Claude Sonnet 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) vs Step 5 Preview
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5.5 (High, 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 2026-10-25.
Clear winner
Verdict
Pick Claude Sonnet 5.5 (High, Default Fallback)
Step 5 Preview vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 (High, Default Fallback): 6.6% less intelligence, 15.9% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 16.7% faster end-to-end.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) | Step 5 Preview | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 46.8 | 43.7 | −6.6% Step 5 Preview is 6.6% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,027.40 | $1,190.26 | +15.9% Step 5 Preview is 15.9% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 14.42s | 12.01s | −16.7% Step 5 Preview is 16.7% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $1.00 / $2.70 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
- Step 5 Preview is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (High, 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-sonnet-5-5-high/step-5 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5-5-high/step-5?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill