Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max) vs Step 5 Preview
Which is better for the money: Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max) by Anthropic or Step 5 Preview by StepFun? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Step 5 Preview scores 0.3 points higher (43.7 vs 43.4) but costs 3.6× as much to run the benchmark ($1190 vs $330; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Step 5 Preview when you need intelligence above 43.4, and Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max) when 43.4 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max) | Step 5 Preview | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 43.4 | 43.7 | +0.7% Step 5 Preview is 0.7% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $330.25 | $1,190.26 | +260.4% Step 5 Preview is 3.6× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 318.48s | 12.01s | −96.2% Step 5 Preview is 96.2% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.10 / $0.50 | $1.00 / $2.70 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Step 5 Preview vs Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max): 0.7% more intelligence, 260.4% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 96.2% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
- Step 5 Preview is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max)Step 5 PreviewToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-haiku-5-5/step-5 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-haiku-5-5/step-5?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill