GLM-5.2 (Max) vs Step 5 Preview

Which is better for the money: GLM-5.2 (Max) by Z AI 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

Z AIGLM-5.2 (Max)Off the frontier

Intelligence: 33.70
Total cost: $2097

StepFunStep 5 PreviewOff the frontier

Intelligence: 43.70
Total cost: $1190

Verdict

Pick Step 5 Preview

Step 5 Preview vs GLM-5.2 (Max): 29.7% more intelligence, 43.2% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 59.9% faster end-to-end.

Metric	GLM-5.2 (Max)	Step 5 Preview	Difference
Intelligence (higher is better)	33.7	43.7	+29.7% Step 5 Preview is 29.7% more intelligent
Total AA cost (lower is better)	$2,097.29	$1,190.26	−43.2% Step 5 Preview is 43.2% cheaper
End-to-end time (lower is better)	30.10s	12.06s	−59.9% Step 5 Preview is 59.9% faster
Price per 1M tokens (in / out)	$1.40 / $4.40	$1.00 / $2.70
Input modalities	Text	Text, Image

Open this matchup in the interactive picker GLM-5.2 (Max): what beats it Step 5 Preview: what beats it

Today's Pareto frontier

Against the frontier

GLM-5.2 (Max) 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.

GLM-5.2 (Max)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/glm-5-2/step-5 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/glm-5-2/step-5?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill