Model comparison
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.9 to 37.0 on the Noometry Index. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite costs 8.1× 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.
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StepFunSummary
- They share 14 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 2.5 Flash-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 22.2.
- Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is cheaper at $0.10 / $0.40 per million input/output tokens, against $1 / $2.70 for Step 5 Preview.
- Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 1.02M.
Side by side
| Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | Step 5 Preview | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | StepFun | |
| Noometry Index | 37.0 | 47.9 |
| Released | 2025-06-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Context window | 1.05M | 1.02M |
| Max output | 66K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.10 | $1 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.40 | $2.70 |
| Results tracked | 33 | 18 |
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Category by category
Coding Step 5 Preview leads
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: 38.5 (#173), Step 5 Preview: 51.8 (#36)
| Benchmark | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1373 | 1480 |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1564 |
| SciCode | — | 58.9% |
| WeirdML | 35.2% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 325.9 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: 28.0 (#96), Step 5 Preview: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 36.9% | — |
Reasoning Step 5 Preview leads
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: 22.2 (#205), Step 5 Preview: 40.0 (#57)
| Benchmark | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1377 | 1465 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 40.5% | — |
| CritPt | — | 20.9% |
| DTBench | 62.8% | — |
| LMCA | 18.1% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 133.94 | — |
Math Step 5 Preview leads
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: 38.0 (#144), Step 5 Preview: 46.1 (#72)
| Benchmark | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1373 | 1470 |
| ProofBench | — | 42% |
| Omni-MATH | 48% | — |
Knowledge Step 5 Preview leads
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: 32.5 (#210), Step 5 Preview: 41.2 (#112)
| Benchmark | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1373 | 1470 |
| MMLU-Pro | 53.7% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 3.3% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 30.9% | — |
Multimodal Step 5 Preview leads
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: 29.1 (#114), Step 5 Preview: 41.0 (#41)
| Benchmark | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1198 | 1267 |
| VPCT | 30% | — |
Multilingual Step 5 Preview leads
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: 49.3 (#134), Step 5 Preview: 53.8 (#54)
| Benchmark | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1369 | 1432 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1404 | 1519 |
| LMArena Russian | 1373 | 1436 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1396 | 1439 |
| LMArena French | 1388 | — |
| LMArena German | 1389 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1359 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1360 | — |
Instruction Following Step 5 Preview leads
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: 70.0 (#168), Step 5 Preview: 76.0 (#50)
| Benchmark | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1367 | 1444 |
| IFEval | 81% | — |
Long Context Step 5 Preview leads
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: 33.3 (#262), Step 5 Preview: 44.5 (#64)
| Benchmark | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1373 | 1455 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 47.2% | — |
Writing & Preference Step 5 Preview leads
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: 56.8 (#135), Step 5 Preview: 62.8 (#71)
| Benchmark | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1379 | 1442 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1367 | 1410 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1366 | 1447 |
| WildBench | 81.8% | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite better than Step 5 Preview?
Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.9 to 37.0 on the Noometry Index. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite costs 8.1× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Step 5 Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite or Step 5 Preview?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is cheaper. It lists at $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.40 per million output tokens; Step 5 Preview lists at $1 and $2.70.
Is Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite or Step 5 Preview better for coding?
Step 5 Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 51.8 versus 38.5 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite does, with 1.05M tokens against 1.02M.
How many benchmarks do Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite and Step 5 Preview share?
14 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite has 33 scored results on Noometry and Step 5 Preview has 18.