Model comparison

GPT-5.4 vs Step 5 Preview

GPT-5.4 is the stronger model overall, scoring 59.4 to 47.9 on the Noometry Index. Step 5 Preview costs 3.9× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GPT-5.4's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 18 shared benchmarks.

GPT-5.4 OpenAI

59.4

Rank #16 Confirmed

Step 5 Preview StepFun

47.9

Rank #58 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. GPT-5.4 scores higher in 9 categories and Step 5 Preview in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where GPT-5.4 leads 73.5 to 46.1.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is ProofBench: 56% for GPT-5.4 and 42% for Step 5 Preview.
  • Step 5 Preview is cheaper at $1 / $2.70 per million input/output tokens, against $2.50 / $15 for GPT-5.4.
  • GPT-5.4 accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 1.02M.

Side by side

GPT-5.4 and Step 5 Preview specifications
GPT-5.4Step 5 Preview
ProviderOpenAIStepFun
Noometry Index59.447.9
Released2026-03-052026-09-16
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
Context window1.05M1.02M
Max output128K66K
Input $ / M tokens$2.50$1
Output $ / M tokens$15$2.70
Results tracked6818

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Category by category

Coding Too close to call

GPT-5.4: 52.6 (#33), Step 5 Preview: 51.8 (#36)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.4Step 5 Preview
LMArena WebDev14651564
SciCode56.6%58.9%
LMArena Coding14971480
SWE-bench Verified76.9%—
DeepSWE51.8%—
GSO31.4%—
WeirdML77.7%—
MirrorCode15.6%—
ALE-Bench1,607—
AlgoTune1.85—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

GPT-5.4: 46.5 (#13), Step 5 Preview: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.4Step 5 Preview
Terminal-Bench81.8%—
APEX-Agents52.4%—
τ²-bench Banking39.4%—
DeepResearch Bench35.1%—
PostTrainBench19%—
GBAEval45.1%—
LMArena Search1197—
METR Time Horizons74.3%—
Vending-Bench 26,144—

Reasoning GPT-5.4 leads

GPT-5.4: 61.8 (#19), Step 5 Preview: 40.0 (#57)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.4Step 5 Preview
CritPt23.4%20.9%
LMArena Hard Prompts14851465
ARC-AGI-274%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark63.8%—
NYT Connections (extended)91.3%—
ARC-AGI-193.7%—
Chess Puzzles44%—
EnigmaEval16%—
Thematic Generalization80%—
EBR-Bench25.4%—
Mystery Game Puzzles37%—
DTBench94.4%—
LMCA52%—
Epoch Capabilities Index156.81—
ForecastBench59.5—

Math GPT-5.4 leads

GPT-5.4: 73.5 (#19), Step 5 Preview: 46.1 (#72)

Knowledge GPT-5.4 leads

GPT-5.4: 65.3 (#14), Step 5 Preview: 41.2 (#112)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.4Step 5 Preview
LMArena Expert15071470
GPQA Diamond93.3%—
Humanity's Last Exam36.2%—
SimpleQA Verified45.1%—
Vectara Hallucination Rate7%—

Multimodal GPT-5.4 leads

GPT-5.4: 43.7 (#20), Step 5 Preview: 41.0 (#41)

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.4Step 5 Preview
LMArena Vision13031267
Blueprint-Bench 227.1%—
Furniture Assembly37.5%—
LMArena Document1471—

Multilingual GPT-5.4 leads

GPT-5.4: 56.2 (#23), Step 5 Preview: 53.8 (#54)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.4Step 5 Preview
LMArena Non-English14651432
LMArena Chinese15191519
LMArena Russian14801436
LMArena Spanish14541439
LMArena French1493—
LMArena German1472—
LMArena Japanese1485—
LMArena Korean1448—

Instruction Following GPT-5.4 leads

GPT-5.4: 77.1 (#27), Step 5 Preview: 76.0 (#50)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.4Step 5 Preview
LMArena Instruction Following14691444

Long Context GPT-5.4 leads

GPT-5.4: 50.3 (#8), Step 5 Preview: 44.5 (#64)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.4Step 5 Preview
LMArena Longer Query14731455
CL-bench27.9%—
CL-bench Life21.7%—

Writing & Preference GPT-5.4 leads

GPT-5.4: 71.9 (#17), Step 5 Preview: 62.8 (#71)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.4Step 5 Preview
LMArena Text14691442
LMArena Creative Writing14391410
LMArena Multi-Turn14821447
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1840—
EQ-Bench 41272—

Frequently asked questions

Is GPT-5.4 better than Step 5 Preview?

GPT-5.4 is the stronger model overall, scoring 59.4 to 47.9 on the Noometry Index. Step 5 Preview costs 3.9× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GPT-5.4's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, GPT-5.4 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-5.4 lists at $2.50 and $15.

Is GPT-5.4 or Step 5 Preview better for coding?

They score almost the same on coding (52.6 vs 51.8); test both on your own repository before choosing.

Which has the bigger context window?

GPT-5.4 does, with 1.05M tokens against 1.02M.

How many benchmarks do GPT-5.4 and Step 5 Preview share?

18 benchmarks have published results for both models. GPT-5.4 has 68 scored results on Noometry and Step 5 Preview has 18.

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