# Inkling-Small vs Step 5 Preview

> Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.9 to 46.5 on the Noometry Index. Inkling-Small costs 2.2× 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/inkling-small-vs-step-5-preview
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 18

## Summary

- They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. Inkling-Small scores higher in 1 category and Step 5 Preview in 8 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in coding, where Step 5 Preview leads 51.8 to 43.6.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is ProofBench: 6% for Inkling-Small and 42% for Step 5 Preview.
- Inkling-Small is cheaper at $0.45 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $1 / $2.70 for Step 5 Preview.
- Step 5 Preview accepts more context: 1.02M tokens versus 524K.
- Inkling-Small has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Inkling-Small | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Thinking Machines Lab | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 46.5 | 47.9 |
| Rank | 63 | 58 |
| Context | 524K | 1.02M |
| Input $/M | $0.45 | $1 |
| Output $/M | $1.20 | $2.70 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Inkling-Small: 43.6 (#85)
- Step 5 Preview: 51.8 (#36)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1409 | 1564 |
| SciCode | 48.7% | 58.9% |
| LMArena Coding | 1451 | 1480 |

## Reasoning

- Inkling-Small: 38.6 (#63)
- Step 5 Preview: 40.0 (#57)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 8.3% | 20.9% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1423 | 1465 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 40.1% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 84% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 18% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 6% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 150.15 | — |

## Math

- Inkling-Small: 45.1 (#77)
- Step 5 Preview: 46.1 (#72)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| ProofBench | 6% | 42% |
| LMArena Math | 1459 | 1470 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 46.3% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 17.1% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 90% | — |

## Knowledge

- Inkling-Small: 48.2 (#77)
- Step 5 Preview: 41.2 (#112)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1442 | 1470 |
| GPQA Diamond | 88.5% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 19.1% | — |

## Multimodal

- Inkling-Small: 39.1 (#62)
- Step 5 Preview: 41.0 (#41)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1235 | 1267 |

## Multilingual

- Inkling-Small: 51.7 (#104)
- Step 5 Preview: 53.8 (#54)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1402 | 1432 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1465 | 1519 |
| LMArena Russian | 1391 | 1436 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1428 | 1439 |
| LMArena French | 1436 | — |
| LMArena German | 1405 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1405 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1363 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Inkling-Small: 73.8 (#114)
- Step 5 Preview: 76.0 (#50)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1399 | 1444 |

## Long Context

- Inkling-Small: 42.7 (#118)
- Step 5 Preview: 44.5 (#64)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1401 | 1455 |

## Writing & Preference

- Inkling-Small: 59.6 (#107)
- Step 5 Preview: 62.8 (#71)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1414 | 1442 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1331 | 1410 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1418 | 1447 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1491 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Inkling-Small better than Step 5 Preview?

Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.9 to 46.5 on the Noometry Index. Inkling-Small costs 2.2× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Step 5 Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Inkling-Small or Step 5 Preview?

Inkling-Small is cheaper. It lists at $0.45 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Step 5 Preview lists at $1 and $2.70.

### Is Inkling-Small or Step 5 Preview better for coding?

Step 5 Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 51.8 versus 43.6 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Step 5 Preview does, with 1.02M tokens against 524K.

### How many benchmarks do Inkling-Small and Step 5 Preview share?

18 benchmarks have published results for both models. Inkling-Small has 33 scored results on Noometry and Step 5 Preview has 18.