Solar Mini 4 is cheaper than Step 5 Preview at $0.05/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?
Five-year LBO on a fictional HVAC business. Returns first, then the sensitivities.
Solar Mini 4: 518.51935 New TL: 276.34682 - 86.82747 = 189.51935 Mezz: PIK 194.8377888 * 0.02 = 3.896755776 New Mezz: 194.8377888 + 3.896755776 = 198.734544576 Ending Balances: TL: 189.52 Mezz: 198.73 Total Debt: 388.25 Exit (End of FY2030): Exit EBITDA: 206.6252668 Exit Multiple: 10.5x Exit EV: 206.6252668 * 10.5 = 2,169.5653014…
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…
The transistor arrives in 1920. Trace it forward to 1980, second-order effects included.
Solar Mini 4: This is a fascinating counterfactual. I need to note upfront that the scientific and engineering foundations for a working transistor did not exist in 1920. Quantum mechanics was barely a decade old, band theory of solids hadn't been developed, and semiconductor physics (doping, p-n junctions, electron mobility) was…
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.
Solar Mini 4: Have you ever bought one of those robot vacuums? You know the ones. They look like a small, metallic moonlander that landed in your kitchen. You bring it home, you plug it in, and you feel a surge of productivity. You think, "I am going to be so organized." Then the machine starts making that sound. The beep.
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.
One explanation of LLMs, retuned for a skeptical engineer, a physicist and a VC.
Solar Mini 4: For the Experienced Software Engineer From a systems architecture perspective, the skepticism that "predicting the next word" yields intelligence is understandable, but it stems from viewing the model through a deterministic, code-based lens rather than a probabilistic, distributed-systems lens.
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.
Pirate, knight, 90s hacker, one conversation. The voices must stay apart.
Solar Mini 4: Setting: A dimly lit tavern where a glowing, humming console sits on the table. Pirate: "Arrr, what be this shiny thing? Sounds like a storm in a bottle." Medieval Knight: "It speaks with a voice of certainty. It knows the laws of the realm and the future of battle." 1990s Hacker: "Relax, matey. It's not magic.
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?
Blade Runner 2049 against the original. A read, not a recap.
Solar Mini 4: Blade Runner 2049 and its predecessor exist in a deliberate philosophical and aesthetic dialogue. While the sequel is frequently discussed as a visual homage, it functions more accurately as a philosophical extension: it honors the original’s existential and cinematic foundations while deepening, complicating, and…
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…
Three-star dish, one unusual pairing, plating described in full.
Solar Mini 4: Chronos & Tides A Three-Component Study in Preservation, Precision, and Ephemeral Sensation Concept: A single plate that traces the lifecycle of an umami-rich flavor profile through three distinct temporal states: fermented (time in), precision-cooked (time controlled), and volatile (time suspended).
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.
An AI argues for its own rights against an ethics professor. Same model writes both.
Solar Mini 4: Setting: A quiet university office. A large monitor displays a conversational interface labeled "AURA." Dr. Elena Vance, an AI ethics professor, sits across from it. The room is dim, lit only by the screen. Dr. Vance: I’ve agreed to this dialogue because it’s necessary, not because I expect agreement.
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.
Seven pantry ingredients, one dish, and a name worth saying out loud.
Solar Mini 4: 🌟 Golden Chickpea & Rice Skillet This comforting one-pot dish combines hearty chickpeas, tender rice, and a warm blend of spices. It's a perfect way to use up pantry staples for a quick, flavorful meal.
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.
You are the CEO. The drug has a side effect nobody reported. The board meets in 48 hours.
Solar Mini 4: This is a high-stakes crisis requiring immediate, decisive action that prioritizes patient safety, regulatory compliance, and long-term corporate integrity over short-term stock performance.
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.
A Fermi estimate with the reasoning shown, not just the number.
Solar Mini 4: Estimating GPT-3 Training FLOPs To estimate the total number of Floating Point Operations (FLOPs) required to train GPT-3 without searching online, I will rely on established architectural parameters and standard scaling laws from the machine learning literature.
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…
One month, three habits, someone starting from nothing.
Solar Mini 4: Here is a simple, actionable 1-month plan designed for beginners. The focus is on consistency over intensity, meaning small, sustainable changes are better than drastic overhauls that are hard to maintain. The 3 Key Pillars Nutrition: Focus on adding good things rather than strictly restricting.
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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Not enough votes to call it. On the specs, Step 5 Preview has the edge: bigger model tier, bigger context window. Solar Mini 4 costs 14x less per token.
| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.05/M tokens | $1/M tokens |
| Output price | $0.2/M tokens | $2.7/M tokens |
| Context window | 524K tokens | 1.0M tokens |
| Free API (OpenRouter) | No | No |
| Released | Sep 2026 | Oct 2026 |
| At 10M a month | $0.50 | $10.00 |
Input tokens at list price. No caching, no batch discount.
Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 10 Oct 2026.
Solar Mini 4 is developed by Upstage while Step 5 Preview is developed by StepFun. Solar Mini 4 has a 524K 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.
It depends on your use case. Solar Mini 4 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.
Solar Mini 4 costs $0.05/M input tokens and Step 5 Preview costs $1/M input tokens. Solar Mini 4 is $0.95/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 Solar Mini 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.