Step 3.5 Flash is $0.59 cheaper per 1M input tokens (86.8% lower; 7.56x difference).
API cost decision in 10 seconds
Qianfan-OCR-Fast vs Step 3.5 Flash
Pick Step 3.5 Flash when budget and context both matter.
Pricing data updated:
Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens
Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output
Budget verdict
Pick Step 3.5 Flash when budget and context both matter.
On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Step 3.5 Flash is estimated at $0.24 vs $2.08 for Qianfan-OCR-Fast, saving $1.84 (88.5% lower).
Cost-first pickStep 3.5 Flash
Context-first pickStep 3.5 Flash
Sample savings$1.8488.5%
10x traffic gap$18.45
Step 3.5 Flash is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $18.45. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.
Cost sensitivity
Workload Sensitivity
Step 3.5 Flash stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.
| Workload shape | Token mix | Better pick | Qianfan-OCR-Fast | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Input-heavy / RAG | 5M input + 500K output | Step 3.5 Flash | $4.81 | $0.6 |
| Balanced workload | 1M input + 1M output | Step 3.5 Flash | $3.49 | $0.39 |
| Output-heavy chatbot | 1M input + 5M output | Step 3.5 Flash | $14.73 | $1.59 |
Step 3.5 Flash is $2.51 cheaper per 1M output tokens (89.3% lower; 9.37x difference).
Step 3.5 Flash has 196.61K more context (4x larger).
Step 3.5 Flash is $1.84 cheaper on the standard workload (88.5% lower).
Estimate your workload cost
Your Workload Cost
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
Step 3.5 Flash has the lower input price; Step 3.5 Flash has the lower output price; Step 3.5 Flash offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Step 3.5 Flash is cheaper for the standard workload.
For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $2.08 for Qianfan-OCR-Fast and $0.24 for Step 3.5 Flash.
Choose Qianfan-OCR-Fast 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 lower input-token price, lower output-token price, and larger context window.
- On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Step 3.5 Flash is estimated at $0.24 vs $2.08 for Qianfan-OCR-Fast, saving $1.84 (88.5% lower).
- Step 3.5 Flash is $1.84 cheaper on the standard workload (88.5% lower).
- Step 3.5 Flash is $0.59 cheaper per 1M input tokens (86.8% lower; 7.56x difference).
- Step 3.5 Flash is $2.51 cheaper per 1M output tokens (89.3% lower; 9.37x difference).
- Step 3.5 Flash has 196.61K more context (4x larger).
| Feature | Qianfan-OCR-Fast (Baidu) | Step 3.5 Flash (StepFun) |
|---|---|---|
| Input Price prompt tokens per 1M | $0.68 | $0.09 |
| Completion Price per 1M tokens | $2.81 | $0.3 |
| Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output | $2.08 | $0.24 |
| Context Window | 65.54K | 262.14K |
| Release Date |
Use-Case Decision Matrix
| Use case | Better pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Budget-constrained production | Step 3.5 Flash | On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Step 3.5 Flash is estimated at $0.24 vs $2.08 for Qianfan-OCR-Fast, saving $1.84 (88.5% lower). |
| High-volume input processing | Step 3.5 Flash | Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill. |
| Long responses and chatbots | Step 3.5 Flash | Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens. |
| RAG or long-document work | Step 3.5 Flash | A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files. |
Related Alternatives
- ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B Thinking can replace Qianfan-OCR-Fast when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.21.
- ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B can replace Qianfan-OCR-Fast when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.21.
- ERNIE 4.5 VL 28B A3B can replace Qianfan-OCR-Fast when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.42.
- ERNIE 4.5 300B A47B can replace Qianfan-OCR-Fast when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.83.
- Llama 4 Scout offers 10M context with $0.23 sample workload cost.
- Grok 4.20 offers 2M context with $2.5 sample workload cost.
- Owl Alpha offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite offers 1.05M context with $1 sample workload cost.
- No popular competitor is currently available.
Cheaper alternatives
Review low-cost models sorted by a standard 1M input plus 500K output workload.
Open cheapest modelsLarger context alternatives
Find models with larger context windows for RAG, long documents, and codebase review.
Open largest context modelsProvider catalogs
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Open provider hubsBaidu catalog
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Open Baidu modelsStepFun catalog
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Open StepFun modelsQianfan-OCR-Fast is a domain-specific multimodal large model purpose-built for OCR. By leveraging specialized OCR training data while preserving versatile multimodal intelligence, it provides a powerful performance upgrade over Qianfan-OCR.
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....