Ministral 3 14B vs Step 5 Preview
Which is better for the money: Ministral 3 14B by Mistral 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 37.7 points higher (43.7 vs 6.0) but costs 32× as much to run the benchmark ($1190 vs $37.6; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Step 5 Preview when you need intelligence above 6.0, and Ministral 3 14B when 6.0 is enough.
| Metric | Ministral 3 14B | Step 5 Preview | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 6.0 | 43.7 | +628.3% Step 5 Preview is 7.3× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $37.56 | $1,190.26 | +3069.0% Step 5 Preview is 32× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 7.05s | 12.01s | +70.4% Step 5 Preview is 70.4% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.20 / $0.20 | $1.00 / $2.70 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Step 5 Preview vs Ministral 3 14B: 628.3% more intelligence, 3069.0% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 70.4% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Ministral 3 14B 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.
Ministral 3 14BStep 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/ministral-3-14b/step-5 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/ministral-3-14b/step-5?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill