Model comparison
Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.8 to 39.6 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 1 shared benchmarks.
Mistral AI
StepFunSummary
- They share 1 benchmark with published results for both. Mistral Medium 3.5 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 16.6.
- Step 5 Preview is cheaper at $1 / $2.70 per million input/output tokens, against $1.50 / $7.50 for Mistral Medium 3.5.
- Step 5 Preview accepts more context: 1.02M tokens versus 262K.
- Mistral Medium 3.5 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Mistral Medium 3.5 | Step 5 Preview | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 39.6 | 43.8 |
| Released | — | 2026-09-16 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 262K | 1.02M |
| Max output | 210K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $1.50 | $1 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $7.50 | $2.70 |
| Results tracked | 22 | 3 |
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Category by category
Coding Step 5 Preview leads
Mistral Medium 3.5: 35.7 (#208), Step 5 Preview: 50.6 (#40)
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1263 | 1569 |
| SciCode | — | 58.9% |
| LMArena Coding | 1461 | — |
Reasoning Step 5 Preview leads
Mistral Medium 3.5: 16.6 (#290), Step 5 Preview: 38.0 (#58)
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 41.4% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 12.9% | — |
| CritPt | — | 20.9% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1436 | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 141.42 | — |
Math Not comparable
Mistral Medium 3.5: 36.4 (#113), Step 5 Preview: —
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1432 | — |
Knowledge Not comparable
Mistral Medium 3.5: 39.3 (#123), Step 5 Preview: —
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1431 | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Mistral Medium 3.5: 37.6 (#64), Step 5 Preview: —
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1222 | — |
Multilingual Not comparable
Mistral Medium 3.5: 52.1 (#93), Step 5 Preview: —
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1405 | — |
| LMArena Chinese | 1443 | — |
| LMArena French | 1448 | — |
| LMArena German | 1453 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1387 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1396 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1406 | — |
Instruction Following Not comparable
Mistral Medium 3.5: 74.7 (#87), Step 5 Preview: —
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1414 | — |
Long Context Not comparable
Mistral Medium 3.5: 43.2 (#101), Step 5 Preview: —
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1414 | — |
Writing & Preference Not comparable
Mistral Medium 3.5: 58.6 (#113), Step 5 Preview: —
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1421 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1372 | — |
| EQ-Bench 4 | 993 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1423 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Mistral Medium 3.5 better than Step 5 Preview?
Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.8 to 39.6 on the Noometry Index.
Which is cheaper, Mistral Medium 3.5 or Step 5 Preview?
Step 5 Preview is cheaper. It lists at $1 per million input tokens and $2.70 per million output tokens; Mistral Medium 3.5 lists at $1.50 and $7.50.
Is Mistral Medium 3.5 or Step 5 Preview better for coding?
Step 5 Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 50.6 versus 35.7 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Step 5 Preview does, with 1.02M tokens against 262K.
How many benchmarks do Mistral Medium 3.5 and Step 5 Preview share?
1 benchmark has published results for both models. Mistral Medium 3.5 has 22 scored results on Noometry and Step 5 Preview has 3.