# Llama 3.1-8B vs Step 5 Preview

> Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.8 to 22.8 on the Noometry Index. Llama 3.1-8B costs 25× 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/llama-3-1-8b-vs-step-5-preview
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 2

## Summary

- They share 2 benchmarks with published results for both. Llama 3.1-8B scores higher in 0 categories and Step 5 Preview in 2 categories; 2 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in coding, where Step 5 Preview leads 50.6 to 19.9.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is SciCode: 13.2% for Llama 3.1-8B and 58.9% for Step 5 Preview.
- Llama 3.1-8B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $1 / $2.70 for Step 5 Preview.
- Step 5 Preview accepts more context: 1.02M tokens versus 128K.
- Llama 3.1-8B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Llama 3.1-8B | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Meta | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 22.8 | 43.8 |
| Rank | 347 | 78 |
| Context | 128K | 1.02M |
| Input $/M | $0.05 | $1 |
| Output $/M | $0.08 | $2.70 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Llama 3.1-8B: 19.9 (#335)
- Step 5 Preview: 50.6 (#40)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 13.2% | 58.9% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1569 |
| WeirdML | 1.7% | — |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 32.8% | — |
| LMArena Coding | 1195 | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 40.5% | — |
| HumanEval+ | 62.8% | — |
| MBPP+ | 55.6% | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Llama 3.1-8B: 22.3 (#123)
- Step 5 Preview: —

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 25.8% | — |
| BALROG | 15.1% | — |

## Reasoning

- Llama 3.1-8B: 14.5 (#316)
- Step 5 Preview: 38.0 (#58)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 0% | 20.9% |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1175 | — |
| DTBench | 50.9% | — |
| LMCA | 5.4% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 116.48 | — |
| PIQA | 81.2% | — |

## Math

- Llama 3.1-8B: 9.5 (#311)
- Step 5 Preview: —

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 1.7% | — |
| Omni-MATH | 13.7% | — |
| LMArena Math | 1179 | — |
| MATH Level 5 | 22.9% | — |
| GSM8K | 82.4% | — |

## Knowledge

- Llama 3.1-8B: 8.0 (#302)
- Step 5 Preview: —

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 27% | — |
| MMLU-Pro | 40.6% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 24.7% | — |
| LMArena Expert | 1144 | — |
| BoolQ | 82.8% | — |
| MMLU | 56.1% | — |

## Multilingual

- Llama 3.1-8B: 34.2 (#244)
- Step 5 Preview: —

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1148 | — |
| LMArena Chinese | 1151 | — |
| LMArena French | 1176 | — |
| LMArena German | 1144 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1061 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1053 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1158 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1169 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Llama 3.1-8B: 59.1 (#253)
- Step 5 Preview: —

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| IFEval | 74.3% | — |
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1159 | — |

## Long Context

- Llama 3.1-8B: 35.8 (#233)
- Step 5 Preview: —

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1182 | — |

## Writing & Preference

- Llama 3.1-8B: 29.9 (#285)
- Step 5 Preview: —

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1187 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1154 | — |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 713 | — |
| WildBench | 68.7% | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1172 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Llama 3.1-8B better than Step 5 Preview?

Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.8 to 22.8 on the Noometry Index. Llama 3.1-8B costs 25× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Step 5 Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Llama 3.1-8B or Step 5 Preview?

Llama 3.1-8B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; Step 5 Preview lists at $1 and $2.70.

### Is Llama 3.1-8B or Step 5 Preview better for coding?

Step 5 Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 50.6 versus 19.9 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Step 5 Preview does, with 1.02M tokens against 128K.

### How many benchmarks do Llama 3.1-8B and Step 5 Preview share?

2 benchmarks have published results for both models. Llama 3.1-8B has 43 scored results on Noometry and Step 5 Preview has 3.