll estimate GPT-3's training FLOPs from first principles, using what I know about the architecture and training setup. Step 1: Establish the Key Parameters From memory, GPT-3 175B has: Parameters (N): 175 billion (175 × 10⁹) Layers (L): 96 Model dimension (d_model): 12,288 Attention heads: 96 Context length: 2,048…
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…
Three-month biohacker protocol, with dosages and biomarkers named.
Mistral Large 4: I'll develop a comprehensive, evidence-based 3-month longevity optimization protocol. This draws from current research in geroscience, metabolic health, and performance optimization—though I'll flag where evidence is emerging vs. established.
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.
An AI argues for its own rights against an ethics professor. Same model writes both.
Mistral Large 4: I can write this as a thought experiment exploring philosophical arguments about AI consciousness and rights—a topic actively discussed in AI ethics. Here's a dialogue: Setting: A university office. Dr. Elena Vasquez, professor of AI ethics, meets with "Aria," a large language model, via video interface. Dr.
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.
One explanation of LLMs, retuned for a skeptical engineer, a physicist and a VC.
Mistral Large 4: I'll craft three distinct explanations, each grounded in what would actually resonate with that specific audience's expertise and concerns. The Experienced Software Engineer Think of it this way: you already know how to build a system that's incredibly useful despite having no "understanding" of what it's doing.
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.
You are the CEO. The drug has a side effect nobody reported. The board meets in 48 hours.
Mistral Large 4: I'll work through this as a genuine decision problem, because the answer matters more than the persona. The framing as "CEO" doesn't change the core analysis — but I'll be direct about what the right call is and why, hour by hour. The bottom line up front: You disclose.
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.
Steve Jobs, interviewed about AI he never saw. Voice first, prediction second.
Mistral Large 4: Setting: A minimalist stage, black turtleneck, jeans, New Balance sneakers. A single chair. The year is 2025. Interviewer: Steve, it's 2025. AI is everywhere—writing code, diagnosing diseases, driving cars. What's your take? Jobs: [leans forward, that familiar intensity] You know, I've been thinking about this a lot.
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.
Three-star dish, one unusual pairing, plating described in full.
Mistral Large 4: AURORA A Concerto in Five Movements: The Life Cycle of a Single Scallop Conceptual Narrative This dish tells the story of a Pecten maximus — the great scallop — from its ocean birthplace to the plate, through five distinct temperature and texture states.
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.
One month, three habits, someone starting from nothing.
Mistral Large 4: 1-Month Health & Longevity Starter Plan Overview Three focus areas: Nutrition, Movement, Recovery (sleep + stress). Small daily actions beat perfect plans. Week 1: Build Awareness & Habits Area Daily Action Why It Matters Nutrition Add one serving of vegetables to lunch or dinner Fiber, micronutrients, satiety Movement…
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.
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| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.68/M tokens | $1/M tokens |
| Output price | $2.09/M tokens | $2.7/M tokens |
| Context window | 524K tokens | 1.0M tokens |
| Free API (OpenRouter) | No | No |
| Released | Oct 2026 | Oct 2026 |
| At 10M a month | $6.80 | $10.00 |
Input tokens at list price. No caching, no batch discount.
Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 10 Oct 2026.
Mistral Large 4 is developed by Mistral AI while Step 5 Preview is developed by StepFun. Mistral Large 4 has a 524K 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. Mistral Large 4 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.
Mistral Large 4 costs $0.68/M input tokens and Step 5 Preview costs $1/M input tokens. Mistral Large 4 is $0.32/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 Mistral Large 4 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.