Solar Pro 3 vs Step 5 Preview
Which is better for the money: Solar Pro 3 by Upstage 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 35.9 points higher (43.7 vs 7.8) but costs 7.5× as much to run the benchmark ($1190 vs $159; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Step 5 Preview when you need intelligence above 7.8, and Solar Pro 3 when 7.8 is enough.
| Metric | Solar Pro 3 | Step 5 Preview | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 7.8 | 43.7 | +460.3% Step 5 Preview is 5.6× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $159.22 | $1,190.26 | +647.6% Step 5 Preview is 7.5× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 18.94s | 12.06s | −36.3% Step 5 Preview is 36.3% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.15 / $0.60 | $1.00 / $2.70 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image |
Step 5 Preview vs Solar Pro 3: 460.3% more intelligence, 647.6% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 36.3% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Solar Pro 3 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Haiku 5.5 (Xhigh) scores 41.20 for $158.
- Step 5 Preview is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Solar Pro 3Step 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/solar-pro-3/step-5 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/solar-pro-3/step-5?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill