Step 5 Preview

By StepFun · released 2026-09-18 (4 days) · snapshot 2026-09-22

Off the frontierOn frontier at launch dayproprietary
Intelligence index
43.70
Cost to run the AA index
$925
Price per 1M tokens (in / out)
$1.00 / $2.70
End-to-end time
33.7s
Better than…

Is Step 5 Preview on the Pareto frontier, and what beats it?

Off the frontier

No. MiMo-V2.6-Pro is at least as smart for the same money or less.

Next step up: Muse Spark 1.3 (max), smarter but dearer.

Step 5 Preview vs MiMo-V2.6-ProStep 5 Preview vs Muse Spark 1.3 (max)
#ModelCreatorIntelligenceTotal costE2E totalOpenReleasedFrontier
1Step 5 PreviewStepFun43.70$92533.7s2026-09-18
2MiMo-V2.6-ProXiaomi46.30$20722.4s2026-09-21Frontier
3Muse Spark 1.3 (max)Meta48.10$200032.1s2026-09-02Frontier

Open in the picker Daily check URL: 200 on the frontier, 409 once beaten

At a glance

Step 5 Preview today

Time to first answer27.8s
Output speed85 tok/s
Input modalitiesText, Image
0102030405060$20$50$100$200$500$1k$2k$5k$10k$20kCost to run the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (USD, log scale)Intelligence IndexCeleris-1 (Celeris): intelligence 6.30, $60.0Claude 4.5 Haiku (Reasoning) (Anthropic): intelligence 16.90, $524Claude 4.5 Sonnet (Reasoning) (Anthropic): intelligence 20.70, $1501Claude Fable 5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Max Effort, Opus 4.8 Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 49.60, $11161Claude Fable 5.1 (Adaptive Reasoning, High Effort, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 51.20, $5242Claude Fable 5.1 (Adaptive Reasoning, Low Effort, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 46.80, $3158Claude Fable 5.1 (Adaptive Reasoning, Medium Effort, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 48.90, $3983Claude Opus 4.8 (Adaptive Reasoning, Max Effort) (Anthropic): intelligence 41.80, $6874Claude Opus 5 (Adaptive Reasoning, High Effort) (Anthropic): intelligence 48.10, $4332Claude Opus 5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Low Effort) (Anthropic): intelligence 39.40, $1561Claude Opus 5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Max Effort) (Anthropic): intelligence 50.80, $7275Claude Opus 5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Medium Effort) (Anthropic): intelligence 44.80, $2732Claude Opus 5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Xhigh Effort) (Anthropic): intelligence 49.70, $5868Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Adaptive Reasoning, Max Effort) (Anthropic): intelligence 30.10, $4925Claude Sonnet 5 (Adaptive Reasoning, High Effort) (Anthropic): intelligence 31.70, $2086Claude Sonnet 5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Low Effort) (Anthropic): intelligence 24.30, $653Claude Sonnet 5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Max Effort) (Anthropic): intelligence 38.20, $6998Claude Sonnet 5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Medium Effort) (Anthropic): intelligence 28.10, $1218Claude Sonnet 5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Xhigh Effort) (Anthropic): intelligence 34.40, $3255DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) (DeepSeek): intelligence 11.40, $461DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) (DeepSeek): intelligence 8.50, $25.4DeepSeek V3 0324 (DeepSeek): intelligence 9.70, $87.2DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Reasoning, Max Effort) (DeepSeek): intelligence 24.20, $191DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Reasoning, Max Effort) (DeepSeek): intelligence 34.30, $474DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision (Reasoning, Max Effort) (DeepSeek): intelligence 34.80, $445DeepSeek V4 Pro 0424 (Reasoning, Max Effort) (DeepSeek): intelligence 30.40, $277DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (Reasoning, Max Effort) (DeepSeek): intelligence 36.00, $1122DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Reasoning, Max Effort) (DeepSeek): intelligence 39.50, $477Gemini 2.5 Pro (Google): intelligence 16.10, $707Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite (Google): intelligence 15.60, $119Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview (Google): intelligence 29.70, $1310Gemini 3.5 Flash (high) (Google): intelligence 32.60, $2172Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite (Google): intelligence 22.20, $267Gemini 3.6 Flash (high) (Google): intelligence 34.00, $1037Gemini 3.7 Flash (high) (Google): intelligence 39.10, $1084Gemini 3.8 Flash (high) (Google): intelligence 40.90, $1623Gemini 3.8 Flash (medium) (Google): intelligence 39.80, $1100GLM 5.3 Flash (Z AI): intelligence 41.80, $280GLM-5.1 (Reasoning) (Z AI): intelligence 26.10, $1418GLM-5.2 (max) (Z AI): intelligence 33.70, $1559GLM-5.3 (max) (Z AI): intelligence 44.80, $2503GPT-5 mini (high) (OpenAI): intelligence 16.80, $189GPT-5.4 mini (xhigh) (OpenAI): intelligence 24.10, $1438GPT-5.4 nano (xhigh) (OpenAI): intelligence 20.70, $331GPT-5.5 (high) (OpenAI): intelligence 37.00, $3411GPT-5.5 (medium) (OpenAI): intelligence 33.80, $2095GPT-5.5 (xhigh) (OpenAI): intelligence 38.40, $5294GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026) (OpenAI): intelligence 26.00, $1184GPT-5.6 Luna (max) (OpenAI): intelligence 37.30, $320GPT-5.6 Sol (high) (OpenAI): intelligence 42.30, $1487GPT-5.6 Sol (low) (OpenAI): intelligence 