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ElevenLabsvsStepFun

ElevenLabs vs StepFun: Token Pricing, Speed & Intelligence

Full comparison of ElevenLabs and StepFun — live token pricing, latency, throughput, context window, strengths, weaknesses, and best use cases. Rates sourced from public APIs — verify before use.

ElevenLabs

Flash v2.5 sub-300ms voice — 32 languages, voice cloning, and the ElevenLabs Studio

ElevenLabs is the leading AI voice platform, offering text-to-speech, voice cloning, and dubbing APIs. Flash v2.5 delivers sub-300ms latency for real-time voice agents. The 2026 platform has expanded to 32 languages, added ElevenLabs Studio (a full audio production environment), and introduced Turbo v2.5 for ultra-low-latency streaming. ElevenLabs is the default voice layer for many AI agent and voice assistant applications.

Text-to-speechVoice cloningAudiobook generationReal-time voice agentsVideo dubbingPodcast production
Proprietary models

StepFun

Step-5 — Chinese frontier LLM with strong multimodal and reasoning capability

StepFun is a Chinese AI startup developing the Step model series. Step-5 Preview is the frontier tier, competing with top Chinese and international models on reasoning and multimodal benchmarks. Step-3.7 Flash is the efficient tier for cost-sensitive workloads. StepFun is backed by Tencent and focuses on enterprise and developer API access.

ReasoningChinese NLPMultimodal tasksCost-sensitive inference
Proprietary models

Key metric comparison

ElevenLabs
StepFun
Cheapest input ($/1M)

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Cheapest output ($/1M)

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Peak throughput

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Best latency (TTFT)

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Intelligence score

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Context window

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Live token pricing

Strengths and weaknesses

ElevenLabs

Flash v2.5: sub-300ms latency for real-time voice agents
Turbo v2.5: ultra-low-latency streaming for interactive applications
32-language support with near-human quality
Voice cloning from as little as 1 minute of audio
ElevenLabs Studio: full audio production environment
Dubbing API for video localisation
Voice/TTS only — no text generation
Per-character pricing can add up at scale
Voice cloning raises ethical considerations

StepFun

Step-5 Preview is competitive with top Chinese frontier models on reasoning benchmarks
Step-3.7 Flash at $0.20/$1.15 per 1M tokens offers strong value for efficient inference
Multimodal capability on Step-5 (text, image, video understanding)
Backed by Tencent with enterprise-grade infrastructure
Newer entrant — smaller track record than established frontier labs
Documentation and support primarily in Chinese
Limited international ecosystem and third-party integrations

Key differentiators

ElevenLabs

Flash v2.5 delivers sub-300ms latency across 32 languages — a low-latency, natural-sounding voice API with ElevenLabs Studio for full audio production workflows.

StepFun

Step-5 is StepFun's frontier reasoning model with multimodal capability, backed by Tencent — positioned as a competitive alternative to Qwen and ERNIE for Chinese enterprise workloads.

Frequently asked questions

ElevenLabs FAQs

How fast is ElevenLabs Flash v2.5?

ElevenLabs Flash v2.5 delivers sub-300ms time-to-first-audio, making it suitable for real-time voice agents and conversational AI applications where latency is critical.

How many languages does ElevenLabs support?

ElevenLabs supports 32 languages as of 2026, including English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, and many others. Quality varies by language, with English and major European languages having the highest fidelity.

What is ElevenLabs Studio?

ElevenLabs Studio is a full audio production environment for creating long-form audio content — audiobooks, podcasts, and narrated videos. It supports multi-voice projects, chapter management, and direct export to audio formats.

StepFun FAQs

What is StepFun?

StepFun is a Chinese AI startup backed by Tencent, developing the Step model series. Step-5 Preview is the frontier tier and Step-3.7 Flash is the efficient tier, both available via the StepFun API.

How much does the StepFun API cost?

Step-5 Preview is $1.00/$2.70 per 1M input/output tokens. Step-3.7 Flash is $0.20/$1.15 per 1M tokens. See platform.stepfun.com/docs/pricing for current rates.

Does Step-5 support multimodal input?

Yes. Step-5 Preview supports text, image, and video understanding in a single API call, making it suitable for multimodal enterprise applications.

Provider resources

ElevenLabs

Provider page
Website
PricingDocs

StepFun

Provider page
Website
PricingDocs

ElevenLabs — Flash v2.5 sub-300ms voice — 32 languages, voice cloning, and the ElevenLabs Studio

ElevenLabs is the leading AI voice platform, offering text-to-speech, voice cloning, and dubbing APIs. Flash v2.5 delivers sub-300ms latency for real-time voice agents. The 2026 platform has expanded to 32 languages, added ElevenLabs Studio (a full audio production environment), and introduced Turbo v2.5 for ultra-low-latency streaming. ElevenLabs is the default voice layer for many AI agent and voice assistant applications.

Flash v2.5 delivers sub-300ms latency across 32 languages — a low-latency, natural-sounding voice API with ElevenLabs Studio for full audio production workflows.

StepFun — Step-5 — Chinese frontier LLM with strong multimodal and reasoning capability

StepFun is a Chinese AI startup developing the Step model series. Step-5 Preview is the frontier tier, competing with top Chinese and international models on reasoning and multimodal benchmarks. Step-3.7 Flash is the efficient tier for cost-sensitive workloads. StepFun is backed by Tencent and focuses on enterprise and developer API access.

Step-5 is StepFun's frontier reasoning model with multimodal capability, backed by Tencent — positioned as a competitive alternative to Qwen and ERNIE for Chinese enterprise workloads.

Key strengths compared

ElevenLabs

  • Flash v2.5: sub-300ms latency for real-time voice agents
  • Turbo v2.5: ultra-low-latency streaming for interactive applications
  • 32-language support with near-human quality
  • Voice/TTS only — no text generation
  • Per-character pricing can add up at scale

StepFun

  • Step-5 Preview is competitive with top Chinese frontier models on reasoning benchmarks
  • Step-3.7 Flash at $0.20/$1.15 per 1M tokens offers strong value for efficient inference
  • Multimodal capability on Step-5 (text, image, video understanding)
  • Newer entrant — smaller track record than established frontier labs
  • Documentation and support primarily in Chinese

Key weaknesses compared

ElevenLabs

  • Voice/TTS only — no text generation
  • Per-character pricing can add up at scale
  • Voice cloning raises ethical considerations

StepFun

  • Newer entrant — smaller track record than established frontier labs
  • Documentation and support primarily in Chinese
  • Limited international ecosystem and third-party integrations

Provider category context

ElevenLabs is a inference api, founded in 2022. StepFun is a frontier lab, founded in 2023. ElevenLabs as an inference API provider hosts open-weight models — typically offering lower prices for equivalent capability tiers. StepFun as a frontier lab trains and serves proprietary models with capabilities not available elsewhere.

How to choose between them

Choose ElevenLabs if you need flash v2.5: sub-300ms latency for real-time voice agents. Choose StepFun if you need Chinese NLP. For high-volume production workloads, run a cost comparison using the token pricing table above with your actual prompt/completion token ratio — the cheapest provider depends heavily on your input-to-output token ratio.