Mistral Small 3.2 vs Step 5 Preview
Which is better for the money: Mistral Small 3.2 by Mistral or Step 5 Preview by StepFun? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Step 5 Preview scores 36.7 points higher (43.7 vs 7.0) but costs 9.8× as much to run the benchmark ($1190 vs $122; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Step 5 Preview when you need intelligence above 7.0, and Mistral Small 3.2 when 7.0 is enough.
| Metric | Mistral Small 3.2 | Step 5 Preview | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 7.0 | 43.7 | +524.3% Step 5 Preview is 6.2× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $121.78 | $1,190.26 | +877.4% Step 5 Preview is 9.8× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 12.50s | 12.06s | −3.5% Step 5 Preview is 3.5% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.07 / $0.20 | $1.00 / $2.70 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Step 5 Preview vs Mistral Small 3.2: 524.3% more intelligence, 877.4% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 3.5% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Mistral Small 3.2 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Flash scores 37.90 for $110.
- Step 5 Preview is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Mistral Small 3.2Step 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/mistral-small-3-2/step-5 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/mistral-small-3-2/step-5?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill