For 10,000 requests of 2,000 tokens in and 500 out, Step 5 Preview costs 38% less than GLM-5.3 on Zurelay: $8.40 against $13.65. Both are below their labs' list prices: 75% for Step 5 Preview and 73% for GLM-5.3.
Side by side
| Step 5 Preview | GLM-5.3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Lab | StepFun | Z.ai |
| Released | Sep 20, 2026 | Aug 14, 2026 |
| Context window | 1M tokens | 1M tokens |
| Max output | 64K tokens | 128K tokens |
| Reads | Text, Images | Text |
| Reasoning levels | low, medium, high | low, high, max |
| Price per 1M, in / out | $0.25 / $0.68 | $0.38 / $1.21 |
| Lab list price | $1.00 / $2.70 | $1.40 / $4.40 |
| Cached input per 1M | $0.025 | $0.038 |
| 10K typical requests | $8.40 | $13.65 |
Prices in US dollars per 1M tokens on Zurelay, live from the catalog. A typical request is 2,000 tokens in and 500 out. Output limits are each lab's.
What they're for
Step 5 Preview is StepFun's flagship model for agentic work: software engineering, long tool-calling tasks and professional knowledge work, with particular strength in finance. The Zurelay Step 5 Preview API serves it through one OpenAI-compatible endpoint with a 1M-token context window, at 75% below StepFun's list price.
GLM-5.3 is Z.ai's flagship model for complex software engineering and long-running agents, with a 1M-token context window and up to 128K output tokens. The Zurelay GLM-5.3 API serves the same model through one OpenAI-compatible endpoint, billed per token at 73% below Z.ai's list price.
Try both
Specs don't say which model handles your work better. Send the same requests to both and compare the answers, the tokens and the bill. On Zurelay that's a change of model name.
To price a whole month, use the LLM cost calculator.
from openai import OpenAIclient = OpenAI(base_url="https://api.zurelay.com/v1", api_key="YOUR_ZURELAY_KEY")prompt = [{"role": "user", "content": "Summarize this contract: ..."}]# Same key, same code: only the model name changesfor model in ["step-5-preview", "glm-5.3"]: reply = client.chat.completions.create(model=model, messages=prompt) print(model, reply.usage.total_tokens, reply.choices[0].message.content[:200])For 10,000 requests of 2,000 tokens in and 500 out, Step 5 Preview costs 38% less than GLM-5.3 on Zurelay: $8.40 against $13.65. Per 1M tokens, Step 5 Preview is $0.25 input and $0.68 output, and GLM-5.3 is $0.38 and $1.21.
They're the same on Zurelay: 1M tokens each.
Yes. One Zurelay key calls both. With an OpenAI SDK, point it at https://api.zurelay.com/v1 and change only the model name, step-5-preview or glm-5.3, to switch.
Yes. Each model is served over several routes run by independent sellers, and every route is tested before it serves requests and every day after, with identity, dated-knowledge and reasoning checks that catch an older or different model sold under the name you asked for.
Create a key in seconds, point the SDK you already use at Zurelay, and every request costs up to 90% less from the first token.