Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning) vs Step 5 Preview
Which is better for the money: Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning) by Alibaba 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 32.5 points higher (43.7 vs 11.2) but costs 3.6× as much to run the benchmark ($1190 vs $329; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Step 5 Preview when you need intelligence above 11.2, and Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning) when 11.2 is enough.
| Metric | Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning) | Step 5 Preview | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 11.2 | 43.7 | +290.2% Step 5 Preview is 3.9× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $328.86 | $1,190.26 | +261.9% Step 5 Preview is 3.6× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 43.21s | 12.06s | −72.1% Step 5 Preview is 72.1% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.14 / $0.20 | $1.00 / $2.70 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Video | Text, Image |
Step 5 Preview vs Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning): 290.2% more intelligence, 261.9% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 72.1% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
- Step 5 Preview is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning)Step 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/qwen3-5-9b/step-5 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/qwen3-5-9b/step-5?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill