# Qwen3-30B-A3B vs Step 5 Preview

> Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.8 to 38.5 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3-30B-A3B costs 6.6× 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/qwen3-30b-a3b-vs-step-5-preview
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 2

## Summary

- They share 2 benchmarks with published results for both. Qwen3-30B-A3B scores higher in 0 categories and Step 5 Preview in 2 categories; 2 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Step 5 Preview leads 38.0 to 21.6.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is SciCode: 33.3% for Qwen3-30B-A3B and 58.9% for Step 5 Preview.
- Qwen3-30B-A3B is cheaper at $0.12 / $0.50 per million input/output tokens, against $1 / $2.70 for Step 5 Preview.
- Step 5 Preview accepts more context: 1.02M tokens versus 41K.
- Qwen3-30B-A3B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Qwen3-30B-A3B | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 38.5 | 43.8 |
| Rank | 174 | 78 |
| Context | 41K | 1.02M |
| Input $/M | $0.12 | $1 |
| Output $/M | $0.50 | $2.70 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Qwen3-30B-A3B: 37.0 (#188)
- Step 5 Preview: 50.6 (#40)

| Benchmark | Qwen3-30B-A3B | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 33.3% | 58.9% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1569 |
| WeirdML | 29.8% | — |
| LMArena Coding | 1416 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Qwen3-30B-A3B: 29.5 (#75)
- Step 5 Preview: —

| Benchmark | Qwen3-30B-A3B | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 41.4% | — |

## Reasoning

- Qwen3-30B-A3B: 21.6 (#193)
- Step 5 Preview: 38.0 (#58)

| Benchmark | Qwen3-30B-A3B | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 0.3% | 20.9% |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 54.9% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 8% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1398 | — |
| DTBench | 69.3% | — |
| LMCA | 22.4% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 139.63 | — |

## Math

- Qwen3-30B-A3B: 36.0 (#133)
- Step 5 Preview: —

| Benchmark | Qwen3-30B-A3B | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | 47.8% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 70.3% | — |
| LMArena Math | 1394 | — |

## Knowledge

- Qwen3-30B-A3B: 41.7 (#96)
- Step 5 Preview: —

| Benchmark | Qwen3-30B-A3B | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 70.1% | — |
| Confabulations | 12.3% | — |
| LMArena Expert | 1395 | — |

## Multilingual

- Qwen3-30B-A3B: 49.8 (#126)
- Step 5 Preview: —

| Benchmark | Qwen3-30B-A3B | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1372 | — |
| LMArena Chinese | 1434 | — |
| LMArena French | 1419 | — |
| LMArena German | 1379 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1338 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1333 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1369 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1403 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Qwen3-30B-A3B: 72.2 (#137)
- Step 5 Preview: —

| Benchmark | Qwen3-30B-A3B | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1364 | — |

## Long Context

- Qwen3-30B-A3B: 31.0 (#278)
- Step 5 Preview: —

| Benchmark | Qwen3-30B-A3B | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Fiction.LiveBench | 40.6% | — |
| LMArena Longer Query | 1379 | — |

## Writing & Preference

- Qwen3-30B-A3B: 55.9 (#138)
- Step 5 Preview: —

| Benchmark | Qwen3-30B-A3B | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1384 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1318 | — |
| Short-Story Creative Writing | 75.3% | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1378 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Qwen3-30B-A3B better than Step 5 Preview?

Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.8 to 38.5 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3-30B-A3B costs 6.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Step 5 Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Qwen3-30B-A3B or Step 5 Preview?

Qwen3-30B-A3B is cheaper. It lists at $0.12 per million input tokens and $0.50 per million output tokens; Step 5 Preview lists at $1 and $2.70.

### Is Qwen3-30B-A3B or Step 5 Preview better for coding?

Step 5 Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 50.6 versus 37.0 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Step 5 Preview does, with 1.02M tokens against 41K.

### How many benchmarks do Qwen3-30B-A3B and Step 5 Preview share?

2 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen3-30B-A3B has 32 scored results on Noometry and Step 5 Preview has 3.