GPT-4.1 Mini vs Step 5 Preview
Updated October 21, 2026. 33 benchmarks have a result for both. Coding is ranked on the Vibe Coding Index; every other board is shown as published.
Decision reading
Pick Step 5 Preview for coding: it scores 71.4 on the Vibe Coding Index against 28.5 for GPT-4.1 Mini.
Pick GPT-4.1 Mini when output tokens cost 1.7x less.
- Shared results
- 33
- GPT-4.1 Mini only
- 51
- Step 5 Preview only
- 28
- 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
Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview scores 71.4 against 28.5.
2 benchmarks behind each score
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview leads, 43.7 against 10.2.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only GPT-4.1 Mini has a GPQA Diamond result, 67.9%.
Directional only
Math
AIME
No call
Only GPT-4.1 Mini has a AIME result, 49.4%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only GPT-4.1 Mini has a MMLU Pro result, 77.2%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only GPT-4.1 Mini has a Design Arena: websites result, 997.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview takes 1.05M tokens against 1.05M.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
GPT-4.1 Mini
GPT-4.1 Mini $0.0012, Step 5 Preview $0.0024 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only GPT-4.1 Mini has the number, $1.818.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- GPT-4.1 Mini 28.5 from 2 benchmarks, Step 5 Preview 71.4 from 2 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Intelligence, 33.5 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- Long context reasoning (AA-LCR): GPT-4.1 Mini 44.0% against Step 5 Preview 88.3%, 44.3 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- GPT-4.1 Mini $1.60 against Step 5 Preview $2.70 per million output tokens, 1.7x apart.
- Context window
- GPT-4.1 Mini takes 1.05M 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 | GPT-4.1 Mini | Bars | Step 5 Preview | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 2 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 6 | ||
| Math | 0 | 2 | ||
| Knowledge | 0 | 4 | ||
| General | 0 | 18 | ||
| All shared boards | 0 | 33 |
CodingLike-for-likeFour of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index02
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 Mini | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aider polyglot | 32.4% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| SWE-bench Verified | 23.9% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini 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 | 20.2 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 58.2% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini 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) | 48.3% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 58.9% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 7.6% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| WeirdML | 37.6% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1367 | 1485 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1360 | 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 18 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 Mini | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 10.2 | 43.7 | Step 5 Preview |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 134.9 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index12 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 Mini | 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 | 52.9% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 27 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index06
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 Mini | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 67.9% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini 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) | 70.5% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 66.4% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 5.0% | 46.5% | Step 5 Preview |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 65.8% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| ARC-AGI | 3.5% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 0.0% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| Chess puzzles | 1.0% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 7.0% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1349 | 1461 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1338 | 1485 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1362 | 1454 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1182 | 1308 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1214 | 1265 | Step 5 Preview |
| Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 Mini | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 49.4% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| MATH 500 (Vals AI) | 88.0% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | 87.8% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| AA Math Index | 46.3 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 46.3% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 44.7% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 6.7% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| ProofBench | Not measured | 42.0% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| MATH level 5 | 87.3% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1343 | 1458 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1347 | 1460 | Step 5 Preview |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index04
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 Mini | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 77.2% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 78.0% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 57.9% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 71.9% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 65.5% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | 84.6% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 78.1% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | 12.7% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1328 | 1454 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1324 | 1439 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1343 | 1437 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1322 | 1435 | Step 5 Preview |
| Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 Mini | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 997 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 961 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1071 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1034 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 837 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 994 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| LiveBench design | Not measured | 76.9% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index018
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 Mini | 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 | 38.3% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 44.0% | 88.3% | Step 5 Preview |
| DTBench | 68.8% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| LMCA | 21.1% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 44.4% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text | 1341 | 1440 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1333 | 1438 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1299 | 1409 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Vision | 1181 | 1265 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: English | 1356 | 1447 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1318 | 1428 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1329 | 1500 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: German | 1350 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1290 | 1383 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1298 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1358 | 1438 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1319 | 1441 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1324 | 1433 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1326 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1354 | 1437 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1344 | 1449 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1319 | 1425 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1300 | 1412 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1191 | 1290 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1186 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1188 | 1282 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Vision: humor | 1182 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| LMArena Vision: captioning | 1174 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| LMArena Vision: recognizing things | 1187 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1182 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 Mini measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 14 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 Mini | 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
GPT-4.1 Mini costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
GPT-4.1 Mini costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
GPT-4.1 Mini 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 | OpenAI GPT-4.1 Mini | StepFun Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | OpenAI | StepFun |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | April 14, 2025 | October 8, 2026 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.40 | $1.00 |
| Output $/Mtok | $1.60 | $2.70 |
| Coding index | 28.5 | 71.4 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 2 | 2 |
| Cost per solved task | $1.818 | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is GPT-4.1 Mini better than Step 5 Preview for coding?
Pick Step 5 Preview for coding: it scores 71.4 on the Vibe Coding Index against 28.5 for GPT-4.1 Mini. Pick GPT-4.1 Mini when output tokens cost 1.7x less.
Which is cheaper, GPT-4.1 Mini or Step 5 Preview?
GPT-4.1 Mini costs $0.40 per million input tokens and $1.60 per million output tokens; Step 5 Preview costs $1.00 and $2.70. Cost per solved task is known for GPT-4.1 Mini only.
Which has the bigger context window, GPT-4.1 Mini or Step 5 Preview?
Step 5 Preview, with 1.05M tokens against 1.05M.
How many benchmarks is the GPT-4.1 Mini vs Step 5 Preview comparison based on?
33 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. GPT-4.1 Mini's coding index rests on 2 independent benchmarks and Step 5 Preview's on 2. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.