Pareto 26.9 vs Step 5 Preview
Pareto 26.9 took 10 min 32 s and $0.34 at list price, Step 5 Preview took 10 min 44 s and $0.33 at list price. Both took about as long, and both cost about the same.
Pareto 26.9
Unbiased · $7.50/M out
Step 5 Preview
StepFun · $2.70/M out · 155 HN pts
Pelican
Generate an SVG of a pelican riding a bicycle
Watch
Draw a mechanical wristwatch that shows the current local time, with a sweeping seconds hand and a date window. Make it look expensive.
Landing
Build the landing page for Lumen Cycles, a Copenhagen workshop that builds custom cargo bikes to order. Make it look like a real brand you would trust with 4,000 euros.
Breakout
Make a Breakout game I can play right now with the keyboard or the mouse. Give it several levels, a score and some juice.
Logo
Design a logo for Night Heron, an independent bookshop that only opens after dark.
About
Write the opening of the About us page for Patchbay, a three-person studio in Rotterdam that repairs vintage synthesizers. About 150 words.
Patchbay is a small workshop in the heart of Rotterdam, where three people spend their days elbow-deep in the guts of vintage synthesizers. We fix the machines that made the sounds you grew up with—the ones that shaped entire genres and then got left in basements when the tech moved on. But we're not a museum. Our benches are covered in solder, schematics, and the occasional broken key that's been there for two weeks longer than we'd like to admit.
We started this studio because we got tired of seeing classic gear being stripped for parts, or worse, turned into Instagram decor. These instruments deserve better. They were built to make noise, and we want to keep them doing exactly that.
Between the three of us, we've fixed everything from a 1960s Buchla to a beat-up Juno that fell down a flight of stairs. If you've got a synth that's gone quiet, bring it in. We'll bring it back.
Patchbay is a three-person workshop based in Rotterdam, dedicated to keeping vintage synthesizers alive and playable. We are technicians, musicians, and obsessive tinkerers who believe that classic analog instruments deserve better than silence. From temperamental Jupiter-8s to worn-out ARP Odysseys, we restore, repair, and maintain the machines that shaped the sound of modern music. Every repair starts with listening—both to the instrument and to the person who plays it. Whether you are chasing a rare fault, need a full calibration, or simply want your old synth to feel new again, our bench is open. We understand that no two synthesizers arrive with the same story, and we treat each circuit, slider, and key with the care its history deserves. At Patchbay, we are here to make sure the sounds of tomorrow are built on those that came before.
Specs and numbers
| Pareto 26.9 | Step 5 Preview | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Unbiased | StepFun |
| Made in | — | China |
| Released | 13 Oct 2026 | 8 Oct 2026 |
| Price in, per M tokens | $2.50 | $1.00 |
| Price out, per M tokens | $7.50 | $2.70 |
| Context | 262,144 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Weights | closed | open |
| Hacker News points | — | 155 |
| Time for the six prompts | 10 min 32 s | 10 min 44 s |
| List price of the six prompts | $0.34 | $0.33 |
Both cost about the same at list price: $0.34 and $0.33. Both took about as long in total, and each was faster on 3 of the 6 prompts.
In the recording, both Breakout games play. Pareto 26.9's landing page was cut off at the output limit (12,000 tokens).





