Step 5 Preview vs Kimi K3
Step 5 Preview took 10 min 44 s and $0.33 at list price, Kimi K3 took 22 min 52 s and $1.92 at list price. Kimi K3 took 2.1× as long and cost 5.8× as much.
Step 5 Preview
StepFun · $2.70/M out · 155 HN pts
Kimi K3
Moonshot AI · $15.00/M out · 9,870 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 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.
Patchbay is a small workshop in Rotterdam where old synthesizers come back to life. We are three people — a former recording engineer, a self-taught circuit obsessive, and a classically trained pianist who fell in love with broken machines — and between us we have spent decades coaxing sound out of equipment the rest of the world gave up on.
We started Patchbay because we kept meeting the same problem: beloved instruments sitting silent in attics and studio corners, written off as unfixable. A Juno with a dead voice chip. A Prophet that drifts out of tune. A Moog that hums when it shouldn't. To us, none of these are lost causes. They are instruments with history in them, and they deserve careful hands, original parts where possible, and honest work.
Every synth that leaves our bench is played, tested, and listened to — because that is what it was made for.
Specs and numbers
| Step 5 Preview | Kimi K3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | StepFun | Moonshot AI |
| Made in | China | China |
| Released | 8 Oct 2026 | 16 Jul 2026 |
| Price in, per M tokens | $1.00 | $0.192 |
| Price out, per M tokens | $2.70 | $15.00 |
| Context | 1,048,576 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Weights | open | open |
| Hacker News points | 155 | 9,870 |
| Time for the six prompts | 10 min 44 s | 22 min 52 s |
| List price of the six prompts | $0.33 | $1.92 |
Step 5 Preview was cheaper: $1.59 less at list price, and less on each of the 6 prompts. Step 5 Preview was faster: 12 min 8 s less in total, and faster on 4 of the 6 prompts.
In the recording, both Breakout games play.
Rebuild this screen experiment: Kimi K3's rebuild matched the screenshot at 68%; Step 5 Preview was not in it. Tea Garden experiment: Kimi K3's game passed 5 of 5 checks; Step 5 Preview was not in it.





