Model comparison

GPT-4.1 vs Step 5 Preview

Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.9 to 35.9 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 14 shared benchmarks.

GPT-4.1 OpenAI

35.9

Rank #219 Confirmed

Step 5 Preview StepFun

47.9

Rank #58 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 14 benchmarks with published results for both. GPT-4.1 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 11.7.
  • Step 5 Preview is cheaper at $1 / $2.70 per million input/output tokens, against $2 / $8 for GPT-4.1.
  • GPT-4.1 accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 1.02M.

Side by side

GPT-4.1 and Step 5 Preview specifications
GPT-4.1Step 5 Preview
ProviderOpenAIStepFun
Noometry Index35.947.9
Released2025-04-142026-09-16
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
Context window1.05M1.02M
Max output33K66K
Input $ / M tokens$2$1
Output $ / M tokens$8$2.70
Results tracked5218

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Category by category

Coding Step 5 Preview leads

GPT-4.1: 34.4 (#238), Step 5 Preview: 51.8 (#36)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1Step 5 Preview
LMArena Coding13911480
SWE-bench Verified48.5%—
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)39.6%—
Aider Polyglot52.4%—
LMArena WebDev—1564
SciCode—58.9%
WeirdML39%—
CadEval42%—
ALE-Bench558.1—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

GPT-4.1: 34.7 (#43), Step 5 Preview: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1Step 5 Preview
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard54%—

Reasoning Step 5 Preview leads

GPT-4.1: 11.7 (#339), Step 5 Preview: 40.0 (#57)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1Step 5 Preview
LMArena Hard Prompts13841465
ARC-AGI-20.4%—
SimpleBench27%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark52.3%—
ARC-AGI-15.5%—
CritPt—20.9%
Chess Puzzles6%—
EnigmaEval2.2%—
DTBench68.3%—
LMCA25.6%—
Epoch Capabilities Index136.78—
ForecastBench61.5—

Math Step 5 Preview leads

GPT-4.1: 22.3 (#280), Step 5 Preview: 46.1 (#72)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1Step 5 Preview
LMArena Math13701470
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)6%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202538.3%—
ProofBench—42%
Omni-MATH47.1%—
MATH Level 583%—
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)5.5%—
FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1)0%—

Knowledge Step 5 Preview leads

GPT-4.1: 37.1 (#160), Step 5 Preview: 41.2 (#112)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1Step 5 Preview
LMArena Expert13641470
GPQA Diamond66.9%—
Humanity's Last Exam5.4%—
SimpleQA Verified31.1%—
MMLU-Pro81.1%—
Vectara Hallucination Rate5.6%—
GPQA (HELM)65.9%—

Multimodal Step 5 Preview leads

GPT-4.1: 38.2 (#67), Step 5 Preview: 41.0 (#41)

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1Step 5 Preview
LMArena Vision12111267
GeoBench72%—

Multilingual Step 5 Preview leads

GPT-4.1: 49.4 (#133), Step 5 Preview: 53.8 (#54)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1Step 5 Preview
LMArena Non-English13701432
LMArena Chinese13821519
LMArena Russian13771436
LMArena Spanish13761439
LMArena French1382—
LMArena German1381—
LMArena Japanese1319—
LMArena Korean1339—

Instruction Following Step 5 Preview leads

GPT-4.1: 71.3 (#153), Step 5 Preview: 76.0 (#50)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1Step 5 Preview
LMArena Instruction Following13671444
IFEval83.8%—

Long Context Step 5 Preview leads

GPT-4.1: 40.0 (#163), Step 5 Preview: 44.5 (#64)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1Step 5 Preview
LMArena Longer Query13851455
Fiction.LiveBench63.9%—

Writing & Preference Step 5 Preview leads

GPT-4.1: 57.6 (#125), Step 5 Preview: 62.8 (#71)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1Step 5 Preview
LMArena Text13831442
LMArena Creative Writing13631410
LMArena Multi-Turn13981447
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1420—
WildBench85.4%—

Frequently asked questions

Is GPT-4.1 better than Step 5 Preview?

Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.9 to 35.9 on the Noometry Index.

Which is cheaper, GPT-4.1 or Step 5 Preview?

Step 5 Preview is cheaper. It lists at $1 per million input tokens and $2.70 per million output tokens; GPT-4.1 lists at $2 and $8.

Is GPT-4.1 or Step 5 Preview better for coding?

Step 5 Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 51.8 versus 34.4 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

GPT-4.1 does, with 1.05M tokens against 1.02M.

How many benchmarks do GPT-4.1 and Step 5 Preview share?

14 benchmarks have published results for both models. GPT-4.1 has 52 scored results on Noometry and Step 5 Preview has 18.

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