Kilo Code offers StepFun Step 5 Preview free for one week
Kilo Code just added Step 5 Preview as a free model (stepfun/step-5-preview-free), with $0 input and output. StepFun is running a one-week free window starting October 8, expected to end around October 15. Sign in to Kilo to pick this 1M-context flagship model in VS Code, JetBrains, or the CLI.
The briefing
Kilo Code added StepFun's flagship agentic model Step 5 Preview to its model list on October 8 as a free option. The model id is stepfun/step-5-preview-free, and both input and output are billed at $0. StepFun is running a one-week free window, and OpenCode and Cline opened free access during the same week.
What you can use
The free version runs through the Kilo Gateway. You can pick it in the VS Code extension, the JetBrains plugin, and the CLI. The free window started on October 8 and is expected to end around October 15.
You need a Kilo account to use it, but no credit card and no API key of your own. Some free models are rate limited by the upstream provider; if you hit a limit, switch to another free model for a while. Requests on the free version may be used for model training, so use the paid version for confidential code.
The paid version of the same model costs $1 per million input tokens and $2.70 per million output tokens in Kilo, so the free version saves you that during the window.
Specs and public benchmarks
Step 5 Preview is a sparse mixture-of-experts model with 600B total parameters, of which 27B are active per token. The free version in Kilo keeps the 1M-token context window and up to 64K output tokens, reads text and images, and supports tool calls with three reasoning levels. StepFun aims it at software engineering and professional knowledge work, with financial analysis as a particular strength, and plans to release the weights on October 15.
In StepFun's published results, Step 5 Preview scores 67.7 on DeepSWE v1.1, 80.5 on ProgramBench, and 66.4 on FrontierFinance, ahead of Kimi K3 and GLM-5.3 on all three. It scores 44 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.
More on the model: StepFun Step 5 Preview · StepFun's announcement.
How to use it
- Install Kilo Code in VS Code or JetBrains and sign in. Open the model picker below the chat box, type free, and select StepFun: Step 5 Preview (free).
- In the CLI, run
kilo, enter/models, and search for free to find the same model.
Docs: Using Kilo for free · Kilo free models. Also free this week: Step 5 Preview on OpenCode Zen · Step 5 Preview on Cline.