Step 5 Preview vs Pareto 26.10 Preview
Step 5 Preview and Pareto 26.10 Preview cost about the same per output token ($2.70 vs $3.20 per million). Updated November 14, 2026; 1 benchmarks have a result for both.
Step 5 Preview or Pareto 26.10 Preview: which to pick
Only Step 5 Preview has a coding score, 57.4 on the Vibe Coding Index; Pareto 26.10 Preview has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Pareto 26.10 Preview for a larger context window (1.05M against 1M tokens) and work measured by GameBench 2, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 1
- Step 5 Preview only
- 74
- Pareto 26.10 Preview only
- 0
- Like-for-like categories
- 1 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
No call
Only Step 5 Preview has a AA Intelligence Index result, 28.5.
Directional only
General
Vals Index
No call
Only Step 5 Preview has a Vals Index result, 54.8%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Pareto 26.10 Preview
Pareto 26.10 Preview takes 1.05M tokens against 1M.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview $0.0024, Pareto 26.10 Preview $0.0024 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Step 5 Preview 57.4 from 4 benchmarks, Pareto 26.10 Preview not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Coding, 35.7 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- GameBench 2: Step 5 Preview 52.6 against Pareto 26.10 Preview 88.3, 35.7 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Step 5 Preview $2.70 against Pareto 26.10 Preview $3.20 per million output tokens, 1.2x apart.
- Context window
- Step 5 Preview takes 1M tokens, Pareto 26.10 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 | Step 5 Preview | Bars | Pareto 26.10 Preview | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 1 | ||
| All shared boards | 0 | 1 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index01
| Benchmark | Step 5 Preview | Pareto 26.10 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | 67.6% | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1573 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 31.8% | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 70.4% | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 39.0% | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | 38.1% | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI) | 40.8% | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| SciCode | 58.9% | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4.0 (Artificial Analysis run) | 33.3% | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| FrontierCode 2.0 | 12.0% | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1482 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1471 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1589 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1546 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | 1551 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| GameBench 2 | 52.6 | 88.3 | Pareto 26.10 Preview |
| Neither model has a result on the other 36 boards here | |||
IntelligenceDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index1 board, none shared
| Benchmark | Step 5 Preview | Pareto 26.10 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 28.5 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| 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 | Step 5 Preview | Pareto 26.10 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench research | 75.5% | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LiveBench browser | 24.8% | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | 19.4% | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | 0.4% | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 50.7% | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 27.3% | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 40.4% | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | 12.9% | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 57.1% | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| BioMysteryBench (Vals AI) | 67.4% | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | 2.9% | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Vals Science Index | 29.6% | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 32 boards here | |||
ReasoningDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Step 5 Preview | Pareto 26.10 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench reasoning | 83.8% | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | 18.5% | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 46.5% | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| HLE-Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 24.3% | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| CritPt v2, hard subset (Artificial Analysis run) | 32.5% | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1463 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1478 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1463 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1295 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1274 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index3 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Step 5 Preview | Pareto 26.10 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| ProofBench | 42.0% | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1462 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1465 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 11 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index5 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Step 5 Preview | Pareto 26.10 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA-Omniscience | 16.4 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1462 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1441 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1441 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1444 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index1 board, none shared
| Benchmark | Step 5 Preview | Pareto 26.10 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench design | 70.8% | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
GeneralDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index27 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Step 5 Preview | Pareto 26.10 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | 54.8% | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LiveBench data analysis | 63.5% | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | 58.1% | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 88.3% | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| GDPval-AA | 1591 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text | 1443 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1445 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1415 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision | 1263 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1455 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1429 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1495 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1454 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1397 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1404 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1446 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1442 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1433 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1405 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1440 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1453 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1429 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1413 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1279 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1315 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1278 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1251 | Not measured | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 22 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Step 5 Preview | Pareto 26.10 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
Step 5 Preview costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Pareto 26.10 Preview costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Pareto 26.10 Preview 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 | StepFun Step 5 Preview | Pareto 26.10 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | StepFun | Unbiased |
| Weights | Open weights | No public weights listed |
| Released | October 8, 2026 | October 1, 2026 |
| Context window | 1M | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $1.00 | $0.80 |
| Output $/Mtok | $2.70 | $3.20 |
| Coding index | 57.4 | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 4 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Step 5 Preview better than Pareto 26.10 Preview for coding?
Only Step 5 Preview has a coding score, 57.4 on the Vibe Coding Index; Pareto 26.10 Preview has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Pareto 26.10 Preview for a larger context window (1.05M against 1M tokens) and work measured by GameBench 2, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Step 5 Preview or Pareto 26.10 Preview?
Step 5 Preview costs $1.00 per million input tokens and $2.70 per million output tokens; Pareto 26.10 Preview costs $0.80 and $3.20. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, Step 5 Preview or Pareto 26.10 Preview?
Pareto 26.10 Preview, with 1.05M tokens against 1M.
How many benchmarks is the Step 5 Preview vs Pareto 26.10 Preview comparison based on?
1 benchmarks have a result for both models as of November 14, 2026. Step 5 Preview's coding index rests on 4 independent benchmarks and Pareto 26.10 Preview's on 0. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.