Claude Opus 4.6 vs Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview leads Claude Opus 4.6 on coding, 61.1 to 57.2 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Step 5 Preview costs 9.3x less per output token ($2.70 vs $25.00 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 39 benchmarks have a result for both.
vs boards won of 39 shared
Claude Opus 4.6 or Step 5 Preview: which to pick
Pick Step 5 Preview for coding: it scores 61.1 on the Vibe Coding Index against 57.2 for Claude Opus 4.6.
Pick Claude Opus 4.6 for work measured by LMArena Text: coding or LMArena Text: software and IT, where it leads.
Model AClaude Opus 4.6Anthropic57.2/1004 independent benchmarks$1.56 per solved taskModel BStep 5 PreviewStepFun61.1/1004 independent benchmarksNo cost per solved task
- Shared results
- 39
- Claude Opus 4.6 only
- 71
- Step 5 Preview only
- 22
- Like-for-like categories
- 6 of 9
Only benchmarks that tested both models count toward a pick; a result only one model has is shown but not compared.
Which one for your work
Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview scores 61.1 against 57.2.
4 benchmarks behind each score
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview leads, 43.7 against 31.9.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Claude Opus 4.6 has a GPQA Diamond result, 89.7%.
Directional only
Math
AIME
No call
Only Claude Opus 4.6 has a AIME result, 95.6%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Claude Opus 4.6 has a MMLU Pro result, 89.1%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Claude Opus 4.6 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1291.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview takes 1.05M tokens against 1M.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Step 5 Preview
Claude Opus 4.6 $0.018, Step 5 Preview $0.0024 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Claude Opus 4.6 has the number, $1.56.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- Claude Opus 4.6 57.2 from 4 benchmarks, Step 5 Preview 61.1 from 4 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Intelligence, 11.8 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- LMArena Text: Japanese: Claude Opus 4.6 1488 against Step 5 Preview 1383, 17.4 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Claude Opus 4.6 $25.00 against Step 5 Preview $2.70 per million output tokens, 9.3x apart.
- Context window
- Claude Opus 4.6 takes 1M tokens, Step 5 Preview 1.05M.
Benchmark by benchmark
First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.
| Category | Claude Opus 4.6 | Bars | Step 5 Preview | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 3 | 4 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 5 | 1 | ||
| Math | 3 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 4 | 0 | ||
| General | 17 | 1 | ||
| All shared boards | 32 | 7 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index34
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.6 | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | 75.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| SWE-bench Multilingual | 72.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LiveBench coding | Not measured | 85.6% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1547 | 1567 | Step 5 Preview |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 84.7% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 78.2% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 31.8% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 57.6% | 70.4% | Step 5 Preview |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | Not measured | 39.0% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | Not measured | 38.1% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI) | Not measured | 40.8% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 58.9% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 48.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Terminal-Bench | 79.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| FrontierCode | 26.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| GSO-Bench | 41.2% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| WeirdML | 78.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Cybench | 93.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1534 | 1485 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1527 | 1473 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1539 | 1583 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1559 | 1556 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | 1543 | 1550 | Step 5 Preview |
| Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.6 | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 31.9 | 43.7 | Step 5 Preview |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 155.7 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index22 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.6 | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | 1206 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | 1220 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1207 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Android apps | 1197 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building games | 1212 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LiveBench research | Not measured | 72.8% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LiveBench browser | Not measured | 24.0% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | Not measured | 27.5% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.4% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | Not measured | 50.7% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 27.3% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 40.4% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 57.1% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| BioMysteryBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 67.4% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | Not measured | 2.9% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Vals Science Index | Not measured | 29.6% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 92.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| APEX-Agents | 46.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| METR time horizons | 78.9% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Remote Labor Index | 4.2% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| DeepResearch Bench | 55.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $8,018 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 19 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index51
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.6 | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 89.7% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LiveBench reasoning | Not measured | 83.8% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | Not measured | 18.5% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 83.9% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 89.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 39.9% | 46.5% | Step 5 Preview |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 90.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| ARC-AGI | 94.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 69.2% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| SimpleBench | 67.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Chess puzzles | 21.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 25.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| EBR-bench | 12.7% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1525 | 1461 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1544 | 1485 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1530 | 1454 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1340 | 1308 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1337 | 1265 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 83.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index30
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.6 | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 95.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 94.4% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 66.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 26.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| ProofBench | 50.0% | 42.0% | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: math | 1518 | 1458 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1525 | 1460 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index40
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.6 | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 89.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 85.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 62.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 67.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 76.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 68.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | 95.4% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 49.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | 47.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1519 | 1454 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1504 | 1439 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1512 | 1437 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1497 | 1435 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| FACTS Benchmark Suite | 41.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 4 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index9 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.6 | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1291 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1281 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1277 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1279 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1273 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1288 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1227 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1255 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LiveBench design | Not measured | 76.9% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index171
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.6 | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench data analysis | Not measured | 63.5% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 58.1% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 51.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 86.7% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| IFBench | 53.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 78.0% | 88.3% | Step 5 Preview |
| DTBench | 91.2% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMCA | 55.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| CL-bench | 20.7% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Furniture assembly | 28.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| CL-bench Life | 17.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1501 | 1440 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1521 | 1438 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1505 | 1409 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| LMArena Vision | 1316 | 1265 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: English | 1511 | 1447 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1488 | 1428 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1551 | 1500 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: German | 1500 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1488 | 1383 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1464 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1512 | 1438 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1510 | 1441 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1497 | 1433 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1499 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1511 | 1437 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1518 | 1449 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1502 | 1425 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1492 | 1412 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1324 | 1290 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1370 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1326 | 1282 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| LMArena Vision: humor | 1314 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Vision: recognizing things | 1274 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1331 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Document | 1507 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.6 | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 5 boards here | |||
What each workload costs
Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.
Chat turn
1K input + 500 output tokens
Claude Opus 4.6$0.018Fits in one request
Step 5 Preview$0.0024Fits in one request
Step 5 Preview costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Claude Opus 4.6$0.325Fits in one request
Step 5 Preview$0.058Fits in one request
Step 5 Preview costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Claude Opus 4.6$1.25Fits in one request
Step 5 Preview$0.227Fits in one request
Step 5 Preview costs less
Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.
Specification differences
The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.
| Specification | Anthropic Claude Opus 4.6 | StepFun Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Anthropic | StepFun |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | February 4, 2026 | October 8, 2026 |
| Context window | 1M | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $5.00 | $1.00 |
| Output $/Mtok | $25.00 | $2.70 |
| Coding index | 57.2 | 61.1 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 4 | 4 |
| Cost per solved task | $1.56 | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Claude Opus 4.6 better than Step 5 Preview for coding?
Pick Step 5 Preview for coding: it scores 61.1 on the Vibe Coding Index against 57.2 for Claude Opus 4.6. Pick Claude Opus 4.6 for work measured by LMArena Text: coding or LMArena Text: software and IT, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 4.6 or Step 5 Preview?
Claude Opus 4.6 costs $5.00 per million input tokens and $25.00 per million output tokens; Step 5 Preview costs $1.00 and $2.70. Cost per solved task is known for Claude Opus 4.6 only.
Which has the bigger context window, Claude Opus 4.6 or Step 5 Preview?
Step 5 Preview, with 1.05M tokens against 1M.
How many benchmarks is the Claude Opus 4.6 vs Step 5 Preview comparison based on?
39 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Claude Opus 4.6's coding index rests on 4 independent benchmarks and Step 5 Preview's on 4. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.