StepFun has introduced Step 5 Preview, its flagship artificial intelligence model built as a sparse mixture-of-experts system with 600 billion total parameters and roughly 27 billion parameters activated per token. The model supports a context window of up to 1 million tokens and can take text, image, and video inputs, according to Techub News. StepFun said the model is aimed at agent workloads in software engineering, professional knowledge, and finance, while lowering task costs without giving up a comparable level of intelligence.
The company is making the model available through a hosted API and the StepFun platform. An open-weight self-hosted version is scheduled for release on Oct. 15, 2026. Third-party evaluator Artificial Analysis gave Step 5 Preview a score of 44 on its Intelligence Index, compared with a median score of 24 for models in the same price range. API pricing is listed at $1 per million input tokens and $2.7 per million output tokens. StepFun also shared benchmark results for FrontierFinance and DRACO, along with examples showing H100 kernel optimization in a 24-hour experiment and model capability gains from automated post-training.
StepFun has released Step 5 Preview, the company’s flagship AI model, according to Techub News. The model uses a sparse mixture-of-experts architecture with 600 billion total parameters and about 27 billion parameters activated per token. It supports a context window of up to 1 million tokens and accepts text, image, and video inputs.
StepFun said the model is designed for agent workloads in software engineering, professional knowledge, and finance. The team said it can cut task costs while maintaining what it described as a comparable level of intelligence.
Availability and release timeline
Step 5 Preview is currently available through a hosted API and the StepFun platform. An open-weight self-hosted version is expected on Oct. 15, 2026.
Third-party evaluation and pricing
Data from third-party evaluator Artificial Analysis showed Step 5 Preview scored 44 on its Intelligence Index, well above the median score of 24 for models at a similar price point.
API pricing is set at $1 per million input tokens and $2.7 per million output tokens.
Benchmarks and examples
StepFun also reported performance data for the model on benchmarks including FrontierFinance and DRACO. It also presented examples from a 24-hour experiment that optimized H100 kernel performance, as well as cases showing model capability gains through automated post-training.
The report cited MarkTechPost as the source.
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