Model comparison
Granite 4.0 Micro vs Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.9 to 29.0 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.0 Micro costs 35× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Step 5 Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 0 shared benchmarks.
StepFunSummary
- The widest gap is in math, where Step 5 Preview leads 46.1 to 12.0.
- Granite 4.0 Micro is cheaper at $0.017 / $0.11 per million input/output tokens, against $1 / $2.70 for Step 5 Preview.
- Step 5 Preview accepts more context: 1.02M tokens versus 131K.
- Granite 4.0 Micro has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Granite 4.0 Micro | Step 5 Preview | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 29.0 | 47.9 |
| Released | 2025-10-02 | 2026-09-16 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 131K | 1.02M |
| Max output | 118K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.017 | $1 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.11 | $2.70 |
| Results tracked | 8 | 18 |
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Category by category
Coding Not comparable
Granite 4.0 Micro: —, Step 5 Preview: 51.8 (#36)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1564 |
| SciCode | — | 58.9% |
| LMArena Coding | — | 1480 |
Reasoning Step 5 Preview leads
Granite 4.0 Micro: 19.2 (#265), Step 5 Preview: 40.0 (#57)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | — | 20.9% |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | — | 1465 |
Math Step 5 Preview leads
Granite 4.0 Micro: 12.0 (#307), Step 5 Preview: 46.1 (#72)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 2.8% | — |
| ProofBench | — | 42% |
| Omni-MATH | 20.9% | — |
| LMArena Math | — | 1470 |
Knowledge Step 5 Preview leads
Granite 4.0 Micro: 9.9 (#304), Step 5 Preview: 41.2 (#112)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 28.3% | — |
| MMLU-Pro | 39.5% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 30.7% | — |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1470 |
Multimodal Not comparable
Granite 4.0 Micro: —, Step 5 Preview: 41.0 (#41)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1267 |
Multilingual Not comparable
Granite 4.0 Micro: —, Step 5 Preview: 53.8 (#54)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | — | 1432 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1519 |
| LMArena Russian | — | 1436 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1439 |
Instruction Following Step 5 Preview leads
Granite 4.0 Micro: 69.9 (#169), Step 5 Preview: 76.0 (#50)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| IFEval | 84.9% | — |
| LMArena Instruction Following | — | 1444 |
Long Context Not comparable
Granite 4.0 Micro: —, Step 5 Preview: 44.5 (#64)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1455 |
Writing & Preference Step 5 Preview leads
Granite 4.0 Micro: 46.7 (#216), Step 5 Preview: 62.8 (#71)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | — | 1442 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1410 |
| WildBench | 67% | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1447 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Granite 4.0 Micro better than Step 5 Preview?
Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.9 to 29.0 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.0 Micro costs 35× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Step 5 Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Granite 4.0 Micro or Step 5 Preview?
Granite 4.0 Micro is cheaper. It lists at $0.017 per million input tokens and $0.11 per million output tokens; Step 5 Preview lists at $1 and $2.70.
Which has the bigger context window?
Step 5 Preview does, with 1.02M tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks do Granite 4.0 Micro and Step 5 Preview share?
0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.0 Micro has 8 scored results on Noometry and Step 5 Preview has 18.