Model comparison
Amazon Nova Micro vs Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.9 to 30.4 on the Noometry Index. Amazon Nova Micro costs 23× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Step 5 Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 13 shared benchmarks.
StepFunSummary
- They share 13 benchmarks with published results for both. Amazon Nova Micro scores higher in 0 categories and Step 5 Preview in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Step 5 Preview leads 62.8 to 39.5.
- Amazon Nova Micro is cheaper at $0.035 / $0.14 per million input/output tokens, against $1 / $2.70 for Step 5 Preview.
- Step 5 Preview accepts more context: 1.02M tokens versus 128K.
Side by side
| Amazon Nova Micro | Step 5 Preview | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Amazon | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 30.4 | 47.9 |
| Released | 2024-12-03 | 2026-09-16 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Context window | 128K | 1.02M |
| Max output | 10K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.035 | $1 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.14 | $2.70 |
| Results tracked | 32 | 18 |
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Category by category
Coding Step 5 Preview leads
Amazon Nova Micro: 30.5 (#295), Step 5 Preview: 51.8 (#36)
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Micro | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1218 | 1480 |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1564 |
| SciCode | — | 58.9% |
| LiveBench Coding | 20.2% | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Amazon Nova Micro: 22.1 (#132), Step 5 Preview: —
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Micro | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 22.3% | — |
Reasoning Step 5 Preview leads
Amazon Nova Micro: 17.4 (#294), Step 5 Preview: 40.0 (#57)
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Micro | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1191 | 1465 |
| CritPt | — | 20.9% |
| LiveBench Reasoning | 25.1% | — |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | 34% | — |
| LiveBench | 29.6% | — |
Math Step 5 Preview leads
Amazon Nova Micro: 26.9 (#254), Step 5 Preview: 46.1 (#72)
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Micro | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1206 | 1470 |
| ProofBench | — | 42% |
| Omni-MATH | 21.4% | — |
| LiveBench Math | 34.5% | — |
Knowledge Step 5 Preview leads
Amazon Nova Micro: 29.6 (#237), Step 5 Preview: 41.2 (#112)
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Micro | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1184 | 1470 |
| MMLU-Pro | 51.1% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 5.5% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 38.3% | — |
| MMLU | 70.8% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Amazon Nova Micro: —, Step 5 Preview: 41.0 (#41)
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Micro | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1267 |
Multilingual Step 5 Preview leads
Amazon Nova Micro: 36.5 (#239), Step 5 Preview: 53.8 (#54)
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Micro | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1186 | 1432 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1209 | 1519 |
| LMArena Russian | 1185 | 1436 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1225 | 1439 |
| LMArena French | 1238 | — |
| LMArena German | 1192 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1154 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1150 | — |
Instruction Following Step 5 Preview leads
Amazon Nova Micro: 56.3 (#272), Step 5 Preview: 76.0 (#50)
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Micro | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1174 | 1444 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | 48% | — |
| IFEval | 76% | — |
Long Context Step 5 Preview leads
Amazon Nova Micro: 36.5 (#229), Step 5 Preview: 44.5 (#64)
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Micro | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1205 | 1455 |
Writing & Preference Step 5 Preview leads
Amazon Nova Micro: 39.5 (#247), Step 5 Preview: 62.8 (#71)
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Micro | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1208 | 1442 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1172 | 1410 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1178 | 1447 |
| WildBench | 74.3% | — |
| LiveBench Language | 15.8% | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Amazon Nova Micro better than Step 5 Preview?
Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.9 to 30.4 on the Noometry Index. Amazon Nova Micro costs 23× 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 Micro or Step 5 Preview?
Amazon Nova Micro is cheaper. It lists at $0.035 per million input tokens and $0.14 per million output tokens; Step 5 Preview lists at $1 and $2.70.
Is Amazon Nova Micro or Step 5 Preview better for coding?
Step 5 Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 51.8 versus 30.5 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Step 5 Preview does, with 1.02M tokens against 128K.
How many benchmarks do Amazon Nova Micro and Step 5 Preview share?
13 benchmarks have published results for both models. Amazon Nova Micro has 32 scored results on Noometry and Step 5 Preview has 18.