Step 5 Preview vs Trinity Large Thinking
Which is better for the money: Step 5 Preview by StepFun or Trinity Large Thinking by Arcee AI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-09-30.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Step 5 Preview scores 32.9 points higher (43.7 vs 10.8) but costs 4.0× as much to run the benchmark ($929 vs $233; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Step 5 Preview when you need intelligence above 10.8, and Trinity Large Thinking when 10.8 is enough.
| Metric | Step 5 Preview | Trinity Large Thinking | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 43.7 | 10.8 | −75.3% Trinity Large Thinking is 75.3% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $929.00 | $232.95 | −74.9% Trinity Large Thinking is 74.9% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 32.31s | 9.01s | −72.1% Trinity Large Thinking is 72.1% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $1.00 / $2.70 | $0.25 / $0.80 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Trinity Large Thinking vs Step 5 Preview: 75.3% less intelligence, 74.9% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 72.1% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Step 5 Preview is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
- Trinity Large Thinking is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
Step 5 PreviewTrinity Large ThinkingToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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