Gemini 4 Carbon (Medium) vs Step 5 Preview
Which is better for the money: Gemini 4 Carbon (Medium) by Google or Step 5 Preview by StepFun? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-11-03.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Gemini 4 Carbon (Medium) scores 29.2 points higher (57.7 vs 28.5) but costs 3.6× as much to run the benchmark ($5903 vs $1644; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Gemini 4 Carbon (Medium) when you need intelligence above 28.5, and Step 5 Preview when 28.5 is enough.
| Metric | Gemini 4 Carbon (Medium) | Step 5 Preview | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 57.7 | 28.5 | −50.6% Step 5 Preview is 50.6% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $5,903.03 | $1,643.75 | −72.2% Step 5 Preview is 72.2% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 11.62s | 18.52s | +59.4% Step 5 Preview is 59.4% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $1.00 / $2.70 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text, Image |
Step 5 Preview vs Gemini 4 Carbon (Medium): 50.6% less intelligence, 72.2% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 59.4% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Gemini 4 Carbon (Medium) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- Step 5 Preview is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 54.50 for $1124.
Gemini 4 Carbon (Medium)Step 5 PreviewToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
Compare something else
Agents:
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/gemini-4-carbon-medium/step-5 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gemini-4-carbon-medium/step-5?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill