• Updated 1 Nov, 10:02 UTC
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Step 5 Preview vs Claude Sonnet 5.5

6 prompts both ran·Specs and numbers·Change models

Step 5 Preview took 10 min 44 s and $0.33 at list price, Claude Sonnet 5.5 took 3 min 49 s and $0.34 at list price. Step 5 Preview took 2.8× as long, and both cost about the same.

Step 5 Preview

StepFun · $2.70/M out · 155 HN pts

Claude Sonnet 5.5

Anthropic · $10.00/M out · 9 HN pts

Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 has CLI runs here (Claude Code).

Pelican

Generate an SVG of a pelican riding a bicycle

Step 5 Preview's SVG for the "Pelican riding a bicycle" prompt

Step 5 Preview

32 s$0.0196.9k tokensAPI
Claude Sonnet 5.5's SVG for the "Pelican riding a bicycle" prompt

Claude Sonnet 5.5

12 s$0.0131.3k tokensCLI

Watch

Draw a mechanical wristwatch that shows the current local time, with a sweeping seconds hand and a date window. Make it look expensive.

Still of Step 5 Preview's page for the "Wristwatch that shows the current time" prompt

Step 5 Preview

22 s$0.0134.9k tokensAPI
Still of Claude Sonnet 5.5's page for the "Wristwatch that shows the current time" prompt

Claude Sonnet 5.5

42 s$0.0656.5k tokensCLI

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.

Still of Step 5 Preview's page for the "Landing page for a cargo bike workshop" prompt

Step 5 Preview

4 min 7 s$0.1453k tokensAPI
Still of Claude Sonnet 5.5's page for the "Landing page for a cargo bike workshop" prompt

Claude Sonnet 5.5

1 min 37 s$0.1616k tokensCLI

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.

Still of Step 5 Preview's page for the "Playable Breakout" prompt

Step 5 Preview

1 min 55 s$0.06825k tokensAPI
Still of Claude Sonnet 5.5's page for the "Playable Breakout" prompt

Claude Sonnet 5.5

53 s$0.0838.3k tokensCLI

Design a logo for Night Heron, an independent bookshop that only opens after dark.

Step 5 Preview's SVG for the "Bookshop logo" prompt

Step 5 Preview

3 min 41 s$0.08431k tokensAPI
Claude Sonnet 5.5's SVG for the "Bookshop logo" prompt

Claude Sonnet 5.5

17 s$0.0202.0k tokensCLI

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 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.

Step 5 Preview

7 s$0.003919 tokensAPI

Patchbay is three people in a workshop in Rotterdam, trying to keep old synthesizers alive. We repair, restore and recalibrate the instruments that shaped electronic music: Moogs and Oberheims, Rolands and Sequential Circuits, the odd temperamental Soviet oddity that someone found in an attic.

Most of what lands on our benches has been silent for years. A crackling pot, a drifting oscillator, a power supply that gave up in 1994. Some come from working musicians who need their instrument back before the next tour. Others come from people who inherited a dusty box from a parent and want to hear what it sounds like.

We work slowly and by hand. We trace faults with a scope and a schematic, source or rebuild parts when originals are gone, and change as little as we can. Every synth leaves with a note describing exactly what we did, so the next person to open it knows where we have been.

Come by, bring your synth, and stay for coffee.

Claude Sonnet 5.5

7 s$0.005475 tokensCLI

Specs and numbers

Step 5 PreviewClaude Sonnet 5.5
MakerStepFunAnthropic
Made inChinaUS
Released8 Oct 202628 Sep 2026
Price in, per M tokens$1.00$2.00
Price out, per M tokens$2.70$10.00
Context1,048,576 tokens1,000,000 tokens
Weightsopenclosed
Hacker News points1559
Time for the six prompts10 min 44 s3 min 49 s
List price of the six prompts$0.33$0.34

Both cost about the same at list price: $0.33 and $0.34. Claude Sonnet 5.5 was faster: 6 min 55 s less in total, and faster on 4 of the 6 prompts.

In the recording, both Breakout games play.

Rebuild this screen experiment: Claude Sonnet 5.5's rebuild matched the screenshot at 94%; Step 5 Preview was not in it. Tea Garden experiment: Claude Sonnet 5.5's game passed 5 of 5 checks; Step 5 Preview was not in it.

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