Model comparison

Gemini 2.5 Flash vs Step 5 Preview

Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.8 to 39.0 on the Noometry Index. Gemini 2.5 Flash costs 1.7× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Step 5 Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 1 shared benchmarks.

Gemini 2.5 Flash Google

39.0

Rank #162 Confirmed

Step 5 Preview StepFun

43.8

Rank #78 Reported

Summary

  • They share 1 benchmark with published results for both. Gemini 2.5 Flash scores higher in 0 categories and Step 5 Preview in 2 categories; 2 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where Step 5 Preview leads 38.0 to 18.2.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is CritPt: 1.1% for Gemini 2.5 Flash and 20.9% for Step 5 Preview.
  • Gemini 2.5 Flash is cheaper at $0.30 / $2.50 per million input/output tokens, against $1 / $2.70 for Step 5 Preview.
  • Gemini 2.5 Flash accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 1.02M.

Side by side

Gemini 2.5 Flash and Step 5 Preview specifications
Gemini 2.5 FlashStep 5 Preview
ProviderGoogleStepFun
Noometry Index39.043.8
Released2025-04-172026-09-16
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
Context window1.05M1.02M
Max output66K66K
Input $ / M tokens$0.30$1
Output $ / M tokens$2.50$2.70
Results tracked543

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Category by category

Coding Step 5 Preview leads

Gemini 2.5 Flash: 35.5 (#210), Step 5 Preview: 50.6 (#40)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 2.5 FlashStep 5 Preview
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)28.7%—
Aider Polyglot55.1%—
LMArena WebDev—1569
SciCode—58.9%
WeirdML41.9%—
LMArena Coding1424—
ALE-Bench661.88—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Gemini 2.5 Flash: 30.6 (#67), Step 5 Preview: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 2.5 FlashStep 5 Preview
Terminal-Bench17.1%—
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard56.2%—
TheAgentCompany41.1%—
BALROG33.5%—
Vending-Bench 2548.84—

Reasoning Step 5 Preview leads

Gemini 2.5 Flash: 18.2 (#271), Step 5 Preview: 38.0 (#58)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 2.5 FlashStep 5 Preview
CritPt1.1%20.9%
ARC-AGI-22.5%—
SimpleBench41.2%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark56.8%—
ARC-AGI-133.3%—
EnigmaEval2.7%—
LMArena Hard Prompts1422—
DTBench76.5%—
LMCA27.5%—
Epoch Capabilities Index143.04—
ForecastBench60.6—

Math Not comparable

Gemini 2.5 Flash: 38.1 (#87), Step 5 Preview: —

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 2.5 FlashStep 5 Preview
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202573.1%—
Omni-MATH38.5%—
LMArena Math1415—
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)4.8%—
FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1)4.2%—

Knowledge Not comparable

Gemini 2.5 Flash: 36.1 (#162), Step 5 Preview: —

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 2.5 FlashStep 5 Preview
Humanity's Last Exam12.1%—
MMLU-Pro63.9%—
Confabulations16.8%—
Vectara Hallucination Rate7.8%—
GPQA (HELM)39%—
LMArena Expert1426—

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemini 2.5 Flash: 41.2 (#31), Step 5 Preview: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 2.5 FlashStep 5 Preview
LMArena Vision1254—
GeoBench76%—
VPCT46.2%—
SpatialViz-Bench36.9%—

Multilingual Not comparable

Gemini 2.5 Flash: 52.5 (#83), Step 5 Preview: —

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 2.5 FlashStep 5 Preview
LMArena Non-English1410—
LMArena Chinese1450—
LMArena French1433—
LMArena German1419—
LMArena Japanese1403—
LMArena Korean1385—
LMArena Russian1415—
LMArena Spanish1421—

Instruction Following Not comparable

Gemini 2.5 Flash: 75.9 (#50), Step 5 Preview: —

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 2.5 FlashStep 5 Preview
IFEval89.8%—
LMArena Instruction Following1405—

Long Context Not comparable

Gemini 2.5 Flash: 47.5 (#16), Step 5 Preview: —

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 2.5 FlashStep 5 Preview
Fiction.LiveBench77.8%—
LMArena Longer Query1419—

Writing & Preference Not comparable

Gemini 2.5 Flash: 54.0 (#153), Step 5 Preview: —

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 2.5 FlashStep 5 Preview
LMArena Text1417—
LMArena Creative Writing1400—
Short-Story Creative Writing76.5%—
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1137—
WildBench81.7%—
LMArena Multi-Turn1408—

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini 2.5 Flash better than Step 5 Preview?

Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.8 to 39.0 on the Noometry Index. Gemini 2.5 Flash costs 1.7× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Step 5 Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 2.5 Flash or Step 5 Preview?

Gemini 2.5 Flash is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $2.50 per million output tokens; Step 5 Preview lists at $1 and $2.70.

Is Gemini 2.5 Flash or Step 5 Preview better for coding?

Step 5 Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 50.6 versus 35.5 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini 2.5 Flash does, with 1.05M tokens against 1.02M.

How many benchmarks do Gemini 2.5 Flash and Step 5 Preview share?

1 benchmark has published results for both models. Gemini 2.5 Flash has 54 scored results on Noometry and Step 5 Preview has 3.

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