Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct vs Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview leads Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 43.7 to 7.3, and Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct costs 3.6x less per output token ($0.75 vs $2.70 per million). Updated October 21, 2026; 3 benchmarks have a result for both.
Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct or Step 5 Preview: which to pick
Only Step 5 Preview has a coding score, 61.1 on the Vibe Coding Index; Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct for output tokens 3.6x cheaper ($0.75 vs $2.70 per million).
- Shared results
- 3
- Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct only
- 8
- Step 5 Preview only
- 58
- Like-for-like categories
- 3 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 7.3.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview takes 1.05M tokens against 262K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct
Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct $0.0006, Step 5 Preview $0.0024 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct not benchmarked, Step 5 Preview 61.1 from 4 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- General, 55.0 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- Long context reasoning (AA-LCR): Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct 33.3% against Step 5 Preview 88.3%, 55.0 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct $0.75 against Step 5 Preview $2.70 per million output tokens, 3.6x apart.
- Context window
- Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct takes 262K 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 VL 8B Instruct | Bars | Step 5 Preview | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 1 | ||
| General | 0 | 1 | ||
| All shared boards | 0 | 3 |
CodingDirectional onlySix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index15 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct | 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 |
| 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) | 35.3% | Not measured | Only Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 58.9% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 3.8% | Not measured | Only Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct 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 23 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 7.3 | 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 index12 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct | 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 | 29.2% | Not measured | Only Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct 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 | Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct | 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) | 57.9% | Not measured | Only Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 3.8% | 46.5% | Step 5 Preview |
| 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 12 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index5 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Math Index | 30.7 | Not measured | Only Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 30.7% | Not measured | Only Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct measured |
| ProofBench | Not measured | 42.0% | Only Step 5 Preview 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 8 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index5 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 74.9% | Not measured | Only Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct 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 12 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index1 board, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct | 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 | Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct | 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 | 39.9% | Not measured | Only Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 33.3% | 88.3% | Step 5 Preview |
| 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 25 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct | 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 VL 8B Instruct costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct 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 VL 8B Instruct | StepFun Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Qwen | StepFun |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | October 14, 2025 | October 8, 2026 |
| Context window | 262K | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.25 | $1.00 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.75 | $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 Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct better than Step 5 Preview for coding?
Only Step 5 Preview has a coding score, 61.1 on the Vibe Coding Index; Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct for output tokens 3.6x cheaper ($0.75 vs $2.70 per million).
Which is cheaper, Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct or Step 5 Preview?
Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct costs $0.25 per million input tokens and $0.75 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 VL 8B Instruct or Step 5 Preview?
Step 5 Preview, with 1.05M tokens against 262K.
How many benchmarks is the Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct vs Step 5 Preview comparison based on?
3 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct'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.