Steps

How many denoising passes the model makes on its way from noise to a picture.

Costs time Costs kudos Past the point a model settles, more is not better

Typical 20-40Default 25

Each pass refines what the last one left, so more steps can mean more detail, and each one costs time and kudos.Most models stop improving somewhere between 20 and 40. Past that you are usually paying for a picture nobody can tell from the cheaper one.How fast a model gets there depends on the sampler as much as on the model: some samplers settle towards a single image, and some add fresh noise back at every pass, so the detail changes as the count rises.Where a model's reference entry suggests a range, the panel marks it on the steps control.
Sampling · Interactive explorer Steps
The same picture rendered at 12Steps 12 512 × 512
250

Detail starts to settle and small features become readable.

Fetching the example images.

One picture, captured after every pass, so you can see what each step adds.

The same picture rendered at 1
Step 1
The same picture rendered at 30
Step 30
Sampling · One picture, pass by pass Steps of one render What is actually on the canvas at each step of one render.
Both settings together, side by side
Steps, top to bottom. Guidance, left to right.
Steps down × Guidance (CFG) across Guidance 1 Guidance 3 Guidance 5 Guidance 7 Guidance 11 Guidance 15
Steps 4
Steps 8
Steps 12
Steps 20
Steps 30
Steps 50

Steps, top to bottom. Guidance, left to right.

Pick any picture to see it larger. Arrow keys move between them.