StepFun vs Together AI: Token Pricing, Speed & Intelligence
Full comparison of StepFun and Together AI — live token pricing, latency, throughput, context window, strengths, weaknesses, and best use cases. Rates sourced from public APIs — verify before use.
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.
Together AI
MiniMax M3, Kimi K3, GLM-5.3, DeepSeek V4 Pro, gpt-oss-120B — plus GB200/B200 GPU clusters
Together AI offers hosted inference for open-weight models, GPU clusters, provisioned throughput and fine-tuning. Compare listed rates and check the provider for current models, availability and terms.
Key metric comparison
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Live token pricing
Strengths and weaknesses
StepFun
Together AI
Key differentiators
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.
An open-weight model catalog — MiniMax M3, Kimi K3, GLM-5.3, DeepSeek V4 Pro, gpt-oss-120B — with GPU clusters (GB200/B200), Provisioned Throughput, and a Serverless Training API.
Frequently asked questions
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.
Together AI FAQs
What new models did Together AI add in 2026?
Together AI expanded its catalog with MiniMax M3, Kimi K3, GLM-5.3, DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813, gpt-oss-120B, Muse Glimmer 30B, and the full Qwen3.x family. Check api.together.ai/models for current pricing.
How much does Together AI cost?
Together AI uses per-token pricing across its model catalog. Check api.together.ai/models for current rates on MiniMax M3, DeepSeek V4 Pro, GLM-5.3, Llama 3.3 70B, and other models.
Does Together AI offer GPU compute?
Yes. Together AI offers GPU clusters with H100, H200, B200, and GB200/GB300 NVL72 (contact sales). Check together.ai/pricing for current GPU compute rates.
Provider resources
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.
Together AI — MiniMax M3, Kimi K3, GLM-5.3, DeepSeek V4 Pro, gpt-oss-120B — plus GB200/B200 GPU clusters
Together AI offers hosted inference for open-weight models, GPU clusters, provisioned throughput and fine-tuning. Compare listed rates and check the provider for current models, availability and terms.
An open-weight model catalog — MiniMax M3, Kimi K3, GLM-5.3, DeepSeek V4 Pro, gpt-oss-120B — with GPU clusters (GB200/B200), Provisioned Throughput, and a Serverless Training API.
Key strengths compared
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
Together AI
- Open-model catalog — MiniMax M3, Kimi K3, GLM-5.3, DeepSeek V4 Pro, gpt-oss-120B, Qwen3.x, Llama 4
- GB200/B200/H200/H100 GPU clusters with preemptible and reserved pricing
- Provisioned Throughput (PTUs) for SLA-backed capacity
- No proprietary frontier models
- Throughput lower than Groq/Cerebras for speed-critical apps
Key weaknesses compared
StepFun
- Newer entrant — smaller track record than established frontier labs
- Documentation and support primarily in Chinese
- Limited international ecosystem and third-party integrations
Together AI
- No proprietary frontier models
- Throughput lower than Groq/Cerebras for speed-critical apps
- Fine-tuning adds complexity vs. pure inference providers
Provider category context
StepFun is a frontier lab, founded in 2023. Together AI is a inference api, founded in 2022. StepFun as a frontier lab trains and serves its own proprietary models. Together AI as an inference API provider hosts open-weight models — typically offering lower prices for equivalent capability tiers but without access to proprietary frontier models.
How to choose between them
Choose StepFun if you need Chinese NLP. Choose Together AI if you need open-model catalog — minimax m3, kimi k3, glm-5.3, deepseek v4 pro, gpt-oss-120b, qwen3.x, llama 4. 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.