Glossary
Steps
Short answer
The setting for how many stages the denoising takes; it directly affects quality and time.
The step count sets how many times the diffusion process repeats. Few steps is fast but blurry; many steps is slow and stops improving past a point.
In practice 20 to 30 steps is enough for most models. Beyond 50 there is usually no visible improvement while generation time doubles.
The right count depends on the sampler; some samplers reach a finished result in 15 steps while others want 30.