API cost decision in 10 seconds

🔥Claude 4.6 Opus vs 🔥Step 3.5 Flash

Use the price and context table to shortlist the better API fit; one or both models are missing full workload pricing.

Pricing data updated:  Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

Use the price and context table to shortlist the better API fit; one or both models are missing full workload pricing.

The standard workload estimate is unavailable because one or both models are missing numeric input or output prices.

Cost-first pickN/A
Context-first pickStep 3.5 Flash
Sample savingsN/AN/A
10x traffic gapN/A

Context-window winner: Step 3.5 Flash. Use the custom calculator below when both input and output prices are available.

Cheaper input Tie Not listed vs $0.1 / 1M

Input price data is incomplete for one or both models.

Cheaper output Tie Not listed vs $0.3 / 1M

Output price data is incomplete for one or both models.

Larger context Step 3.5 Flash N/A vs 262.14K

Context window data is incomplete for one or both models.

Sample workload N/A N/A vs $0.25

The standard workload estimate is unavailable because one or both models are missing numeric prices.

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.
Claude 4.6 Opus Calculating… Estimated API cost
Step 3.5 Flash Calculating… Estimated API cost
Cheaper for this workload Calculating… Difference: calculating…

This estimate uses normalized public API pricing per 1M tokens. It is a planning aid, not a billing quote. Verify provider pricing, limits, and terms before production use.

Quick Decision

Verdict

both models tie on input price; both models tie on output price; Step 3.5 Flash offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, the standard workload cost is unavailable.

For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is N/A for Claude 4.6 Opus and $0.25 for Step 3.5 Flash.

Best Fit

Choose Claude 4.6 Opus when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.

Choose Step 3.5 Flash when you care most about larger context window.

Decision Notes
  • The standard workload estimate is unavailable because one or both models are missing numeric input or output prices.
  • The standard workload estimate is unavailable because one or both models are missing numeric prices.
  • Input price data is incomplete for one or both models.
  • Output price data is incomplete for one or both models.
  • Context window data is incomplete for one or both models.
Head-to-Head Specs
Feature🔥Claude 4.6 Opus
(Anthropic)		🔥Step 3.5 Flash
(StepFun)
Input Price
prompt tokens per 1M		Not listed$0.1
Completion Price
per 1M tokens		Not listed$0.3
Sample Workload Cost
1M input + 500K output		N/A$0.25
Context WindowN/A262.14K
Release DateN/A2026-01-29
Popularity Rank
current rank		#14#15

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use caseBetter pickWhy
Budget-constrained productionN/AThe standard workload estimate is unavailable because one or both models are missing numeric input or output prices.
High-volume input processingTieLower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbotsTieLower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document workStep 3.5 FlashA larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files.

Related Alternatives

Cheaper alternatives

Review low-cost models ranked by a standard 1M input plus 500K output workload.

Open cheapest models

Larger context alternatives

Find models with larger context windows for RAG, long documents, and codebase review.

Open largest context models

Provider catalogs

Compare models within provider hubs before choosing a final API vendor.

Open provider hubs

Anthropic catalog

Review all tracked Anthropic models before deciding whether this matchup is the right shortlist.

Open Anthropic models

StepFun catalog

Check other StepFun models with comparable pricing, context, or release timing.

Open StepFun models
Claude 4.6 Opus

This model appears in the model catalog's daily usage rankings, but the models API did not return pricing or context metadata for it.

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash is StepFun's most capable open-source foundation model. Built on a sparse Mixture of Experts (MoE) architecture, it selectively activates only 11B of its 196B parameters per token....