Audio and text conversation model that reasons before answering, with function calling and JSON output.
StepFunText Generation256K contextReleased Sep 9, 2026InternationalProprietary EndpointNewAudio and text conversation model that reasons before answering, with function calling and JSON output.
Text output is exposed through Chat Completions, Responses, Messages, and Gemini-compatible generateContent. Linkup web search is available through web_search_linkup for text prompts and adds $0.013 per call when invoked.
Also known as StepFun StepAudio 3 Chat
stepaudio-3-chat/v1/chat/completionsstepaudio-3-chat-previewstepfun/stepaudio-3-chatLive pay-as-you-go rates from the EmpirioLabs catalog. You are billed only for what you use, with no monthly minimum.
StepAudio 3 Chat serves the OpenAI-compatible Chat Completions API. Point any OpenAI SDK at https://api.empiriolabs.ai/v1 with your EmpirioLabs API key and use the model id stepaudio-3-chat. Get an API key from the EmpirioLabs dashboard.
curl https://api.empiriolabs.ai/v1/chat/completions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $EMPIRIOLABS_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"model": "stepaudio-3-chat",
"messages": [
{"role": "user", "content": "Write a haiku about the ocean."}
]
}'from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(
base_url="https://api.empiriolabs.ai/v1",
api_key="YOUR_EMPIRIOLABS_API_KEY",
)
response = client.chat.completions.create(
model="stepaudio-3-chat",
messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Write a haiku about the ocean."}],
)
print(response.choices[0].message.content)Request parameters supported by the StepAudio 3 Chat API on EmpirioLabs. Defaults apply when a field is omitted.
| Parameter | Type | Default | Range / values | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| temperature | number | 0.5 | 0 to 2 | Sampling temperature. |
| top_p | number | 0.9 | 0 to 1 | Nucleus sampling probability mass. |
| max_tokens | integer | 4096 | 1 to 131072 | Maximum output tokens. Reasoning tokens count toward this limit, so a small budget can be spent entirely on thinking and return an empty answer. Leave unset for a... |
| stop | array | - | - | Stop sequences. |
| frequency_penalty | number | 0 | 0 to 1 | Penalty for repeated tokens. |
| modalities | array | ["text"] | - | Response modalities. Text output is currently exposed. |
| response_format | object | - | - | OpenAI-compatible response format. Use {"type":"json_object"} for JSON object mode. |
| reasoning_format | enum | general | general, deepseek-style | Reasoning trace format returned by StepFun. |
| tools | array | - | - | OpenAI-compatible function tools. |
| tool_choice | string | - | - | OpenAI-compatible tool choice. |
| web_search_linkup | boolean | false | - | Optional web search powered by Linkup. When enabled, recent web sources are retrieved using your latest user message as the query and provided to the model as additional context. Adds $0.013 per call when invoked on top of the model's normal token cost. Disabled by default. |
| disable_formatting | boolean | false | - | When enabled, the gateway will not append the "Sources" footer to assistant responses that used Linkup web search. Useful when the model output is piped to another... |
Accepts text and audio input and replies with text. The model reasons before answering and returns its reasoning alongside the answer, and those reasoning tokens bill as output tokens. Because reasoning consumes the output budget, a small max_tokens can be spent entirely on thinking and return an empty answer; leave max_tokens unset for a sensible default, or allow at least a few thousand tokens. Function calling and JSON object output are supported. Linkup web search is available for text prompts. This model is in preview and its capabilities may change.
On EmpirioLabs, StepAudio 3 Chat is billed pay as you go: Input $1.50 per 1M prompt tokens; Output $3.50 per 1M generated tokens; Implicit cache read $0.30 per 1M cached input tokens; Web Search (Linkup) $0.013 per call when invoked. The live rate card on this page always matches what the API charges.
StepAudio 3 Chat supports a 256K-token context window with up to 131,072 output tokens per response.
Yes. StepAudio 3 Chat serves the OpenAI-compatible Chat Completions API, so existing OpenAI SDKs work by pointing base_url at https://api.empiriolabs.ai/v1 and setting the model id to stepaudio-3-chat.
Yes. The EmpirioLabs playground runs StepAudio 3 Chat in the browser with the same parameters the API exposes, so you can test prompts before writing code.
Create an EmpirioLabs account, then generate a key under API Keys in the dashboard. Billing is pay-as-you-go credits, so you only pay for the requests you make.
Check out our pricing or reach out if you want your own model deployed on our stack.
