Model comparison
Qwen3.5-Flash vs Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.9 to 42.5 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.5-Flash 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.
Alibaba (Qwen)
StepFunSummary
- They share 14 benchmarks with published results for both. Qwen3.5-Flash scores higher in 1 category and Step 5 Preview in 7 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in coding, where Step 5 Preview leads 51.8 to 34.2.
- Qwen3.5-Flash is cheaper at $0.10 / $0.40 per million input/output tokens, against $1 / $2.70 for Step 5 Preview.
- Step 5 Preview accepts more context: 1.02M tokens versus 1M.
Side by side
| Qwen3.5-Flash | Step 5 Preview | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 42.5 | 47.9 |
| Released | 2026-02-23 | 2026-09-16 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Context window | 1M | 1.02M |
| Max output | 66K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.10 | $1 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.40 | $2.70 |
| Results tracked | 32 | 18 |
Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. Advertise on Noometry
Category by category
Coding Step 5 Preview leads
Qwen3.5-Flash: 34.2 (#242), Step 5 Preview: 51.8 (#36)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1244 | 1564 |
| LMArena Coding | 1412 | 1480 |
| SciCode | — | 58.9% |
| ALE-Bench | 221.8 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Qwen3.5-Flash: —, Step 5 Preview: —
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Vending-Bench 2 | 462.69 | — |
Reasoning Step 5 Preview leads
Qwen3.5-Flash: 33.7 (#72), Step 5 Preview: 40.0 (#57)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1403 | 1465 |
| CritPt | — | 20.9% |
| Chess Puzzles | 21% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 20% | — |
| DTBench | 82.9% | — |
| LMCA | 29.1% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 143.98 | — |
Math Step 5 Preview leads
Qwen3.5-Flash: 37.4 (#158), Step 5 Preview: 46.1 (#72)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1407 | 1470 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 18.2% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 84.4% | — |
| ProofBench | — | 42% |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 6.2% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | 0% | — |
Knowledge Qwen3.5-Flash leads
Qwen3.5-Flash: 43.2 (#93), Step 5 Preview: 41.2 (#112)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1407 | 1470 |
| GPQA Diamond | 82.3% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 20.3% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 10.5% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Qwen3.5-Flash: —, Step 5 Preview: 41.0 (#41)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1267 |
Multilingual Step 5 Preview leads
Qwen3.5-Flash: 50.5 (#121), Step 5 Preview: 53.8 (#54)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1385 | 1432 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1446 | 1519 |
| LMArena Russian | 1379 | 1436 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1400 | 1439 |
| LMArena French | 1412 | — |
| LMArena German | 1390 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1368 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1344 | — |
Instruction Following Step 5 Preview leads
Qwen3.5-Flash: 72.6 (#139), Step 5 Preview: 76.0 (#50)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1374 | 1444 |
Long Context Step 5 Preview leads
Qwen3.5-Flash: 42.4 (#124), Step 5 Preview: 44.5 (#64)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1392 | 1455 |
Writing & Preference Step 5 Preview leads
Qwen3.5-Flash: 57.9 (#122), Step 5 Preview: 62.8 (#71)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1397 | 1442 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1343 | 1410 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1393 | 1447 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Qwen3.5-Flash better than Step 5 Preview?
Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.9 to 42.5 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.5-Flash 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, Qwen3.5-Flash or Step 5 Preview?
Qwen3.5-Flash 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 Qwen3.5-Flash or Step 5 Preview better for coding?
Step 5 Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 51.8 versus 34.2 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Step 5 Preview does, with 1.02M tokens against 1M.
How many benchmarks do Qwen3.5-Flash and Step 5 Preview share?
14 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen3.5-Flash has 32 scored results on Noometry and Step 5 Preview has 18.