Model comparison
Amazon Nova Lite vs Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.9 to 31.9 on the Noometry Index. Amazon Nova Lite costs 14× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Step 5 Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 14 shared benchmarks.
StepFunSummary
- They share 14 benchmarks with published results for both. Amazon Nova Lite scores higher in 0 categories and Step 5 Preview in 9 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Step 5 Preview leads 40.0 to 19.3.
- Amazon Nova Lite is cheaper at $0.06 / $0.24 per million input/output tokens, against $1 / $2.70 for Step 5 Preview.
- Step 5 Preview accepts more context: 1.02M tokens versus 300K.
Side by side
| Amazon Nova Lite | Step 5 Preview | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Amazon | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 31.9 | 47.9 |
| Released | 2024-12-03 | 2026-09-16 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Context window | 300K | 1.02M |
| Max output | 10K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.06 | $1 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.24 | $2.70 |
| Results tracked | 34 | 18 |
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Category by category
Coding Step 5 Preview leads
Amazon Nova Lite: 32.5 (#270), Step 5 Preview: 51.8 (#36)
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1239 | 1480 |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1564 |
| SciCode | — | 58.9% |
| LiveBench Coding | 27.5% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 236.25 | — |
Reasoning Step 5 Preview leads
Amazon Nova Lite: 19.3 (#260), Step 5 Preview: 40.0 (#57)
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1220 | 1465 |
| CritPt | — | 20.9% |
| LiveBench Reasoning | 36.7% | — |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | 37.2% | — |
| LiveBench | 36.4% | — |
Math Step 5 Preview leads
Amazon Nova Lite: 27.8 (#247), Step 5 Preview: 46.1 (#72)
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1227 | 1470 |
| ProofBench | — | 42% |
| Omni-MATH | 23.3% | — |
| LiveBench Math | 36.7% | — |
Knowledge Step 5 Preview leads
Amazon Nova Lite: 26.3 (#259), Step 5 Preview: 41.2 (#112)
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1201 | 1470 |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 3.6% | — |
| MMLU-Pro | 60% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 6.1% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 39.7% | — |
| MMLU | 77% | — |
Multimodal Step 5 Preview leads
Amazon Nova Lite: 25.5 (#123), Step 5 Preview: 41.0 (#41)
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 990 | 1267 |
Multilingual Step 5 Preview leads
Amazon Nova Lite: 38.0 (#232), Step 5 Preview: 53.8 (#54)
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1208 | 1432 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1225 | 1519 |
| LMArena Russian | 1216 | 1436 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1226 | 1439 |
| LMArena French | 1237 | — |
| LMArena German | 1229 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1153 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1153 | — |
Instruction Following Step 5 Preview leads
Amazon Nova Lite: 59.3 (#255), Step 5 Preview: 76.0 (#50)
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1205 | 1444 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | 54.1% | — |
| IFEval | 77.6% | — |
Long Context Step 5 Preview leads
Amazon Nova Lite: 37.4 (#217), Step 5 Preview: 44.5 (#64)
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1234 | 1455 |
Writing & Preference Step 5 Preview leads
Amazon Nova Lite: 42.1 (#237), Step 5 Preview: 62.8 (#71)
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1229 | 1442 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1197 | 1410 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1199 | 1447 |
| WildBench | 75% | — |
| LiveBench Language | 25.9% | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Amazon Nova Lite better than Step 5 Preview?
Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.9 to 31.9 on the Noometry Index. Amazon Nova Lite costs 14× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Step 5 Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Amazon Nova Lite or Step 5 Preview?
Amazon Nova Lite is cheaper. It lists at $0.06 per million input tokens and $0.24 per million output tokens; Step 5 Preview lists at $1 and $2.70.
Is Amazon Nova Lite or Step 5 Preview better for coding?
Step 5 Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 51.8 versus 32.5 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Step 5 Preview does, with 1.02M tokens against 300K.
How many benchmarks do Amazon Nova Lite and Step 5 Preview share?
14 benchmarks have published results for both models. Amazon Nova Lite has 34 scored results on Noometry and Step 5 Preview has 18.