33.50, $637GPT-5.6 Sol (max) (OpenAI): intelligence 47.00, $3465GPT-5.6 Sol (medium) (OpenAI): intelligence 39.20, $997GPT-5.6 Sol (xhigh) (OpenAI): intelligence 44.00, $2082GPT-5.6 Terra (high) (OpenAI): intelligence 34.20, $768GPT-5.6 Terra (low) (OpenAI): intelligence 27.50, $350GPT-5.6 Terra (max) (OpenAI): intelligence 42.10, $2501GPT-5.6 Terra (medium) (OpenAI): intelligence 30.10, $447GPT-5.6 Terra (Non-reasoning) (OpenAI): intelligence 20.80, $256GPT-5.6 Terra (xhigh) (OpenAI): intelligence 38.00, $1187GPT-6 Astra (low) (OpenAI): intelligence 45.80, $1537gpt-oss-120b (high) (OpenAI): intelligence 11.60, $122gpt-oss-20b (high) (OpenAI): intelligence 9.00, $29.4Granite 4.2 8B (IBM): intelligence 11.10, $53.1Grok 4.3 (high) (SpaceXAI): intelligence 24.90, $332Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoning) (SpaceXAI): intelligence 14.00, $203Grok 4.5 (high) (SpaceXAI): intelligence 38.80, $1404Grok 4.6 (high) (SpaceXAI): intelligence 44.30, $2352Grok 4.6 (low) (SpaceXAI): intelligence 35.10, $761Grok 4.6 (medium) (SpaceXAI): intelligence 42.80, $1937Grok 4.6 (xhigh) (SpaceXAI): intelligence 44.20, $2830Grok 4.7 (high) (SpaceXAI): intelligence 46.30, $3881Grok 4.7 (xhigh) (SpaceXAI): intelligence 46.40, $4967Hy3 (Tencent): intelligence 25.30, $156Inkling (xhigh) (Thinking Machines): intelligence 25.00, $1026Kimi K2.6 (Kimi): intelligence 27.00, $1528Kimi K2.7 Code (Kimi): intelligence 25.80, $993Kimi K3 (max) (Kimi): intelligence 43.60, $3658LongCat 2.0 (LongCat): intelligence 19.10, $221MiMo-V2.5-Pro (Xiaomi): intelligence 26.00, $138MiniMax-M2.7 (MiniMax): intelligence 22.80, $236MiniMax-M3 (MiniMax): intelligence 29.20, $538Ministral 3 14B (Mistral): intelligence 6.00, $250Ministral 3 3B (Mistral): intelligence 4.80, $61.3Ministral 3 8B (Mistral): intelligence 5.50, $169Mistral Large 3 (Mistral): intelligence 9.30, $130Mistral Medium 3.1 (Mistral): intelligence 9.20, $406Mistral Medium 3.5 (Mistral): intelligence 14.20, $1160Mistral Small 3.1 (Mistral): intelligence 7.10, $35.8Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) (Mistral): intelligence 11.30, $78.7Muse Glimmer (high) (Meta): intelligence 17.50, $152Muse Spark 1.1 (xhigh) (Meta): intelligence 33.70, $1737Muse Spark 1.2 (xhigh) (Meta): intelligence 39.60, $1385Muse Spark 1.3 (xhigh) (Meta): intelligence 45.10, $1655Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) (NVIDIA): intelligence 12.80, $1319Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B (Reasoning) (NVIDIA): intelligence 22.90, $778Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (NVIDIA): intelligence 12.90, $105NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B (Reasoning) (NVIDIA): intelligence 8.90, $63.7Quasar 438B (max, based on GLM-5.2) (Multiverse Computing): intelligence 26.70, $2504Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning) (Alibaba): intelligence 12.70, $235Qwen3 30B A3B 2507 (Reasoning) (Alibaba): intelligence 9.80, $188Qwen3 Coder Next (Alibaba): intelligence 9.20, $476Qwen3.5 122B A10B (Reasoning) (Alibaba): intelligence 15.60, $661Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) (Alibaba): intelligence 18.40, $941Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) (Alibaba): intelligence 21.40, $1145Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) (Alibaba): intelligence 18.20, $896Qwen3.7 Max (Alibaba): intelligence 29.50, $2277Qwen3.7 Plus (Alibaba): intelligence 25.20, $568Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B (Alibaba): intelligence 39.90, $2633Qwen3.8 27B (low) (Alibaba): intelligence 26.20, $876Qwen3.8 27B (medium) (Alibaba): intelligence 27.60, $977Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning) (Alibaba): intelligence 20.20, $1570Qwen3.8 27B (xhigh) (Alibaba): intelligence 33.70, $1170Qwen3.8 Max (Alibaba): intelligence 40.20, $3172Qwen3.8 Max (0902) (Alibaba): intelligence 45.40, $4935Qwen3.8-Flash-Next (Alibaba): intelligence 39.80, $363Ring-2.6-1T (InclusionAI): intelligence 16.60, $576Solar Pro 3 (Upstage): intelligence 7.80, $159Trinity Large Thinking (Arcee AI): intelligence 10.80, $518Granite 4.2 3B (IBM): intelligence 9.10, $14.9GPT-5.6 Luna (Non-reasoning) (OpenAI): intelligence 15.50, $23.0GPT-5.6 Luna (low) (OpenAI): intelligence 21.00, $27.0GPT-5.6 Luna (medium) (OpenAI): intelligence 25.00, $44.3GPT-5.6 Luna (high) (OpenAI): intelligence 32.10, $108GPT-5.6 Luna (xhigh) (OpenAI): intelligence 34.60, $179MiMo-V2.6-Pro (Xiaomi): intelligence 46.30, $207Muse Spark 1.3 (max) (Meta): intelligence 48.10, $2000GPT-6 Astra (medium) (OpenAI): intelligence 49.60, $2434GPT-6 Astra (high) (OpenAI): intelligence 50.90, $2925GPT-6 Astra (xhigh) (OpenAI): intelligence 52.40, $3803GPT-6 Astra (max) (OpenAI): intelligence 52.70, $5324Claude Fable 5.1 (Adaptive Reasoning, Xhigh Effort, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 53.20, $9063Claude Fable 5.1 (Adaptive Reasoning, Max Effort, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 53.40, $13129Step 5 Preview (StepFun): intelligence 43.70, $925Step 5 PreviewGranite 4.2 3BMiMo-V2.6-ProMuse Spark 1.3 (max)Claude Fable 5.1 (max)
Step 5 PreviewSame release, other effort levelsToday's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Up and left is better. Dotted line: today's Pareto frontier. Hover a point for its numbers, click it for its page.

