Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) vs Step 5 Preview
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 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 2026-10-24.
Clear winner
Verdict
Pick Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview vs Claude Sonnet 5 (Max): 14.4% more intelligence, 83.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 93.4% faster end-to-end.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) | Step 5 Preview | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 38.2 | 43.7 | +14.4% Step 5 Preview is 14.4% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $6,998.25 | $1,190.26 | −83.0% Step 5 Preview is 83.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 183.62s | 12.06s | −93.4% Step 5 Preview is 93.4% 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 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
- 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 (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-sonnet-5/step-5 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5/step-5?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill