# 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.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/granite-4-0-micro-vs-step-5-preview
- Last updated: 2026-10-11
- Shared benchmarks: 0

## Summary

- 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.

## Snapshot

| | Granite 4.0 Micro | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 29.0 | 47.9 |
| Rank | 318 | 58 |
| Context | 131K | 1.02M |
| Input $/M | $0.017 | $1 |
| Output $/M | $0.11 | $2.70 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- 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

- 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

- 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

- 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

- Granite 4.0 Micro: —
- Step 5 Preview: 41.0 (#41)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1267 |

## Multilingual

- 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

- 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

- Granite 4.0 Micro: —
- Step 5 Preview: 44.5 (#64)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1455 |

## Writing & Preference

- 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 |

## FAQ

### 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.