# 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.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemini-2-5-flash-lite-vs-step-5-preview
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 14

## Summary

- 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.

## Snapshot

| | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 37.0 | 47.9 |
| Rank | 211 | 58 |
| Context | 1.05M | 1.02M |
| Input $/M | $0.10 | $1 |
| Output $/M | $0.40 | $2.70 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |

## Coding

- 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

- 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

- 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

- 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

- 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

- 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

- 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

- 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

- 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

- 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% | — |

## FAQ

### 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.