Claude Opus 5.5 (Medium, Default Fallback) vs Step 5 Preview
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (Medium, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Step 5 Preview by StepFun? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 5.5 (Medium, Default Fallba… scores 7.5 points higher (51.2 vs 43.7) but costs 1.4× as much to run the benchmark ($1627 vs $1190; both premium class). Pick Claude Opus 5.5 (Medium, Default Fallba… when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Step 5 Preview.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (Medium, Default Fallback) | Step 5 Preview | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 51.2 | 43.7 | −14.6% Step 5 Preview is 14.6% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,626.81 | $1,190.26 | −26.8% Step 5 Preview is 26.8% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 20.28s | 12.06s | −40.5% Step 5 Preview is 40.5% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $1.00 / $2.70 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Step 5 Preview vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Medium, Default Fallback): 14.6% less intelligence, 26.8% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 40.5% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 5.5 (Medium, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- Step 5 Preview is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Claude Opus 5.5 (Medium, Default Fallback)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-opus-5-5-medium/step-5 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5-medium/step-5?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill