Model comparison
GPT-5.2 vs Step 5 Preview
GPT-5.2 is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.1 to 47.9 on the Noometry Index. Step 5 Preview costs 3.4× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GPT-5.2's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 16 shared benchmarks.
StepFunSummary
- They share 16 benchmarks with published results for both. GPT-5.2 scores higher in 5 categories and Step 5 Preview in 4 categories; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where GPT-5.2 leads 59.3 to 41.2.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is ProofBench: 15% for GPT-5.2 and 42% for Step 5 Preview.
- Step 5 Preview is cheaper at $1 / $2.70 per million input/output tokens, against $1.75 / $14 for GPT-5.2.
- Step 5 Preview accepts more context: 1.02M tokens versus 400K.
Side by side
| GPT-5.2 | Step 5 Preview | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | OpenAI | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 54.1 | 47.9 |
| Released | 2025-12-11 | 2026-09-16 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Context window | 400K | 1.02M |
| Max output | 128K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $1.75 | $1 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $14 | $2.70 |
| Results tracked | 67 | 18 |
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Category by category
Coding Too close to call
GPT-5.2: 51.6 (#37), Step 5 Preview: 51.8 (#36)
| Benchmark | GPT-5.2 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1416 | 1564 |
| LMArena Coding | 1447 | 1480 |
| SWE-bench Verified | 73.8% | — |
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | 72.8% | — |
| SWE-bench Multilingual | 66.7% | — |
| SciCode | — | 58.9% |
| GSO | 27.4% | — |
| WeirdML | 72.2% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 1,294 | — |
| AlgoTune | 2.05 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
GPT-5.2: 40.2 (#24), Step 5 Preview: —
| Benchmark | GPT-5.2 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | 64.9% | — |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 55.9% | — |
| GDPval | 49.7% | — |
| Remote Labor Index | 2.5% | — |
| τ²-bench Airline | 83% | — |
| τ²-bench Banking | 32.2% | — |
| τ²-bench Retail | 81.6% | — |
| τ²-bench Telecom | 89.7% | — |
| DeepResearch Bench | 41.1% | — |
| LMArena Search | 1207 | — |
| METR Time Horizons | 75.3% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | 3,591 | — |
Reasoning GPT-5.2 leads
GPT-5.2: 50.2 (#35), Step 5 Preview: 40.0 (#57)
| Benchmark | GPT-5.2 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1445 | 1465 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 52.9% | — |
| SimpleBench | 45.8% | — |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 73.3% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 83.6% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 86.2% | — |
| CritPt | — | 20.9% |
| Chess Puzzles | 49% | — |
| EnigmaEval | 10.4% | — |
| EBR-Bench | 23% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 23% | — |
| DTBench | 90.9% | — |
| LMCA | 43.9% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 153.45 | — |
| ForecastBench | 60.1 | — |
Math GPT-5.2 leads
GPT-5.2: 60.0 (#38), Step 5 Preview: 46.1 (#72)
| Benchmark | GPT-5.2 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| ProofBench | 15% | 42% |
| LMArena Math | 1440 | 1470 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 67.4% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 31.7% | — |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | 72% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 96.1% | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 40.7% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | 18.8% | — |
Knowledge GPT-5.2 leads
GPT-5.2: 59.3 (#32), Step 5 Preview: 41.2 (#112)
| Benchmark | GPT-5.2 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1445 | 1470 |
| GPQA Diamond | 91.4% | — |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 27.8% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 37.1% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 8.4% | — |
Multimodal GPT-5.2 leads
GPT-5.2: 51.3 (#7), Step 5 Preview: 41.0 (#41)
| Benchmark | GPT-5.2 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1268 | 1267 |
| VPCT | 84% | — |
| Furniture Assembly | 38.3% | — |
| LMArena Document | 1405 | — |
Multilingual Too close to call
GPT-5.2: 53.4 (#67), Step 5 Preview: 53.8 (#54)
| Benchmark | GPT-5.2 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1425 | 1432 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1460 | 1519 |
| LMArena Russian | 1440 | 1436 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1433 | 1439 |
| LMArena French | 1455 | — |
| LMArena German | 1448 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1420 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1392 | — |
Instruction Following Step 5 Preview leads
GPT-5.2: 74.7 (#89), Step 5 Preview: 76.0 (#50)
| Benchmark | GPT-5.2 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1417 | 1444 |
Long Context Too close to call
GPT-5.2: 44.0 (#78), Step 5 Preview: 44.5 (#64)
| Benchmark | GPT-5.2 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1428 | 1455 |
| CL-bench | 18.2% | — |
Writing & Preference GPT-5.2 leads
GPT-5.2: 66.8 (#32), Step 5 Preview: 62.8 (#71)
| Benchmark | GPT-5.2 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1439 | 1442 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1401 | 1410 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1458 | 1447 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1703 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is GPT-5.2 better than Step 5 Preview?
GPT-5.2 is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.1 to 47.9 on the Noometry Index. Step 5 Preview costs 3.4× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GPT-5.2's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, GPT-5.2 or Step 5 Preview?
Step 5 Preview is cheaper. It lists at $1 per million input tokens and $2.70 per million output tokens; GPT-5.2 lists at $1.75 and $14.
Is GPT-5.2 or Step 5 Preview better for coding?
They score almost the same on coding (51.6 vs 51.8); test both on your own repository before choosing.
Which has the bigger context window?
Step 5 Preview does, with 1.02M tokens against 400K.
How many benchmarks do GPT-5.2 and Step 5 Preview share?
16 benchmarks have published results for both models. GPT-5.2 has 67 scored results on Noometry and Step 5 Preview has 18.