DeepSeek V3 0324 vs Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview leads DeepSeek V3 0324 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 43.7 to 9.7, and DeepSeek V3 0324 costs 2.5x less per output token ($1.07 vs $2.70 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 4 benchmarks have a result for both.
DeepSeek V3 0324 or Step 5 Preview: which to pick
Only Step 5 Preview has a coding score, 61.1 on the Vibe Coding Index; DeepSeek V3 0324 has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick DeepSeek V3 0324 for output tokens 2.5x cheaper ($1.07 vs $2.70 per million).
- Shared results
- 4
- DeepSeek V3 0324 only
- 31
- Step 5 Preview only
- 57
- Like-for-like categories
- 4 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
No call
Only Step 5 Preview has a coding score, so no call is made.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview leads, 43.7 against 9.7.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only DeepSeek V3 0324 has a AA Agentic Index result, 0.8.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only DeepSeek V3 0324 has a GPQA Diamond result, 61.6%.
Directional only
Math
AIME
No call
Only DeepSeek V3 0324 has a AIME result, 52.2%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only DeepSeek V3 0324 has a MMLU Pro result, 79.5%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview takes 1.05M tokens against 164K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
DeepSeek V3 0324
DeepSeek V3 0324 $0.0008, Step 5 Preview $0.0024 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- DeepSeek V3 0324 not benchmarked, Step 5 Preview 61.1 from 4 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- General, 47.7 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- Long context reasoning (AA-LCR): DeepSeek V3 0324 40.7% against Step 5 Preview 88.3%, 47.7 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- DeepSeek V3 0324 $1.07 against Step 5 Preview $2.70 per million output tokens, 2.5x apart.
- Context window
- DeepSeek V3 0324 takes 164K 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 | DeepSeek V3 0324 | Bars | Step 5 Preview | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 1 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 1 | ||
| General | 0 | 1 | ||
| All shared boards | 0 | 4 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index01
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 0324 | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | 42.0% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| LiveBench coding | Not measured | 85.6% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena WebDev | Not measured | 1567 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| AA Coding Index | 21.2 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 65.5% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 31.8% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 70.4% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| 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 |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 40.5% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| SciCode | 39.0% | 58.9% | Step 5 Preview |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 15.2% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| WeirdML | 36.1% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | Not measured | 1485 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | Not measured | 1473 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | Not measured | 1583 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | Not measured | 1556 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | Not measured | 1550 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 20 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 0324 | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 9.7 | 43.7 | Step 5 Preview |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index14 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 0324 | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 0.8 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 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 | 47.1% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| METR time horizons | 49.6% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 27 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 0324 | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 61.6% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| LiveBench reasoning | Not measured | 83.8% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | Not measured | 18.5% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 65.5% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 4.7% | 46.5% | Step 5 Preview |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 67.6% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| SimpleBench | 27.2% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | Not measured | 1461 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | Not measured | 1485 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | Not measured | 1454 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | Not measured | 1308 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | Not measured | 1265 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 0324 | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 52.2% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| MATH 500 (Vals AI) | 88.6% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | 91.7% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| AA Math Index | 41.0 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 41.0% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 37.8% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| ProofBench | Not measured | 42.0% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| MATH level 5 | 75.5% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1458 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1460 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 0324 | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 79.5% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 77.7% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 54.7% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 71.1% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | 82.0% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 81.9% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | Not measured | 1454 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | Not measured | 1439 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1437 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | Not measured | 1435 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index1 board, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 0324 | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench design | Not measured | 76.9% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 0324 | 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 |
| IFBench | 41.0% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 40.7% | 88.3% | Step 5 Preview |
| DTBench | 64.8% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| LMCA | 15.5% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 50.0% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| Creative writing (Lech Mazur) | 77.0% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| LMArena Text | Not measured | 1440 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | Not measured | 1438 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | Not measured | 1409 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision | Not measured | 1265 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: English | Not measured | 1447 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | Not measured | 1428 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | Not measured | 1500 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1383 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1438 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1441 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | Not measured | 1433 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | Not measured | 1437 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | Not measured | 1449 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | Not measured | 1425 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | Not measured | 1412 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: English | Not measured | 1290 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | Not measured | 1282 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 21 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 0324 | 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
DeepSeek V3 0324 costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
DeepSeek V3 0324 costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
DeepSeek V3 0324 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 | DeepSeek V3 0324 | StepFun Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | DeepSeek | StepFun |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | March 24, 2025 | October 8, 2026 |
| Context window | 164K | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.27 | $1.00 |
| Output $/Mtok | $1.07 | $2.70 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | 61.1 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 0 | 4 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is DeepSeek V3 0324 better than Step 5 Preview for coding?
Only Step 5 Preview has a coding score, 61.1 on the Vibe Coding Index; DeepSeek V3 0324 has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick DeepSeek V3 0324 for output tokens 2.5x cheaper ($1.07 vs $2.70 per million).
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V3 0324 or Step 5 Preview?
DeepSeek V3 0324 costs $0.27 per million input tokens and $1.07 per million output tokens; Step 5 Preview costs $1.00 and $2.70. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, DeepSeek V3 0324 or Step 5 Preview?
Step 5 Preview, with 1.05M tokens against 164K.
How many benchmarks is the DeepSeek V3 0324 vs Step 5 Preview comparison based on?
4 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. DeepSeek V3 0324's coding index rests on 0 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.