# Mistral Small 3 vs Step 5 Preview

> Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.9 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 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/mistral-small-3-vs-step-5-preview
- Last updated: 2026-10-11
- Shared benchmarks: 12

## Summary

- They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. Mistral Small 3 scores higher in 0 categories and Step 5 Preview in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Step 5 Preview leads 62.8 to 32.2.
- Mistral Small 3 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 33K.
- Mistral Small 3 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Mistral Small 3 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 31.2 | 47.9 |
| Rank | 278 | 58 |
| Context | 33K | 1.02M |
| Input $/M | $0.05 | $1 |
| Output $/M | $0.08 | $2.70 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Mistral Small 3: 36.5 (#207)
- Step 5 Preview: 51.8 (#36)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1246 | 1480 |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1564 |
| SciCode | — | 58.9% |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 45.3% | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 50.4% | — |

## Reasoning

- Mistral Small 3: 18.9 (#273)
- Step 5 Preview: 40.0 (#57)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1233 | 1465 |
| CritPt | — | 20.9% |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 127.07 | — |

## Math

- Mistral Small 3: 16.3 (#295)
- Step 5 Preview: 46.1 (#72)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1240 | 1470 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 6.7% | — |
| ProofBench | — | 42% |

## Knowledge

- Mistral Small 3: 25.1 (#263)
- Step 5 Preview: 41.2 (#112)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1202 | 1470 |
| GPQA Diamond | 47.3% | — |
| Confabulations | 25.2% | — |

## Multimodal

- Mistral Small 3: —
- Step 5 Preview: 41.0 (#41)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1267 |

## Multilingual

- Mistral Small 3: 37.3 (#236)
- Step 5 Preview: 53.8 (#54)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1198 | 1432 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1204 | 1519 |
| LMArena Russian | 1216 | 1436 |
| LMArena French | 1203 | — |
| LMArena German | 1211 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1111 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1188 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1439 |

## Instruction Following

- Mistral Small 3: 63.7 (#229)
- Step 5 Preview: 76.0 (#50)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1214 | 1444 |

## Long Context

- Mistral Small 3: 37.8 (#211)
- Step 5 Preview: 44.5 (#64)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1246 | 1455 |

## Writing & Preference

- Mistral Small 3: 32.2 (#280)
- Step 5 Preview: 62.8 (#71)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1234 | 1442 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1195 | 1410 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1217 | 1447 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 707 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Mistral Small 3 better than Step 5 Preview?

Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.9 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 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, Mistral Small 3 or Step 5 Preview?

Mistral Small 3 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 Mistral Small 3 or Step 5 Preview better for coding?

Step 5 Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 51.8 versus 36.5 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Step 5 Preview does, with 1.02M tokens against 33K.

### How many benchmarks do Mistral Small 3 and Step 5 Preview share?

12 benchmarks have published results for both models. Mistral Small 3 has 24 scored results on Noometry and Step 5 Preview has 18.