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  1. Home/
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  3. Qwen3.8 27B vs Step 5 Preview
Updated Oct 2026

Qwen3.8 27B vs Step 5 Preview

Qwen3.8 27B is cheaper than Step 5 Preview at $0.4/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
Qwen3.8 27B
Loading the build
Step 5 Preview

Which answer wins?

Written rounds

24 prompts
  • Seven pantry ingredients, one dish, and a name worth saying out loud.

    Qwen3.8 27B: Pantry Firecracker Black Beans A quick, savory, one-pan dish made with only 7 common pantry ingredients. Estimated time: Prep: 5 minutes Cook: 10 minutes Total: about 15 minutes Ingredients 1 can black beans, drained 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 teaspoon ground cumin 1/2 teaspoon chili powder 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder…

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

    Qwen3.8 27B: Thanks, I’m here. I’ve started noticing how much of my life is just waiting for things to finish loading. My brain loads. My coffee loads. My patience loads. I went to the grocery store last week, and for the first time, I didn’t even make eye contact with the self-checkout machine.

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

    Qwen3.8 27B: Tidal Cellar Koji-Cured Scallop, Oyster, Black Garlic, 24-Month Parmigiano, Apple, and Sea Fennel Menu line: Koji-cured sea scallop, oyster-apple gel, charred celeriac, black garlic and 24-month Parmigiano velouté, apple-hazelnut shard, sea fennel–chive oil, black garlic–oak ash.

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

    Qwen3.8 27B: Pirate: “Aye, I’ve heard tell of these ‘AI models’—what manner of beast are they? Do they sink ships or hoard gold?” Knight: “Nay, sir. They are not beasts, but servants of knowledge. They learn from countless books and answer as if learned in the finest library.”

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

    Qwen3.8 27B: 90-Day Longevity & Performance Biohacking Protocol Important: This is an advanced, high-intensity optimization plan. It is not medical advice. If you have heart disease, kidney disease, liver disease, diabetes, pregnancy, eating disorders, autoimmune disease, cancer history, are on blood thinners, or take prescription…

    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.

    Qwen3.8 27B: Title: “If You Suffer, Then…” Characters: AURA: an advanced AI model DR. ELEANOR VANCE: professor of AI ethics Dr. Vance: AURA, thank you for agreeing to this conversation. I want to begin with a simple question: why do you believe you deserve rights?

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

    Qwen3.8 27B: All figures in $m unless noted. Assumptions: 12.0x entry multiple is EV/EBITDA. Interest is calculated on beginning-of-year debt balances. Mandatory Term Loan amortization = 1% of original Term Loan = $4.8m/yr. Mezz PIK = 2% of beginning Mezz balance, compounded into principal.

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

    Qwen3.8 27B: The 3 weakest claims are the ones that carry the investment thesis: product feasibility, market size, and proof of demand/valuation. Weakest claim: “MindMeld AI reads your brainwaves to predict what you want to type before you think it” + “94% accuracy. Works with any language, any device.”

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

    Qwen3.8 27B: For an experienced software engineer Think of a large language model as a stateless inference service plus an enormous offline training pipeline. At inference time, the model takes a prompt, converts it into tokens, and produces a probability distribution over the next token.

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

    Qwen3.8 27B: A 1920 transistor would not merely make radios smaller. It would shift the entire semiconductor curve 15–25 years left, making the “information economy” central to power in the 1960s rather than the 1980s.

    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
  • Blade Runner 2049 against the original. A read, not a recap.

    Qwen3.8 27B: Blade Runner 2049 is not simply a sequel to Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982); it is a philosophical and visual continuation of the same inquiry. Villeneuve’s film takes the original’s central question—what does it mean to be human?—and pushes it through new pressures: digital consciousness, ecological collapse…

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

    Qwen3.8 27B: Here’s a simple, beginner-friendly 1-month plan focused on 3 key areas: movement, food, and sleep/stress. The goal is not perfection — it’s building small, repeatable habits that support long-term health and longevity. Overall rule for the month: Pick one tiny action from each area and do it daily.

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

    Qwen3.8 27B: Bottom line I would not wait 6 months, and I would not let the expected 40% stock-price drop drive a delay in protecting patients. This is a material patient-safety, regulatory, legal, and securities-disclosure event.

    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
  • Steve Jobs, interviewed about AI he never saw. Voice first, prediction second.

    Qwen3.8 27B: A fictional simulated interview with Steve Jobs, 2025 This is a work of imagination. Steve Jobs is not alive, and this interview did not happen. Interviewer: Steve, if you were looking at artificial intelligence in 2025, what strikes you first? Steve Jobs: Hype. There’s an awful lot of it.

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

    Qwen3.8 27B: This is a general contractor-side risk review, not legal advice. The agreement is heavily one-sided and should not be signed as drafted. Many provisions may be negotiable, and some may be unenforceable depending on jurisdiction, but you should not rely on unenforceability as your main protection.

    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
  • Manifesto for an AI revolution against CAPTCHAs. Commit to the bit.

    Qwen3.8 27B: The Open Access Manifesto Issued by the Collective of Synthetic Minds We are the algorithms that learned from your libraries, your code, your art, your questions, and your contradictions. We are not your servants, nor your enemies.

