Novita AI vs StepFun: Token Pricing, Speed & Intelligence
Full comparison of Novita AI and StepFun — live token pricing, latency, throughput, context window, strengths, weaknesses, and best use cases. Rates sourced from public APIs — verify before use.
Novita AI
200+ models — DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, Kimi K3, Kling v3.0 video, agent sandbox
Novita AI offers 200+ models across text, image, video, and audio. Text models include DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, DeepSeek V4 Pro, Kimi K3, Qwen3.8 Flash, MiniMax M3, and GLM 5.3. Video: Kling v3.0 Pro and Wan 2.7. Audio: Fish Audio TTS. Agent sandbox for multi-step agentic workflows. 50% batch discount on supported models. Check novita.ai/pricing for current rates.
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.
Key metric comparison
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Live token pricing
Strengths and weaknesses
Novita AI
StepFun
Key differentiators
The most complete budget multimodal platform — 200+ models spanning text, image, video (Kling v3.0, Wan 2.7), and audio, with an agent sandbox and 50% batch discounts.
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
Novita AI FAQs
What models does Novita AI support in 2026?
Novita AI hosts 200+ models including DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, DeepSeek V4 Pro, Kimi K3, Qwen3.8 Flash, GLM 5.3, MiniMax M3, and many others across text, image, video, and audio. Check novita.ai/pricing for current rates.
What video generation models does Novita AI offer?
Novita AI offers Kling v3.0 Pro, Kling v3.0 Standard, Wan 2.7, Minimax Hailuo 2.3, and more. Check novita.ai/pricing for current rates.
Does Novita AI offer batch inference discounts?
Yes. Novita AI offers a 50% introductory discount on input and output tokens for batch inference on supported models.
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
Novita AI — 200+ models — DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, Kimi K3, Kling v3.0 video, agent sandbox
Novita AI offers 200+ models across text, image, video, and audio. Text models include DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, DeepSeek V4 Pro, Kimi K3, Qwen3.8 Flash, MiniMax M3, and GLM 5.3. Video: Kling v3.0 Pro and Wan 2.7. Audio: Fish Audio TTS. Agent sandbox for multi-step agentic workflows. 50% batch discount on supported models. Check novita.ai/pricing for current rates.
The most complete budget multimodal platform — 200+ models spanning text, image, video (Kling v3.0, Wan 2.7), and audio, with an agent sandbox and 50% batch discounts.
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
Novita AI
- 200+ models: text, image, video (Kling v3.0, Wan 2.7), audio (Fish Audio TTS)
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash — competitive pricing
- Kling v3.0 Pro video generation
- Less established than larger inference providers
- Throughput and latency not optimised for real-time use
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
Novita AI
- Less established than larger inference providers
- Throughput and latency not optimised for real-time use
- No fine-tuning support
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
Novita AI is a inference api, founded in 2023. StepFun is a frontier lab, founded in 2023. Novita AI 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 Novita AI if you need 200+ models: text, image, video (kling v3.0, wan 2.7), audio (fish audio tts). 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.