LOADING DATASHEET
GROUNDED IN REAL HUMAN CONVERSATIONSYOUR BENCH
Step3
◆ OPEN
by StepFun
OPEN WEIGHTSLOCALAGENTS
RANKED #13 OF 328 ASSISTANTS · OVERALL #17 OF 504 RANKED · VIBE SCORE 7.0 · 2,319 VOICES ·
COPY BADGE pastes a README snippet with the rank SVG.
step3 on Hugging Face (image text to text). 70,166 downloads. Open weights for local or hosted use.
HAPPY9.6
76 mentions
SAD5.4
36 mentions
VIBE TRAJECTORY
26 weeks · 2,025 voices in this window
QUIETLY DEGRADING
Recent vibe and chatter are both sliding.
HOW TO USE IT
Open weights. You can use a hosted service, or download it and run it yourself, free.
RUN IT ON YOUR OWN MACHINE
Open weights: download Step3 once and it's yours. No subscription, no rate limits, works offline.
321B total MoE parameters (38B active), a Q4 quantization requires around 180 GB to 200 GB of memory
- BARE MINIMUM
Mac Studio M2 Ultra (192 GB Unified Memory)
192 GB UNIFIED RAM
~$5,500 NEWModel is too massive for consumer GPUs; runs tightly quantized Q3 or Q4 across unified RAM at ~4 tok/s, 8k context
- SWEET SPOT
4x NVIDIA RTX 3090 24GB Rig
96 GB VRAM + 256 GB SYSTEM RAM
~$3,800 USEDOffloaded Q4 inference across multi-GPU and system RAM, ~8 tok/s, 16k context
- FULL POWER
8x NVIDIA RTX 4090 24GB Rig
192 GB VRAM
~$16,000 NEWFP8 native MoE inference in pure VRAM via vLLM or SGLang, ~28 tok/s, 64k context
LEARN HOW TO SET IT UP
WILL MY BOX RUN STEP3?
The three cards above are researched picks. Search the machine you actually have — we only say yes if it should reply at a usable speed, not just load the weights and crawl.
HARDWARE PICKS & PRICES ARE RESEARCHED FROM THE LIVE WEB AND REFRESHED AUTOMATICALLY. TREAT THEM AS BALLPARK, NOT GOSPEL.
WHAT CAN YOU ACTUALLY DO WITH IT?
Everyday jobs on each of those rigs: how long Step3 takes, and how good the crowd says it is at that kind of work.
| THE JOB | BARE MINIMUMMac Studio M2 Ultra (192 GB Unified Memory) | SWEET SPOT4x NVIDIA RTX 3090 24GB Rig | FULL POWER8x NVIDIA RTX 4090 24GB Rig |
|---|---|---|---|
| Write an emaila paragraph or two, drafted from a one-line brief | ~2.1 MIN★★★★★ | ~63 S★★★★★ | ~18 S★★★★★ |
| Summarize a documenta long report boiled down to the points that matter | ~6.3 MIN★★★★★ | ~3.1 MIN★★★★★ | ~54 S★★★★★ |
| Build a websitea small landing page, markup and styles together | ~33 MIN★★★★★ | ~17 MIN★★★★★ | ~4.8 MIN★★★★★ |
| Build a backendan API with routes, storage and tests | ~1.7 HR★★★★★ | ~52 MIN★★★★★ | ~15 MIN★★★★★ |
| Build a gamea playable browser game in one file | ~63 MIN★★★★★ | ~31 MIN★★★★★ | ~8.9 MIN★★★★★ |
STARS ARE THE COMMUNITY SCORE FOR THAT KIND OF WORK, DOCKED FOR HOW SQUASHED THE WEIGHTS GET AT EACH TIER. TIMES ARE COMPUTED FROM RESEARCHED SPEEDS. BALLPARK, NOT GOSPEL.
WHAT THE INTERNET SAYS
People are mostly frustrated with Step3 right now. Biggest praise: writing. Biggest gripe: saying no too much.
