R1 0528 vs Step 5 Preview
Updated October 21, 2026. 28 benchmarks have a result for both. Coding is ranked on the Vibe Coding Index; every other board is shown as published.
Decision reading
R1 0528 and Step 5 Preview are level for coding, 71.4 against 71.4 on the Vibe Coding Index, so price and context decide.
Pick Step 5 Preview when the context window is larger, 1.05M against 164K tokens, or when what matters is LMArena Text: coding or LMArena Text: software and IT, where it leads. Pick R1 0528 when output tokens cost 1.3x less, or when what matters is LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare or LMArena Text: Japanese, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 28
- R1 0528 only
- 31
- Step 5 Preview only
- 33
- Like-for-like categories
- 6 of 9
Shared results can support a head-to-head reading. Results only one model has describe coverage, not superiority.
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, four public coding benchmarks
No call
Level: 71.4 against 71.4, inside 2 points.
1 and 2 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview leads, 43.7 against 13.1.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only R1 0528 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1149.
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
R1 0528
R1 0528 $0.0016, Step 5 Preview $0.0024 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- R1 0528 71.4 from 1 benchmark, Step 5 Preview 71.4 from 2 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Intelligence, 30.6 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- Long context reasoning (AA-LCR): R1 0528 55.7% against Step 5 Preview 88.3%, 32.7 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- R1 0528 $2.15 against Step 5 Preview $2.70 per million output tokens, 1.3x apart.
- Context window
- R1 0528 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 | R1 0528 | Bars | Step 5 Preview | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 2 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 4 | ||
| Math | 0 | 2 | ||
| Knowledge | 1 | 3 | ||
| General | 1 | 14 | ||
| All shared boards | 2 | 26 |
CodingLike-for-likeFour of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index02
| Benchmark | R1 0528 | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aider polyglot | 71.4% | Not measured | Only R1 0528 measured |
| LiveBench coding | Not measured | 85.6% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena WebDev | Not measured | 1567 | Only Step 5 Preview 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) | 77.0% | Not measured | Only R1 0528 measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 58.9% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 15.9% | Not measured | Only R1 0528 measured |
| WeirdML | 41.6% | Not measured | Only R1 0528 measured |
| ALE-Bench | 804.1 | Not measured | Only R1 0528 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1427 | 1485 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1435 | 1473 | Step 5 Preview |
| 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 | R1 0528 | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 13.1 | 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 | R1 0528 | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | 36.5% | Not measured | Only R1 0528 measured |
| METR time horizons | 53.8% | Not measured | Only R1 0528 measured |
| DeepResearch Bench | 35.1% | Not measured | Only R1 0528 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 25 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index04
| Benchmark | R1 0528 | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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) | 81.3% | Not measured | Only R1 0528 measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 15.8% | 46.5% | Step 5 Preview |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 76.3% | Not measured | Only R1 0528 measured |
| ARC-AGI | 21.2% | Not measured | Only R1 0528 measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 1.1% | Not measured | Only R1 0528 measured |
| SimpleBench | 40.8% | Not measured | Only R1 0528 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1415 | 1461 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1394 | 1485 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1422 | 1454 | Step 5 Preview |
| 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 8 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | R1 0528 | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Math Index | 76.0 | Not measured | Only R1 0528 measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 76.0% | Not measured | Only R1 0528 measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 66.4% | Not measured | Only R1 0528 measured |
| ProofBench | Not measured | 42.0% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| MATH level 5 | 96.6% | Not measured | Only R1 0528 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1400 | 1458 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1415 | 1460 | Step 5 Preview |
| Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index13
| Benchmark | R1 0528 | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 84.9% | Not measured | Only R1 0528 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1430 | 1454 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1445 | 1439 | R1 0528 |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1419 | 1437 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1402 | 1435 | Step 5 Preview |
| Neither model has a result on the other 12 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index8 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | R1 0528 | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1149 | Not measured | Only R1 0528 measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1102 | Not measured | Only R1 0528 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1098 | Not measured | Only R1 0528 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1182 | Not measured | Only R1 0528 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1111 | Not measured | Only R1 0528 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1139 | Not measured | Only R1 0528 measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1038 | Not measured | Only R1 0528 measured |
| LiveBench design | Not measured | 76.9% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index114
| Benchmark | R1 0528 | 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 | 39.6% | Not measured | Only R1 0528 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 55.7% | 88.3% | Step 5 Preview |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 75.0% | Not measured | Only R1 0528 measured |
| Creative writing (Lech Mazur) | 81.9% | Not measured | Only R1 0528 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1428 | 1440 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1382 | 1438 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1405 | 1409 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Vision | Not measured | 1265 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1437 | 1447 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1412 | 1428 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1442 | 1500 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: German | 1404 | Not measured | Only R1 0528 measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1391 | 1383 | R1 0528 |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1360 | Not measured | Only R1 0528 measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1417 | 1438 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1411 | 1441 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1423 | 1433 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1428 | Not measured | Only R1 0528 measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1405 | 1437 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1391 | 1449 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1402 | 1425 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1400 | 1412 | Step 5 Preview |
| 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 20 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | R1 0528 | 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
R1 0528 costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
R1 0528 costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
R1 0528 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 R1 0528 | StepFun Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | DeepSeek | StepFun |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | May 28, 2025 | October 8, 2026 |
| Context window | 164K | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.50 | $1.00 |
| Output $/Mtok | $2.15 | $2.70 |
| Coding index | 71.4 | 71.4 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 1 | 2 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is R1 0528 better than Step 5 Preview for coding?
R1 0528 and Step 5 Preview are level for coding, 71.4 against 71.4 on the Vibe Coding Index, so price and context decide. Pick Step 5 Preview when the context window is larger, 1.05M against 164K tokens, or when what matters is LMArena Text: coding or LMArena Text: software and IT, where it leads. Pick R1 0528 when output tokens cost 1.3x less, or when what matters is LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare or LMArena Text: Japanese, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, R1 0528 or Step 5 Preview?
R1 0528 costs $0.50 per million input tokens and $2.15 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, R1 0528 or Step 5 Preview?
Step 5 Preview, with 1.05M tokens against 164K.
How many benchmarks is the R1 0528 vs Step 5 Preview comparison based on?
28 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. R1 0528's coding index rests on 1 independent benchmark and Step 5 Preview's on 2. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.