# Qwen3.5-Flash vs Step 5 Preview

> Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.8 to 42.3 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.5-Flash costs 8.1× 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/qwen3-5-flash-vs-step-5-preview
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 1

## Summary

- They share 1 benchmark with published results for both. Qwen3.5-Flash 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 33.9.
- Qwen3.5-Flash is cheaper at $0.10 / $0.40 per million input/output tokens, against $1 / $2.70 for Step 5 Preview.
- Step 5 Preview accepts more context: 1.02M tokens versus 1M.

## Snapshot

| | Qwen3.5-Flash | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 42.3 | 43.8 |
| Rank | 105 | 78 |
| Context | 1M | 1.02M |
| Input $/M | $0.10 | $1 |
| Output $/M | $0.40 | $2.70 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Qwen3.5-Flash: 33.9 (#234)
- Step 5 Preview: 50.6 (#40)

| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1243 | 1569 |
| SciCode | — | 58.9% |
| LMArena Coding | 1412 | — |
| ALE-Bench | 221.8 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Qwen3.5-Flash: —
- Step 5 Preview: —

| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Vending-Bench 2 | 462.69 | — |

## Reasoning

- Qwen3.5-Flash: 32.9 (#63)
- Step 5 Preview: 38.0 (#58)

| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | — | 20.9% |
| Chess Puzzles | 21% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1404 | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 20% | — |
| DTBench | 82.9% | — |
| LMCA | 29.1% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 143.98 | — |

## Math

- Qwen3.5-Flash: 36.3 (#117)
- Step 5 Preview: —

| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 18.2% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 84.4% | — |
| LMArena Math | 1407 | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 6.2% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | 0% | — |

## Knowledge

- Qwen3.5-Flash: 43.2 (#84)
- Step 5 Preview: —

| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 82.3% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 20.3% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 10.5% | — |
| LMArena Expert | 1408 | — |

## Multilingual

- Qwen3.5-Flash: 50.7 (#116)
- Step 5 Preview: —

| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1385 | — |
| LMArena Chinese | 1446 | — |
| LMArena French | 1412 | — |
| LMArena German | 1389 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1369 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1344 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1379 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1399 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Qwen3.5-Flash: 72.8 (#133)
- Step 5 Preview: —

| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1374 | — |

## Long Context

- Qwen3.5-Flash: 42.4 (#119)
- Step 5 Preview: —

| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1392 | — |

## Writing & Preference

- Qwen3.5-Flash: 58.2 (#117)
- Step 5 Preview: —

| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1397 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1343 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1393 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Qwen3.5-Flash better than Step 5 Preview?

Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.8 to 42.3 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.5-Flash costs 8.1× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Step 5 Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Qwen3.5-Flash or Step 5 Preview?

Qwen3.5-Flash is cheaper. It lists at $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.40 per million output tokens; Step 5 Preview lists at $1 and $2.70.

### Is Qwen3.5-Flash or Step 5 Preview better for coding?

Step 5 Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 50.6 versus 33.9 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Step 5 Preview does, with 1.02M tokens against 1M.

### How many benchmarks do Qwen3.5-Flash and Step 5 Preview share?

1 benchmark has published results for both models. Qwen3.5-Flash has 32 scored results on Noometry and Step 5 Preview has 3.