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Sakura Internet AI EnginevsStepFun

Sakura Internet AI Engine vs StepFun: Token Pricing, Speed & Intelligence

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

Sakura Internet AI Engine

Japanese cloud AI inference — gpt-oss-120b and LLM-jp models, priced in JPY per 10k tokens

Sakura Internet AI Engine is a Japanese cloud AI inference service offering gpt-oss-120b and llm-jp-3.1-8x13b-instruct4. Pricing is JPY 0.15 input / JPY 0.75 output per 10,000 tokens (tax included). A free allowance of 3,000 requests per month is included; a paid plan is required for usage beyond that. Rates shown on this site are normalized to per-1M tokens for cross-provider comparison; the native per-10k-token unit is shown in the model table below.

ChatOpen-sourceJapanese NLPCost-efficiency
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

Sakura Internet AI Engine
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

Sakura Internet AI Engine

JPY-denominated pricing — predictable costs for Japan-based teams without FX exposure
Includes gpt-oss-120b and the Japanese-language-optimised llm-jp-3.1-8x13b-instruct4
3,000 free requests per month included before billing begins
Operated by a long-established Japanese cloud provider (Sakura Internet, est. 1996)
Paid plan required beyond the 3,000-request monthly free allowance
Small model catalog compared to global inference APIs
JPY pricing means non-JPY users carry currency risk

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

Sakura Internet AI Engine

JPY-denominated AI inference from a Japanese cloud provider — gpt-oss-120b and LLM-jp at ¥0.15/¥0.75 per 10k tokens (tax incl.), with 3,000 free requests/month.

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

Sakura Internet AI Engine FAQs

What is Sakura Internet AI Engine?

Sakura Internet AI Engine is a Japanese cloud AI inference service offering gpt-oss-120b and llm-jp-3.1-8x13b-instruct4. Pricing is JPY 0.15 input / JPY 0.75 output per 10,000 tokens (tax included). See ai.sakura.ad.jp/sakura-ai/ai-engine/ for current rates.

How much does Sakura Internet AI Engine cost?

Pricing is JPY 0.15 per 10,000 input tokens and JPY 0.75 per 10,000 output tokens, tax included. A free allowance of 3,000 requests per month is included; a paid plan is required beyond that. See ai.sakura.ad.jp/sakura-ai/ai-engine/ for current rates.

Is there a free tier on Sakura Internet AI Engine?

Yes. Sakura Internet AI Engine includes 3,000 free requests per month. A paid plan is required for usage beyond this allowance.

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

Sakura Internet AI Engine

Provider page
Website
PricingDocs

StepFun

Provider page
Website
PricingDocs

Sakura Internet AI Engine — Japanese cloud AI inference — gpt-oss-120b and LLM-jp models, priced in JPY per 10k tokens

Sakura Internet AI Engine is a Japanese cloud AI inference service offering gpt-oss-120b and llm-jp-3.1-8x13b-instruct4. Pricing is JPY 0.15 input / JPY 0.75 output per 10,000 tokens (tax included). A free allowance of 3,000 requests per month is included; a paid plan is required for usage beyond that. Rates shown on this site are normalized to per-1M tokens for cross-provider comparison; the native per-10k-token unit is shown in the model table below.

JPY-denominated AI inference from a Japanese cloud provider — gpt-oss-120b and LLM-jp at ¥0.15/¥0.75 per 10k tokens (tax incl.), with 3,000 free requests/month.

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

Sakura Internet AI Engine

  • JPY-denominated pricing — predictable costs for Japan-based teams without FX exposure
  • Includes gpt-oss-120b and the Japanese-language-optimised llm-jp-3.1-8x13b-instruct4
  • 3,000 free requests per month included before billing begins
  • Paid plan required beyond the 3,000-request monthly free allowance
  • Small model catalog compared to global inference APIs

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

Sakura Internet AI Engine

  • Paid plan required beyond the 3,000-request monthly free allowance
  • Small model catalog compared to global inference APIs
  • JPY pricing means non-JPY users carry currency risk

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

Sakura Internet AI Engine is a cloud, founded in 1996. StepFun is a frontier lab, founded in 2023. The category difference means these providers serve partially overlapping use cases — compare the model lists and pricing tables above to find the best fit for your specific workload.

How to choose between them

Choose Sakura Internet AI Engine if you need jpy-denominated pricing — predictable costs for japan-based teams without fx exposure. 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.