API cost decision in 10 seconds

🔥Hy3 preview vs NewStep 3.7 Flash

Pick Hy3 preview when budget and context both matter.

Page updated:  Data confirmed:  Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

Pick Hy3 preview when budget and context both matter.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Hy3 preview is estimated at $0.17 vs $0.77 for Step 3.7 Flash, saving $0.61 (78.3% lower).

Cost-first pickHy3 preview
Context-first pickHy3 preview
Sample savings$0.6178.3%
10x traffic gap$6.07

Hy3 preview is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $6.07. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.

Cost sensitivity

Workload Sensitivity

Same prices, different token mixes.

Hy3 preview stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.

Workload shapeToken mixBetter pickHy3 previewStep 3.7 Flash
Input-heavy / RAG5M input + 500K outputHy3 preview$0.42$1.57
Balanced workload1M input + 1M outputHy3 preview$0.27$1.35
Output-heavy chatbot1M input + 5M outputHy3 preview$1.11$5.95
Cheaper input Hy3 preview $0.063 vs $0.2 / 1M

Hy3 preview is $0.14 cheaper per 1M input tokens (68.5% lower; 3.17x difference).

Cheaper output Hy3 preview $0.21 vs $1.15 / 1M

Hy3 preview is $0.94 cheaper per 1M output tokens (81.7% lower; 5.48x difference).

Larger context Hy3 preview 262.14K vs 256K

Hy3 preview has 6.14K more context (1.02x larger).

Sample workload Hy3 preview $0.17 vs $0.77

Hy3 preview is $0.61 cheaper on the standard workload (78.3% lower).

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.
Hy3 preview Calculating… Estimated API cost
Step 3.7 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

Hy3 preview has the lower input price; Hy3 preview has the lower output price; Hy3 preview offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Hy3 preview is cheaper for the standard workload.

For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $0.17 for Hy3 preview and $0.77 for Step 3.7 Flash.

Best Fit

Choose Hy3 preview when you care most about lower input-token price, lower output-token price, and larger context window.

Choose Step 3.7 Flash when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.

Decision Notes
  • On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Hy3 preview is estimated at $0.17 vs $0.77 for Step 3.7 Flash, saving $0.61 (78.3% lower).
  • Hy3 preview is $0.61 cheaper on the standard workload (78.3% lower).
  • Hy3 preview is $0.14 cheaper per 1M input tokens (68.5% lower; 3.17x difference).
  • Hy3 preview is $0.94 cheaper per 1M output tokens (81.7% lower; 5.48x difference).
  • Hy3 preview has 6.14K more context (1.02x larger).
Head-to-Head Specs
Feature🔥Hy3 preview
(Tencent)
NewStep 3.7 Flash
(StepFun)
Input Price
prompt tokens per 1M
$0.063$0.2
Completion Price
per 1M tokens
$0.21$1.15
Sample Workload Cost
1M input + 500K output
$0.17$0.77
Context Window262.14K256K
Release Date
Popularity#1#101

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use caseBetter pickWhy
Budget-constrained productionHy3 previewOn the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Hy3 preview is estimated at $0.17 vs $0.77 for Step 3.7 Flash, saving $0.61 (78.3% lower).
High-volume input processingHy3 previewLower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbotsHy3 previewLower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document workHy3 previewA larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files.

Related Alternatives

Same-provider lower-cost swaps
  • Step 3.5 Flash can replace Step 3.7 Flash when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.24.
Larger context near this budget
  • Llama 4 Scout offers 10M context with $0.23 sample workload cost.
  • Owl Alpha offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
  • DeepSeek V4 Flash offers 1.05M context with $0.2 sample workload cost.
  • MiMo-V2.5 offers 1.05M context with $0.28 sample workload cost.

Cheaper alternatives

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

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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

Tencent catalog

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

Open Tencent models

StepFun catalog

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

Open StepFun models
Hy3 preview

Hy3 preview is a high-efficiency Mixture-of-Experts model from Tencent designed for agentic workflows and production use. It supports configurable reasoning levels across disabled, low, and high modes, allowing it to...

Step 3.7 Flash

Step 3.7 Flash is StepFun's latest high-efficiency multimodal Mixture-of-Experts model. It pairs a 196B-parameter language backbone with a vision encoder for native image and video understanding, activating roughly 11B parameters...