Intelligence: Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index. Cost: total cost to run that benchmark, so reasoning tokens count. API id: step-5.

Matchup

Compare head to head

Suggested: what beats it, its effort levels, and frontier models near its price.

Compare Step 5 Preview with measured models

Release

What the Step 5 Preview release did to the frontier on 2026-09-18

1 of 1 effort levels reached the frontier at launch (Step 5 Preview). Impact 0.41, #25 of 32 releases this past year.

Release page: launch-day frontier and every effort level

Deciding

Should you use Step 5 Preview?

Should you use Step 5 Preview?

Only when it fits your setup: MiMo-V2.6-Pro is at least as smart for the same money or less, so Step 5 Preview is off the value frontier today.

What is better and cheaper than Step 5 Preview?

MiMo-V2.6-Pro — at least as smart for the same money or less.

How much does Step 5 Preview cost?

$1.00/$2.70 in/out per 1M tokens, and $925 to run the full Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, the honest all-in number for reasoning models.

Is Step 5 Preview on the Pareto frontier?

No: MiMo-V2.6-Pro beats it on intelligence, cost, or both.

Frontier membership by axis pair

Other axis pairs where Step 5 Preview is Pareto-optimal.

Y axisX axisOn the frontier
AA intelligence indexAA total cost to run (USD)
AA intelligence indexEnd-to-end total seconds
AA intelligence indexOutput speed tokens/sec
Agents: Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/models/step-5 · Markdown: /api/v1/models/step-5?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill