Llama 4 Maverick vs Step 5 Preview
Which is better for the money: Llama 4 Maverick by Meta or Step 5 Preview by StepFun? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Step 5 Preview scores 34.4 points higher (43.7 vs 9.3) but costs 27× as much to run the benchmark ($1190 vs $44.0; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Step 5 Preview when you need intelligence above 9.3, and Llama 4 Maverick when 9.3 is enough.
| Metric | Llama 4 Maverick | Step 5 Preview | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 9.3 | 43.7 | +369.9% Step 5 Preview is 4.7× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $43.98 | $1,190.26 | +2606.4% Step 5 Preview is 27× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 10.94s | 12.01s | +9.8% Step 5 Preview is 9.8% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.25 / $0.92 | $1.00 / $2.70 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Step 5 Preview vs Llama 4 Maverick: 369.9% more intelligence, 2606.4% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 9.8% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Llama 4 Maverick is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Medium) scores 29.90 for $31.2.
- Step 5 Preview is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Llama 4 MaverickStep 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/llama-4-maverick/step-5 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/llama-4-maverick/step-5?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill