AI Models · Open-Source vs Paid

Step 3.7 Flash Open vs RERelace Apply 3 Paid

Step 3.7 Flash vs Relace Apply 3 compared — price per token, context window, multimodality, openness and which to choose. Can the open-source model replace the paid one? Full 2026 breakdown.

Prices & specs refreshed from live data · olud.ai

Open-model prices = cheapest provider via OpenRouter; official maker rates may be higher.

Step 3.7 FlashOpenStepfun
$0.2 /M input
$1.15 /M outputNo per-token fees if you self-host
TypeOpen-weight
Context window262K tokens
MultimodalYes
Self-hostYes
RERelace Apply 3PaidRelace
$0.85 /M input
$1.25 /M outputManaged API (no infra to run)
TypeProprietary
Context window256K tokens
MultimodalNo
Self-hostNo
Choose Step 3.7 Flash if you want to self-host, keep your data private and skip per-token fees — it's open-weight and runs on your own hardware. Choose Relace Apply 3 if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.

Step 3.7 Flash vs Relace Apply 3 specs

SpecStep 3.7 FlashRelace Apply 3Winner
MakerStepfunRelace
TypeOpen-weightProprietaryStep 3.7 Flash
Context window262K tokens256K tokensStep 3.7 Flash
Input price$0.2/M · free self-host$0.85/MStep 3.7 Flash
Output price$1.15/M · free self-host$1.25/MStep 3.7 Flash
Vision / multimodalYesNoStep 3.7 Flash
Tool / function callingYesNoStep 3.7 Flash
Self-hostableYesNo (API only)Step 3.7 Flash
LicenseOpen weightsProprietaryStep 3.7 Flash

Price gap & when to choose each

Choose Step 3.7 Flash if…
  • You want to self-host or run on your cloud
  • You need the longer 262K context window
  • You prioritize data privacy & control
  • You want the lowest operating costs
  • You are building open or reproducible AI
REChoose Relace Apply 3 if…
  • You want frontier performance through a managed API
  • You value reliability & ecosystem
  • You don't want to manage infrastructure

Feature comparison

CapabilityStep 3.7 FlashRelace Apply 3
Open weights (downloadable)
Self-hostable
Runs fully offline
Vision / multimodal
Tool / function calling
1M+ context window

Benchmarks: Step 3.7 Flash vs Relace Apply 3

Independent benchmark scores measured by Artificial Analysis. Higher is better (except latency).

Step 3.7 Flash
Relace Apply 3
Intelligence index
19.5
Coding index
39.6
GPQA
80.9%
Humanity's Last Exam
21.4%
Long Context Reasoning
73.7%
SciCode
43.9%
IFBench
67.3%
τ²-Bench
98.5%
τ-Bench Banking
12%
Terminal-Bench
39.3%
Terminal-Bench Hard
35.6%
Speed
132.8 tok/s
Latency
1.59s
Intelligence per $
44.5

Benchmark data by Artificial Analysis.

How Step 3.7 Flash and Relace Apply 3 score

🏆 Best value & openness: Step 3.7 Flash (4.7 vs 2.6 / 5)
CriterionStep 3.7 FlashRelace Apply 3
Cost-efficiency4.54.5
Context window4.04.0
Openness5.01.5
Self-hosting5.01.0
Multimodality5.02.0

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 3.7 Flash Open

Stepfun · Open-weight

Step 3.7 Flash is StepFun's latest high-efficiency multimodal Mixture-of-Experts model. It pairs a 196B-parameter language backbone with a vision encoder for native image and video understanding, activating roughly 11B parameters...

Relace Apply 3 Paid

Relace · Proprietary

Relace Apply 3 is a specialized code-patching LLM that merges AI-suggested edits straight into your source files. It can apply updates from GPT-4o, Claude, and others into your files at...

Other models in these families

These variants are tracked but not compared here — one page per family keeps the comparison readable.

Other variants tracked
Step 3.5 Flash

Frequently asked questions

Is Step 3.7 Flash as good as Relace Apply 3?

Step 3.7 Flash is open-weight and competitive on many tasks, but Relace Apply 3 may still lead on the hardest reasoning and agentic work. The gap keeps narrowing — benchmark both on your actual use case before deciding.

Can I run Step 3.7 Flash locally?

Yes. Step 3.7 Flash has open weights, so you can self-host it on your own GPUs or run it via a low-cost API. Relace Apply 3 is API-only and cannot be self-hosted.

Step 3.7 Flash vs Relace Apply 3 — which should I pick in 2026?

Choose Step 3.7 Flash if you want to self-host, keep your data private and skip per-token fees — it's open-weight and runs on your own hardware. Choose Relace Apply 3 if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.

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