Head to head · LLM inference · October 2026 research run
Eden AI vs StepFun API
Eden AI scores 59.9 (C) on agent readiness against StepFun API's 44.3 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do llm inference.
Best model APIs and inference for AI agents · All 830 models comparisons
Which one, for what
Eden AI C
Best for Teams that want one key and bill for many LLMs plus OCR, speech, translation and web tools, with EU-only processing.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 33 against 28
- Schema & documentation, 81 against 53
- Agent ergonomics, 75 against 68
- Security & auth, 82 against 41
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 58 against 50
Watch for
No public status page, incident history or SLA found
Best for Long-context agent and coding work over text, screenshots and video at a low per-token price, where a preview model is acceptable.
No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.
Watch for
Step 5 Preview is labelled a preview, and no release date or support commitment was found
Why the edge
Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.
Security & auth Eden AI +41
Eden AI 82
Router, read on the model lines. Bearer keys with per-key budgets, expiry and attribution, a key management API, and deny-by-default guardrails that limit models per member, role or key (25). The data retention page says request and response content isn't stored and data isn't used to train models by default (18). Content logging is opt-in, async results are deleted after 7 days, and an organisation can enforce Zero Data Retention and region rules; the EU endpoint refuses non-EU models with 451 (13). Cost and provider per response, and a monitoring dashboard by key (12). The security page says Eden AI is SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certified and links a trust centre; /.well-known/security.txt returns 404 and no disclosure policy was found (14). 25+18+13+12+14 = 82.
StepFun API 41
Model reading. Bearer API keys, revocable by deletion. Organisations can create one key per project, billed to a project's credit with a per-member cap. No scopes or read-only keys found (20 of 30). Training on API data is not off by default in plain words. The privacy policy (effective 7 August 2026) says StepFun may use and retain data to improve its models, including training and fine-tuning where law and program terms permit, and the terms name early-access programmes as one such case. No opt-out found (5 of 20). No retention period for prompts and outputs and no zero-retention option. IP addresses are kept three years (3 of 15). The console's usage details list each billed call by key, model and date, with export (8 of 15). No security.txt, bug bounty or certification found. A DPA with breach notification exists (5 of 20).
Schema & documentation Eden AI +28
Eden AI 81
Router, scored on the API lines. OpenAPI 3.1 document for v3 (version 3.0.0, 46 paths) at api.edenai.run/v3/docs/openapi.json, plus a management API spec (25). llms.txt on the site and in the docs, llms-full.txt and Markdown pages (10). llms.txt states when to use Eden AI and when not to, and the docs separate chat models from expert models (17). Requests follow the OpenAI shape, and expert-model tools on the MCP server carry JSON Schema inputs (12). Examples throughout, but the spec documents only 200, 201, 202, 302 and 422, while llms.txt names 401 and 451 for region refusals (10). Versioned /v3 path, but no public changelog was found (7). 25+10+17+12+10+7 = 81.
StepFun API 53
No OpenAPI or similar machine-readable contract found. The API reference is Markdown pages (0). llms.txt at platform.stepfun.ai/docs/llms.txt, and every page has a Markdown copy (10). The Chat Completions reference describes each parameter with its default, and the model page lists what Step 5 Preview supports, but little on when not to use an option (12 of 20). Tool definitions take JSON Schema parameters, structured output takes a JSON Schema with strict: true, and reasoning_effort is an enum of low, medium and high. No tool_choice parameter is documented (11 of 15). Worked requests and responses on each page, and an error table of eight codes with causes and fixes, but no error bodies (12 of 15). No API changelog. A model lifecycle page with dated retirements and announcement pages (8 of 15).
Payments & pricing Eden AI +10
Eden AI 30
No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Provider prices with no markup plus a 5.5% platform fee, published per model in the keyless catalogue (20). llms.txt says some models are billed $0 for tests, but whether a new account can call them without buying credits isn't stated (10). A person signs up in a browser and buys credits through Stripe (0). 0+20+10+0 = 30.
StepFun API 20
No machine payment protocol (0). Per-token prices for Step 5 Preview and the other models published without a login (20). No free API allowance found. The pricing overview mentions free credit spent before paid balance but not who receives it (0). Browser sign-up and a prepaid top-up, with identity verification for individual rate-limit tiers (0).
Maintenance & community Eden AI +8
Eden AI 58
Closed service, read on the model lines. The docs repository changed on 5 and 6 November 2026, including retiring Nova Reel and Veo from video generation, and the terms were updated 22 October (30). No public changelog, so dated API changes in the last 90 days come only from docs commits (12 of 20). Chat support within 48 working hours, no public changelog (8). No SDK of its own, and the MCP server isn't in the official MCP registry (5). Nothing to judge package health by beyond the docs repository (3). 30+12+8+5+3 = 58.
