Step 5 Preview Open vs 
Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) Open
Step 5 Preview vs Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) compared — price per token, context window, multimodality, openness and which to choose. Full 2026 breakdown.
Prices & specs refreshed from live data · olud.ai
Open-model prices = cheapest provider via OpenRouter; official maker rates may be higher.
$2.7 /M outputNo per-token fees if you self-host
$3.75 /M outputNo per-token fees if you self-host
Step 5 Preview vs Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) specs
| Spec | Step 5 Preview | Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maker | Stepfun | Mistral AI | – |
| Type | Open-weight | Open-weight | – |
| Context window | 1M tokens | 262K tokens | |
| Input price | $1/M · free self-host | $0.75/M · free self-host | |
| Output price | $2.7/M · free self-host | $3.75/M · free self-host | |
| Vision / multimodal | Yes | Yes | = Tie |
| Tool / function calling | Yes | Yes | = Tie |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes | = Tie |
| License | Open weights | Apache 2.0 | – |
Price gap & when to choose each
- You want to self-host or run on your cloud
- You need the longer 1M context window
- You prioritize data privacy & control
- You want the lowest operating costs
- You are building open or reproducible AI
- You want to self-host or run on your cloud
- You prioritize data privacy & control
- You are building open or reproducible AI
Feature comparison
| Capability | Step 5 Preview | Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) |
|---|---|---|
| Open weights (downloadable) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Self-hostable | ✓ | ✓ |
| Runs fully offline | ✓ | ✓ |
| Vision / multimodal | ✓ | ✓ |
| Tool / function calling | ✓ | ✓ |
| 1M+ context window | ✓ | ✗ |
Benchmarks: Step 5 Preview vs Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch)
Independent benchmark scores measured by Artificial Analysis. Higher is better (except latency).
Benchmark data by Artificial Analysis.
How Step 5 Preview and Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) score
| Criterion | Step 5 Preview | Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) |
|---|---|---|
| Cost-efficiency | 4.5 | 4.0 |
| Context window | 5.0 | 4.0 |
| Openness | 5.0 | 5.0 |
| Self-hosting | 5.0 | 5.0 |
| Multimodality | 5.0 | 5.0 |
Scores come from live data — output price (cost), context length, open vs closed weights (openness & self-hosting) and vision/tool support (multimodality). Raw task quality isn't scored here; it depends on your benchmark — see the verdict.
What each model is
Step 5 Preview Open
Step 5 Preview is StepFun's flagship model for agentic work, built on a sparse Mixture-of-Experts architecture (27B active / 600B total parameters). It performs strongly in software engineering and professional...
Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) Open
Mistral Medium 3.5 is a dense 128B instruction-following model from Mistral AI. It supports text and image inputs with text output, and is designed for agentic workflows, coding, and complex...
Other models in these families
These variants are tracked but not compared here — one page per family keeps the comparison readable.
Frequently asked questions
Step 5 Preview vs Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) — which is cheaper?
Step 5 Preview is cheaper on output ($2.7/M vs $3.75/M).
Which has the larger context window?
Step 5 Preview offers the larger context window (1M tokens).
Step 5 Preview vs Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) — which should I pick in 2026?
Choose Step 5 Preview for the lower output price ($2.7/M vs $3.75/M). It also gives you the larger 1M context window.
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