2051 POSTS · 268 COMMENTS · DEV.TO · GITHUB · REDDIT · X · HACKER NEWS · LEMMY · BLUESKY · STACK OVERFLOW · DEV FORUMS · BLOG
PEOPLE LOVE
- Good at writing and wording things (4 mentions)
PEOPLE COMPLAIN ABOUT
- Refuses or lectures more than people like (11 mentions)
- Outages, errors, or limits get in the way (7 mentions)
- Coding help disappoints some people (5 mentions)
- People find it expensive (5 mentions)
TOPIC BY TOPIC
- Help with codeMIXED FEELINGS
6 thumbs up · 5 thumbs down
- Saying no too muchA SORE SPOT
0 thumbs up · 11 thumbs down
- Working when you need itA SORE SPOT
3 thumbs up · 7 thumbs down
- PriceA SORE SPOT
3 thumbs up · 5 thumbs down
- WritingMOSTLY POSITIVE
4 thumbs up · 2 thumbs down
- Getting facts rightMIXED FEELINGS
2 thumbs up · 3 thumbs down
- SpeedA SORE SPOT
1 thumbs up · 3 thumbs down
- Long conversationsMIXED FEELINGS
2 thumbs up · 2 thumbs down
LOOKING FOR AN ALTERNATIVE?
Other models the crowd has fully reviewed, starting with multimodal models like this one.
Grok 4.6
Qwen3.8 27B> SOURCES (12)
- REDDIT · 2025-03-22 · 2903 UPVOTESThree prompts to get ChatGPT to become an instant expert in anything.
Three prompts to get ChatGPT to become an instant expert in anything.
- REDDIT · 2024-02-09 · 1036 UPVOTES”AI shader” workflow
”AI shader” workflow
- REDDIT · 2025-10-15 · 579 UPVOTESI tested 1,000 ChatGPT prompts in 2025. Here's the exact formula that consistently beats everything else (with examples)
I tested 1,000 ChatGPT prompts in 2025. Here's the exact formula that consistently beats everything else (with examples)
- REDDIT · 2025-05-05 · 554 UPVOTESThis prompt can teach you almost everything.
This prompt can teach you almost everything.
- REDDIT · 2026-03-14 · 502 UPVOTESI built a Claude skill that writes perfect prompts and hit #1 twice on r/PromptEngineering. Here is the setup for the people who need a…
I built a Claude skill that writes perfect prompts and hit #1 twice on r/PromptEngineering. Here is the setup for the people who need a setup guide.
- X · 2026-08-14 · 433 UPVOTESSTOP PAYING FOR XAI API ⛔️ you can use grok 4.6 for free with unlimited accounts 😳 an open source project auto-register
STOP PAYING FOR XAI API ⛔️ you can use grok 4.6 for free with unlimited accounts 😳 an open source project auto-register
- REDDIT · 2023-09-29 · 423 UPVOTESHow to use IP-adapter controlnets for consistent faces
How to use IP-adapter controlnets for consistent faces
- REDDIT · 2026-02-08 · 395 UPVOTESHow to Set Up Claude Code Agent Teams (Full Walkthrough + What Actually Changed)
How to Set Up Claude Code Agent Teams (Full Walkthrough + What Actually Changed)
- REDDIT · 2026-08-16 · 371 UPVOTESThe dream is to reach 200GB VRAM
The dream is to reach 200GB VRAM
- REDDIT · 2026-05-11 · 342 UPVOTESZIT I2I "Character LORA Transformation" Workflow
ZIT I2I "Character LORA Transformation" Workflow
- REDDIT · 2025-07-29 · 326 UPVOTESNemo Engine 6.0 (The Official Release of my redesign)
Nemo Engine 6.0 (The Official Release of my redesign)
- REDDIT · 2023-11-27 · 287 UPVOTESDid I accidentally automate myself out of the job?
Did I accidentally automate myself out of the job?