StepFun API 50
Model reading. The image models step-2x-large and step-image-edit-2 were retired on 10 October 2026, and a Step 5 Preview price change is announced for 14 October (30). No stated notice period. The 10 October image retirement had a dated notice page and the July retirements a migration table, but we couldn't date when either notice went up (4 of 12). One retirement date in the last 90 days, 10 October, with nine models retired on 8 July just outside that window (6 of 8). Dated announcements, a Discord server and platform@stepfun.com for support. We didn't test whether either answers (10 of 15). No official SDK (0 of 15, 0 of 10).
Agent ergonomics Eden AI +7
Eden AI 75
Router, read on the model lines. Chat completions, Responses and an Anthropic Messages route in the OpenAI shape, with tool calling depending on the routed model (14 of 20) and structured output likewise (10 of 15). Caching is named in the terms as part of the service, without a per-model price table we read (8 of 15). Context depends on the model; the keyless /v3/models catalogue lists capabilities, prices and regions per model so an agent can choose (12 of 15). A Batches API (10 of 10). No SDK of its own; the docs use the OpenAI Python and TypeScript SDKs, and a hosted MCP server exposes about 40 expert-model tools plus upload_file, check_job and list_models (21 of 25). 14+10+8+12+10+21 = 75.
StepFun API 68
Model reading of the checklist (tool use, structured output, caching, context, batch, SDKs, errors). Tool calls through Chat Completions, Responses and Messages, with no documented way to force or forbid a call (15 of 20). Strict JSON Schema output on Step 5 Preview (13 of 15). Prompt caching with a published cache-hit price at a tenth of the miss price (15). 1M-token context and 64k output (15). No batch endpoint found (0). No official SDK. The docs use the OpenAI and Anthropic clients against compatible endpoints (0). Eight error codes with a fix each, plus finish_reason handling for length, content filter and tool calls (10 of 15).
Reliability Eden AI +5
Eden AI 33
Router, read on the hosted lines. No status page is linked from the site or docs, and status.edenai.co didn't resolve for us on 6 November 2026 (0). No incident history to read (5). The rate-limits page gives 10 requests a second per account, shared across keys, while the plans page gives 7 a second, raisable to 15, so the figure is documented but inconsistent (10). Fallback retries the next model or provider on a 429 or error inside one request, but no client-facing 429 or Retry-After guidance was found (8). No SLA published; 'Dedicated support & SLA' is listed only for the custom Advanced plan, and the pricing page's '99.99%' uptime is a claim without a status page behind it (0). The v3 API is GA (10). 0+5+10+8+0+10 = 33.
StepFun API 28
No status page read. status.stepfun.ai refused our reader by robots.txt and the shell couldn't connect, so we couldn't establish whether it is a status page or read any history. Scored absent for both lines, with 5 for unreadable history, and named in the open questions (0 + 5). Rate limits published with numbers per tier, from 5 concurrent, 100 RPM and 500,000 TPM to 130, 2,600 and 13,000,000 (15). The error and exception guides say to retry 429, 500, 503 and 504 after a short delay, with no Retry-After header, backoff schedule or idempotency guidance (8 of 15). No SLA found in the terms or pricing (0). Step 5 Preview is labelled a preview (0).
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Eden AI | StepFun API | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 33 | 28 | Eden AI +5 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 81 | 53 | Eden AI +28 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 75 | 68 | Eden AI +7 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 82 | 41 | Eden AI +41 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 30 | 20 | Eden AI +10 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 58 | 50 | Eden AI +8 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 55 | 57 | StepFun API +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | C 59.9/100 | E 44.3/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Eden AI | StepFun API |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Model router | Model API |
| Vendor | Eden AI SAS | StepFun |
| Hosted endpoint | https://mcp.edenai.run/mcp | https://api.stepfun.ai/v1 |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | Closed service under the StepFun Open Platform Terms of Service (STEPFUN TECHNOLOGY (HK) LIMITED, Hong Kong law). |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-11-05 | none |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-22 | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-10-22 | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.3/5 (4) |
How the scores have moved
Eden AI
No score change since it was listed.
Verdicts
Eden AI
Eden AI gives one OpenAI-compatible key to about 1,000 models and expert models such as OCR, speech and translation, with an EU-only endpoint, per-key guardrails and no stored content by default. No status page, SLA or changelog was found, and its own pages disagree on the default rate limit.
