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ReplicatevsStepFun

Replicate vs StepFun: Token Pricing, Speed & Intelligence

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

Replicate

Run any open-source AI model via API — FLUX 1.1 Pro, Llama 4, video, audio, and custom models

Replicate is a platform for running open-source AI models via a simple API. It hosts thousands of community models including FLUX 1.1 Pro, Llama 4, Stable Diffusion, Whisper, and video generation models. Pay per prediction with no infrastructure to manage. The 2026 catalog has expanded significantly with FLUX 1.1 Pro Ultra, Kling v2.1, and Llama 4 Scout/Maverick. Custom model deployment via Cog remains a core differentiator.

Image generationVideo generationAudio transcriptionCustom model deploymentPrototypingMultimodal AI
Open-weight hostHosts open weights

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

Replicate
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

Replicate

Broad catalog of community AI models — text, image, video, audio
FLUX 1.1 Pro Ultra and Kling v2.1 in the 2026 catalog
Llama 4 Scout and Maverick available
Custom model deployment via Cog — any Hugging Face model can be deployed
Simple pay-per-prediction pricing with no infrastructure
Streaming and webhooks for production integrations
Higher per-token cost than dedicated text inference APIs
Cold start latency on less popular models
Less suitable for high-throughput text inference

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

Replicate

A broad catalog of community AI models — if a model exists on Hugging Face, it's likely on Replicate. Strong coverage for image, video, and audio model access, plus custom model deployment via Cog.

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

Replicate FAQs

What new models did Replicate add in 2026?

Replicate added FLUX 1.1 Pro Ultra, Kling v2.1 (video generation), Llama 4 Scout and Maverick, and many other models in 2026. The catalog is continuously updated as new community models are released.

How does Replicate pricing work?

Replicate charges per prediction based on compute time used. Pricing varies by model and GPU type. Text models are billed per token; image models per image; video models per second of output. Some models are free with rate limits.

Can I deploy my own model on Replicate?

Yes. Replicate lets you package and deploy custom models using Cog, their open-source model packaging tool. Once deployed, your model gets a public API endpoint with automatic scaling.

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

Replicate

Provider page
Website
PricingDocs

StepFun

Provider page
Website
PricingDocs

Replicate — Run any open-source AI model via API — FLUX 1.1 Pro, Llama 4, video, audio, and custom models

Replicate is a platform for running open-source AI models via a simple API. It hosts thousands of community models including FLUX 1.1 Pro, Llama 4, Stable Diffusion, Whisper, and video generation models. Pay per prediction with no infrastructure to manage. The 2026 catalog has expanded significantly with FLUX 1.1 Pro Ultra, Kling v2.1, and Llama 4 Scout/Maverick. Custom model deployment via Cog remains a core differentiator.

A broad catalog of community AI models — if a model exists on Hugging Face, it's likely on Replicate. Strong coverage for image, video, and audio model access, plus custom model deployment via Cog.

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

Replicate

  • Broad catalog of community AI models — text, image, video, audio
  • FLUX 1.1 Pro Ultra and Kling v2.1 in the 2026 catalog
  • Llama 4 Scout and Maverick available
  • Higher per-token cost than dedicated text inference APIs
  • Cold start latency on less popular models

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

Replicate

  • Higher per-token cost than dedicated text inference APIs
  • Cold start latency on less popular models
  • Less suitable for high-throughput text inference

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

Replicate is a inference api, founded in 2021. StepFun is a frontier lab, founded in 2023. Replicate 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 Replicate if you need broad catalog of community ai models — text, image, video, audio. 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.