Model comparison
Qwen3 14B vs Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.9 to 35.5 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3 14B costs 2.3× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Step 5 Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 2 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)
StepFunSummary
- They share 2 benchmarks with published results for both. Qwen3 14B scores higher in 0 categories and Step 5 Preview in 5 categories; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Step 5 Preview leads 40.0 to 18.5.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is SciCode: 31.6% for Qwen3 14B and 58.9% for Step 5 Preview.
- Qwen3 14B is cheaper at $0.35 / $1.40 per million input/output tokens, against $1 / $2.70 for Step 5 Preview.
- Step 5 Preview accepts more context: 1.02M tokens versus 131K.
- Qwen3 14B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Qwen3 14B | Step 5 Preview | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 35.5 | 47.9 |
| Released | 2025-04 | 2026-09-16 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 131K | 1.02M |
| Max output | 8K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.35 | $1 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $1.40 | $2.70 |
| Results tracked | 12 | 18 |
Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. Advertise on Noometry
Category by category
Coding Step 5 Preview leads
Qwen3 14B: 37.3 (#195), Step 5 Preview: 51.8 (#36)
| Benchmark | Qwen3 14B | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 31.6% | 58.9% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1564 |
| LMArena Coding | — | 1480 |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Qwen3 14B: 29.6 (#83), Step 5 Preview: —
| Benchmark | Qwen3 14B | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 41% | — |
Reasoning Step 5 Preview leads
Qwen3 14B: 18.5 (#280), Step 5 Preview: 40.0 (#57)
| Benchmark | Qwen3 14B | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 0% | 20.9% |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 49.1% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 4% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | — | 1465 |
| DTBench | 64% | — |
| LMCA | 18.2% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 138.23 | — |
Math Step 5 Preview leads
Qwen3 14B: 38.6 (#133), Step 5 Preview: 46.1 (#72)
| Benchmark | Qwen3 14B | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 66.4% | — |
| ProofBench | — | 42% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1470 |
Knowledge Step 5 Preview leads
Qwen3 14B: 39.3 (#134), Step 5 Preview: 41.2 (#112)
| Benchmark | Qwen3 14B | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 63.8% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 5.4% | — |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1470 |
Multimodal Not comparable
Qwen3 14B: —, Step 5 Preview: 41.0 (#41)
| Benchmark | Qwen3 14B | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1267 |
Multilingual Not comparable
Qwen3 14B: —, Step 5 Preview: 53.8 (#54)
| Benchmark | Qwen3 14B | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | — | 1432 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1519 |
| LMArena Russian | — | 1436 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1439 |
Instruction Following Not comparable
Qwen3 14B: —, Step 5 Preview: 76.0 (#50)
| Benchmark | Qwen3 14B | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | — | 1444 |
Long Context Step 5 Preview leads
Qwen3 14B: 38.1 (#204), Step 5 Preview: 44.5 (#64)
| Benchmark | Qwen3 14B | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Fiction.LiveBench | 62.5% | — |
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1455 |
Writing & Preference Not comparable
Qwen3 14B: —, Step 5 Preview: 62.8 (#71)
| Benchmark | Qwen3 14B | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | — | 1442 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1410 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1447 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Qwen3 14B better than Step 5 Preview?
Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.9 to 35.5 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3 14B costs 2.3× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Step 5 Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3 14B or Step 5 Preview?
Qwen3 14B is cheaper. It lists at $0.35 per million input tokens and $1.40 per million output tokens; Step 5 Preview lists at $1 and $2.70.
Is Qwen3 14B or Step 5 Preview better for coding?
Step 5 Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 51.8 versus 37.3 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Step 5 Preview does, with 1.02M tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks do Qwen3 14B and Step 5 Preview share?
2 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen3 14B has 12 scored results on Noometry and Step 5 Preview has 18.