StepFun API
StepFun's API serves Step 5 Preview with a 1M-token context, video input, strict JSON Schema output and published per-token prices, documented in Markdown with an llms.txt. The model is a preview with no release date found, there's no free allowance or SLA, and the terms and privacy policy leave room to train on customer data.
Before you call either
Eden AI
- Read GET https://api.edenai.run/v3/models at run time for model ids, prices and regions instead of hard-coding them
- Use https://api.eu.edenai.run/v3 when data must stay in the EU, and pick another model on a 451 region_not_allowed
- Set max_tokens to 500 or more for reasoning models, or the answer can come back empty
- Pass a fallbacks list so a provider 429 or error retries inside one request
- Poll check_job for MCP tools marked long-running instead of calling them again
StepFun API
- Set
max_tokensyourself. It defaults to unlimited on Step 5 Preview, and reasoning tokens are billed as output - Use
response_formatwithtype: json_schemaandstrict: truewhen the shape matters. JSON Mode alone isn't schema-checked - Back off and retry on 429, 500, 503 and 504. The docs give no Retry-After header or backoff schedule
- Expect HTTP 451 or
finish_reason: content_filterwhen content fails StepFun's review, and don't retry the same input - Use api.stepfun.ai for the international platform. api.stepfun.com is the China platform with yuan pricing
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Eden AI or StepFun API?
Eden AI scores 59.9 (C) on agent readiness against StepFun API's 44.3 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.
Do Eden AI and StepFun API need an API key?
Both need an API key.
Can an agent call Eden AI and StepFun API without installing anything?
Yes. Eden AI has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.edenai.run/mcp and StepFun API at https://api.stepfun.ai/v1.
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- Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs Eden AI
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- DeepInfra vs Eden AI
- DeepInfra vs StepFun API
- DeepSeek API vs Eden AI
- DeepSeek API vs StepFun API
- Eden AI vs Glimpse
- Eden AI vs Fireworks AI Inference
- Eden AI vs Gemini Developer API
- Eden AI vs GroqCloud
- Eden AI vs Inkling 2 Small
- Eden AI vs Jais 3
- Eden AI vs Meta Model API
- Eden AI vs MiniMax API
- Eden AI vs Mistral AI API
- Eden AI vs Muse Spark Open
- Eden AI vs Nemotron 3.5 Super VL
- Eden AI vs Novita AI
- Eden AI vs OpenAI API
- Eden AI vs Prism Inference
- Eden AI vs Beam 1.0
- Eden AI vs SambaCloud
- Eden AI vs SiliconFlow
- Eden AI vs Simplismart
- Eden AI vs SWE-2 Flash
- Eden AI vs Together AI Inference
- Eden AI vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)
- Eden AI vs xAI API (Grok)
- Glimpse vs StepFun API
- Fireworks AI Inference vs StepFun API
- Gemini Developer API vs StepFun API
- GroqCloud vs StepFun API
- Hugging Face Inference Providers vs StepFun API
- Inkling 2 Small vs StepFun API
- Jais 3 vs StepFun API
- Meta Model API vs StepFun API
- MiniMax API vs StepFun API
- Mistral AI API vs StepFun API
- Muse Spark Open vs StepFun API
- Nemotron 3.5 Super VL vs StepFun API
- Novita AI vs StepFun API
- OpenAI API vs StepFun API
- OpenRouter vs StepFun API
- Prism Inference vs StepFun API
- Router.com (Ramp Router) vs StepFun API
- Beam 1.0 vs StepFun API
- RouterPlus vs StepFun API
- SambaCloud vs StepFun API
- SiliconFlow vs StepFun API
- Simplismart vs StepFun API
- StepFun API vs SWE-2 Flash
- StepFun API vs Tencent Cloud TokenHub
- StepFun API vs Together AI Inference
- StepFun API vs Vercel AI Gateway
- StepFun API vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)
- StepFun API vs xAI API (Grok)
- Antseed vs Eden AI
- Eden AI vs Hugging Face Inference Providers
- Eden AI vs LiteLLM
- Eden AI vs OpenRouter
- Eden AI vs Router.com (Ramp Router)
- Eden AI vs RouterPlus
- Eden AI vs Tencent Cloud TokenHub
- Eden AI vs Vercel AI Gateway
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/eden-ai-vs-stepfun-api.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/eden-ai.json·/api/v1/tools/stepfun-api.json - From a terminal
anchor compare eden-ai stepfun-api(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "eden-ai", "b": "stepfun-api"}at/mcp, no key