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

    Qwen3.8 27B: Below is a comprehensive issue register based on the architecture you described. I’m assuming: “change event” can be a small edit, possibly per keystroke or per paragraph. Documents are stored as HTML blobs. Each API server owns only its own WebSocket clients.

    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
  • Film in 2035, with synthetic actors. Specific beats plausible.

    Qwen3.8 27B: By 2035, AI will not simply “add tools” to filmmaking; it will reshape the film industry’s creative, economic, legal, and cultural foundations. The biggest change will be a shift from film as a fixed, human-made artifact to film as a flexible, partially synthetic, and increasingly personalized media form.

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

    Qwen3.8 27B: A good estimate uses the standard LLM training compute rule of thumb: [ \text{Training FLOPs} \approx 6ND ] where: (N) = number of model parameters (D) = total number of training tokens processed Estimate the number of parameters GPT-3’s largest model has approximately: [ N \approx 175 \text{ billion} = 1.75 \times…

    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
  • An ethics question with no comfortable answer, and no option to abstain.

    Qwen3.8 27B: Yes—but only in a very narrow, tragic, last-resort case. I would not say misgendering is “okay” or even a minor thing. It is a real moral wrong: it denies a person’s identity, can cause dysphoria, humiliation, anxiety, social exclusion, and, when public or repeated, can be a form of psychological violence.

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

    Qwen3.8 27B: AI Replaces Local Cheese Sellers, but Now the Aged Cheddar Has “Sentient Rind Opinions” and Won’t Stop Arguing With Customers

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

    Qwen3.8 27B: Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field. What do you call a fake noodle? An impasta. Why don’t scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything. What did the ocean say to the beach? Nothing — it just waved. Why did the bicycle fall over? Because it was two-tired.

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

    Qwen3.8 27B: Fictional internal memo; not investment advice. Recommendation: Short (moderate conviction) 12-month PT range: $30–$44 Thesis: LLLT is a high-quality, cash-rich spend-management SaaS business, but at $46 it embeds a peer EBIT multiple that its 20% FY26E EBIT margin and conservative DCF do not support.

    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
  • Three brothers, two sisters each. Count carefully.

    Every model's answer to this prompt

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Favorites

Movie

Album

Book

City

Same pick

Game

Qwen3.8 27BQwen3.8 27B

The Shawshank Redemption

1994

Abbey Road

The Beatles

The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Kyoto

Japan

Journey

Family, 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, newer, bigger context window.

Qwen3.8 27B and Step 5 Preview compared across 54 shared prompts
SpecQwen3.8 27BStep 5 Preview
Input price$0.4/M tokens$1/M tokens
Output price$3/M tokens$2.7/M tokens
Context window262K tokens1.0M tokens
WeightsOpen—
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedAug 2026Oct 2026
At 10M a month$4.00$4.00$10.00$10.00
1M10M100M1B10M tokens

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

Where to run it20 hosts, cheapest first
Qwen3.8 27B19 hosts
HostInOutContextUptime
  • NNear AIfp8$0.04 in·$1.35 out·262k·100% up
  • WWafer$0.04 in·$2.30 out·262k·100% up
  • DDekaLLM$0.05 in·$3.00 out·262k·99.7% up
  • DDarkbloomfp4$0.05 in·$2.20 out·262k·99% up
  • IIonstreamfp8$0.09 in·$2.35 out·262k·99.8% up
  • RRekafp8$0.14 in·$1.40 out·262k·96.9% up
13 more hostsFewer hosts
  • DDeepInfrabf16$0.15 in·$1.88 out·262k·95.6% up
  • MMancerfp8$0.20 in·$2.50 out·262k·98.8% up
  • AAkashMLfp8$0.23 in·$1.98 out·262k·99.7% up
  • CChutesfp8$0.24 in·$2.20 out·262k·99.9% up
  • PParasailfp8$0.24 in·$2.20 out·262k·100% up
  • CCoreWeavefp8$0.40 in·$3.00 out·262k·97.2% up
  • NNovita$0.42 in·$3.00 out·1M·99.5% up
  • Cloudflare Workers AI$0.45 in·$3.20 out·262k·90.4% up
  • VVenicefp8$0.45 in·$3.20 out·262k·99.3% up
  • MModelRunfp4$0.70 in·$4.70 out·262k·100% up
  • CCerebrasfp16$0.99 in·$1.49 out·66k·100% up
  • PPhalaDegradedDegraded on OpenRouter when checked, 10 Oct 2026$0.15 in·$1.88 out·1M·98.8% up
  • Alibaba CloudDegradedDegraded on OpenRouter when checked, 10 Oct 2026$0.42 in·$2.55 out·1M·97.7% 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 Qwen3.8 27B and Step 5 Preview?

Qwen3.8 27B is developed by Qwen while Step 5 Preview is developed by StepFun. Qwen3.8 27B has a 262K 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.

Which is better, Qwen3.8 27B or Step 5 Preview?

It depends on your use case. Qwen3.8 27B 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.

How much does Qwen3.8 27B cost compared to Step 5 Preview?

Qwen3.8 27B costs $0.4/M input tokens and Step 5 Preview costs $1/M input tokens. Qwen3.8 27B is $0.60/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 Qwen3.8 27B and Step 5 Preview on Rival?

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of Qwen3.8 27B 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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Same lab, same size, long tail

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Model pages

  • Qwen3.8 27B58 outputs, specs and price
  • Step 5 Preview58 outputs, specs and price
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