Ling 3.1 Flash vs Step 5 Preview
Ling 3.1 Flash is 12.7× cheaper for typical traffic ; Step 5 Preview scores higher on the Artificial Analysis intelligence index (43.7 vs 41.1).
Prices checked Oct 21, 2026
| Ling 3.1 Flash | Step 5 Preview | |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | inclusionAI | Stepfun |
| Input / 1M tokens | $0.075 | $1.00 |
| Output / 1M tokens | $0.225 | $2.70 |
| Cached input / 1M | $0.015 | $0.10 |
| Context window | 262K | 1.05M |
| Max output | 236K | 64K |
| Intelligence index | 41.1 | 43.7 |
| Image input | No | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes |
| Reasoning mode | Yes | Yes |
| Open weights | No | Yes |
Monthly cost for common workloads
| Workload | Ling 3.1 Flash | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Customer chatbot 1,000 conversations a day, 8 turns each | $32.94 | $392 |
| Document Q&A (RAG) 500 questions a day over retrieved documents | $7.90 | $102 |
| Coding / tool-using agent 200 tasks a day, long tool-heavy contexts | $16.20 | $182 |
| Content generation 30 long articles a day | $0.709 | $8.77 |
| Classification / extraction 100,000 short items a day | $77.63 | $1,021 |
Estimates include cached-input discounts where a model offers them. Try your own numbers in the cost calculator.
Which one to choose
- Lowest cost: Ling 3.1 Flash — 12.7× cheaper on a 3:1 input/output mix.
- Longer documents: Step 5 Preview reads up to 1.05M tokens at once.
- Capabilities: Ling 3.1 Flash — tools, reasoning, JSON; Step 5 Preview — vision, tools, reasoning, JSON, open weights.