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Qwen3.8 Max vs Step 5 Preview

Compare Qwen3.8 Max from Qwen and Step 5 Preview from StepFun on key metrics including benchmarks, price, context length, and other model features. Access both models and hundreds of others through the AIHubMix API.

QwenQwen3.8 MaxStepFunStep 5 Preview
Qwen logo
Qwen3.8 Max
Qwen · text, image, video → text

Qwen3.8-Max is Alibaba Cloud Tongyi Qianwen's next-generation flagship large language model, featuring a mixture-of-experts (MoE) architecture with 2.4 trillion parameters. It achieves another breakthrough in encoding depth, enabling it to handle more complex engineering-grade projects and long-term autonomous development; collaborative agent capabilities are significantly enhanced, performing more confidently in multi-tool orchestration and end-to-end delivery; visual understanding is comprehensively improved, with more sensitive and accurate chart reasoning, document parsing, and multimodal perception. Continuing the 1-million-context window, reasoning modes, and a complete tool ecosystem, it continues to evolve at a higher level of intelligence.

Input$1.69 /M
Output$5.07 /M
Cache read$0.169 /M
StepFun logo
Step 5 Preview
StepFun · text, image, video → text

Step 5 Preview is StepFun's next-generation flagship base model designed for real-world tasks, with a focus on programming and professional expertise.

Input$1.08 /M
Output$3.0888 /M
Cache read$0.054 /M

Pricing & Specifications

Prices are per million tokens. Time to First Token and throughput are rolling averages measured on AIHubMix.

Qwen3.8 Max
Step 5 Preview
Input /M
$1.69
$1.08
Output /M
$5.07
$3.0888
Cache read /M
$0.169
$0.054
Context length
1,000,000
1,000,000
Max output
131,072
64,000
Time to First Token
12.5 s
5.2 s
Throughput
28.4 tok/s
45.2 tok/s
Modalities
textimagevideo
textimagevideo
Supported Parameters
toolsfunction callingstructured outputsweblong contextthinking
API Formats
Released
August 3, 2026
September 20, 2026

Promotional prices show the discounted rate; see each model page for promotion windows.

Activity Past 30 Days

Daily traffic served through AIHubMix — how demand for each model is trending.

qwen3.8-maxstep-5-preview

Tokens / day

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Requests / day

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Performance Past 3 Days

Measured on real AIHubMix traffic, hourly buckets. Gaps mean no traffic in that hour.

qwen3.8-maxstep-5-preview

Throughput (tok/s)

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TTFT (s)

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Uptime (%)

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LMArena Benchmarks

LMArena ratings by capability (Bradley-Terry, commonly called Elo). Higher is better.

Text
qwen3.8-maxstep-5-preview
14201440146014801500
Overall
14471482
Vision
qwen3.8-maxstep-5-preview
122012601300
Overall
12501301

Source: LMArena (arena.ai) leaderboard, imported by AIHubMix. Models without published ratings are omitted per chart.

Cost calculator

Estimate your monthly bill for the same workload on each model.

Step 5 Preview
$111 /mo
Qwen3.8 Max
$177 /mo

Monthly = daily × 30. Discounted rates applied where a promotion is active.

FAQ

Which is cheaper: Qwen3.8 Max, Step 5 Preview?

Step 5 Preview: $3.0888/M output tokens; Qwen3.8 Max: $5.07/M. Use the cost calculator above to estimate your own workload.

Which responds faster?

Step 5 Preview: 5.2s time to first token measured on AIHubMix; see the live performance charts above for how each model behaves across the day.

How large is each context window?

Qwen3.8 Max accepts 1,000,000 and Step 5 Preview accepts 1,000,000 input tokens. Maximum output per request is 131,072 tokens on Qwen3.8 Max and 64,000 tokens on Step 5 Preview.

Which one generates tokens faster?

Step 5 Preview at 45.2 tok/s and Qwen3.8 Max at 28.4 tok/s, measured as output throughput on AIHubMix — a separate metric from time to first token.

What inputs and capabilities does each model support?

Qwen3.8 Max accepts text, image and video input and supports tool calling, function calling, structured outputs, web search, long context and thinking; Step 5 Preview accepts text, image and video input.

Can I call Qwen3.8 Max and Step 5 Preview with the same API key?

Yes. AIHubMix serves every model on this page behind one OpenAI-compatible endpoint, so switching between them is a one-line change to the model field — no second account, key or SDK.

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