Qwen3.7 Plus vs Step 5 Preview
Updated October 21, 2026. 40 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 61.1 on the Vibe Coding Index against 33.2 for Qwen3.7 Plus.
Pick Qwen3.7 Plus when output tokens cost 2.1x less, or when what matters is LMArena Text: hard prompts in English or LMArena Vision: homework, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 40
- Qwen3.7 Plus only
- 35
- Step 5 Preview only
- 21
- Like-for-like categories
- 7 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, six public coding benchmarks
Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview scores 61.1 against 33.2.
2 and 4 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview leads, 43.7 against 25.2.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Qwen3.7 Plus has a AA Agentic Index result, 17.5.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Qwen3.7 Plus has a Design Arena: websites result, 1269.
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
Qwen3.7 Plus
Qwen3.7 Plus $0.0010, Step 5 Preview $0.0024 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Qwen3.7 Plus 33.2 from 2 benchmarks, Step 5 Preview 61.1 from 4 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Intelligence, 18.5 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- Code migration (Vals AI): Qwen3.7 Plus 12.9% against Step 5 Preview 39.0%, 26.1 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Qwen3.7 Plus $1.28 against Step 5 Preview $2.70 per million output tokens, 2.1x apart.
- Context window
- Qwen3.7 Plus 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 | Qwen3.7 Plus | Bars | Step 5 Preview | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 5 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 4 | ||
| Reasoning | 2 | 4 | ||
| Math | 2 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 3 | 1 | ||
| General | 16 | 2 | ||
| All shared boards | 23 | 17 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index05
| Benchmark | Qwen3.7 Plus | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | Not measured | 85.6% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena WebDev | Not measured | 1567 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| AA Coding Index | 55.9 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 31.8% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 46.4% | 70.4% | Step 5 Preview |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 12.9% | 39.0% | Step 5 Preview |
| IOI (Vals AI) | Not measured | 38.1% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 52.8% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI) | Not measured | 40.8% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | 54.3% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus measured |
| SciCode | 46.1% | 58.9% | Step 5 Preview |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 47.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus measured |
| FrontierCode | 10.2% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1473 | 1485 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1473 | 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 | Qwen3.7 Plus | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 25.2 | 43.7 | Step 5 Preview |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 147.0 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index04
| Benchmark | Qwen3.7 Plus | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 17.5 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus 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) | 38.2% | 50.7% | Step 5 Preview |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 10.5% | 27.3% | Step 5 Preview |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 16.4% | 40.4% | Step 5 Preview |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 49.3% | 57.1% | Step 5 Preview |
| 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 | 93.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus measured |
| OSWorld 2.0 | 2.8% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 25 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index24
| Benchmark | Qwen3.7 Plus | 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) | 90.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 35.6% | 46.5% | Step 5 Preview |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 87.9% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 17.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1460 | 1461 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1466 | 1485 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1460 | 1454 | Qwen3.7 Plus |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1292 | 1308 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1295 | 1265 | Qwen3.7 Plus |
| Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Qwen3.7 Plus | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | 93.3% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 34.4% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus measured |
| ProofBench | Not measured | 42.0% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1467 | 1458 | Qwen3.7 Plus |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1470 | 1460 | Qwen3.7 Plus |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index31
| Benchmark | Qwen3.7 Plus | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 66.2% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1464 | 1454 | Qwen3.7 Plus |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1464 | 1439 | Qwen3.7 Plus |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1451 | 1437 | Qwen3.7 Plus |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1435 | 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 index9 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3.7 Plus | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1269 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1261 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1262 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1275 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1239 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1269 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1208 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1144 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus measured |
| LiveBench design | Not measured | 76.9% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index162
| Benchmark | Qwen3.7 Plus | 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) | 39.3% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus measured |
| Vals Multimodal Index | 53.9% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus measured |
| IFBench | 78.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 73.0% | 88.3% | Step 5 Preview |
| DTBench | 84.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus measured |
| LMCA | 37.6% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus measured |
| LMArena Text | 1454 | 1440 | Qwen3.7 Plus |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1439 | 1438 | Qwen3.7 Plus |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1438 | 1409 | Qwen3.7 Plus |
| LMArena Vision | 1278 | 1265 | Qwen3.7 Plus |
| LMArena Text: English | 1458 | 1447 | Qwen3.7 Plus |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1445 | 1428 | Qwen3.7 Plus |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1509 | 1500 | Qwen3.7 Plus |
| LMArena Text: German | 1471 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1412 | 1383 | Qwen3.7 Plus |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1413 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1472 | 1438 | Qwen3.7 Plus |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1457 | 1441 | Qwen3.7 Plus |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1457 | 1433 | Qwen3.7 Plus |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1449 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1459 | 1437 | Qwen3.7 Plus |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1454 | 1449 | Qwen3.7 Plus |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1437 | 1425 | Qwen3.7 Plus |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1422 | 1412 | Qwen3.7 Plus |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1280 | 1290 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1332 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1288 | 1282 | Qwen3.7 Plus |
| LMArena Vision: humor | 1261 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1258 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus measured |
| LMArena Document | 1444 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.7 Plus 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 | Qwen3.7 Plus | 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
Qwen3.7 Plus costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Qwen3.7 Plus costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Qwen3.7 Plus 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 | Qwen3.7 Plus | StepFun Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Qwen | StepFun |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | June 3, 2026 | October 8, 2026 |
| Context window | 1M | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.32 | $1.00 |
| Output $/Mtok | $1.28 | $2.70 |
| Coding index | 33.2 | 61.1 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 2 | 4 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Qwen3.7 Plus better than Step 5 Preview for coding?
Pick Step 5 Preview for coding: it scores 61.1 on the Vibe Coding Index against 33.2 for Qwen3.7 Plus. Pick Qwen3.7 Plus when output tokens cost 2.1x less, or when what matters is LMArena Text: hard prompts in English or LMArena Vision: homework, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.7 Plus or Step 5 Preview?
Qwen3.7 Plus costs $0.32 per million input tokens and $1.28 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, Qwen3.7 Plus or Step 5 Preview?
Step 5 Preview, with 1.05M tokens against 1M.
How many benchmarks is the Qwen3.7 Plus vs Step 5 Preview comparison based on?
40 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Qwen3.7 Plus's coding index rests on 2 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.