Model comparison
Mistral Small 3.2 vs Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.9 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3.2 costs 11× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Step 5 Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 0 shared benchmarks.
Mistral AI
StepFunSummary
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Step 5 Preview leads 40.0 to 18.1.
- Mistral Small 3.2 is cheaper at $0.0938 / $0.25 per million input/output tokens, against $1 / $2.70 for Step 5 Preview.
- Step 5 Preview accepts more context: 1.02M tokens versus 256K.
- Mistral Small 3.2 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Mistral Small 3.2 | Step 5 Preview | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 31.2 | 47.9 |
| Released | 2025-06-20 | 2026-09-16 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 256K | 1.02M |
| Max output | 16K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.0938 | $1 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.25 | $2.70 |
| Results tracked | 6 | 18 |
Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. Advertise on Noometry
Category by category
Coding Not comparable
Mistral Small 3.2: —, Step 5 Preview: 51.8 (#36)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3.2 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1564 |
| SciCode | — | 58.9% |
| LMArena Coding | — | 1480 |
Reasoning Step 5 Preview leads
Mistral Small 3.2: 18.1 (#287), Step 5 Preview: 40.0 (#57)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3.2 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 40.4% | — |
| CritPt | — | 20.9% |
| Chess Puzzles | 1% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | — | 1465 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 131.74 | — |
Math Step 5 Preview leads
Mistral Small 3.2: 26.3 (#260), Step 5 Preview: 46.1 (#72)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3.2 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 30.3% | — |
| ProofBench | — | 42% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1470 |
Knowledge Step 5 Preview leads
Mistral Small 3.2: 26.7 (#256), Step 5 Preview: 41.2 (#112)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3.2 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 49.1% | — |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1470 |
Multimodal Not comparable
Mistral Small 3.2: —, Step 5 Preview: 41.0 (#41)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3.2 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1267 |
Multilingual Not comparable
Mistral Small 3.2: —, Step 5 Preview: 53.8 (#54)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3.2 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | — | 1432 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1519 |
| LMArena Russian | — | 1436 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1439 |
Instruction Following Not comparable
Mistral Small 3.2: —, Step 5 Preview: 76.0 (#50)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3.2 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | — | 1444 |
Long Context Not comparable
Mistral Small 3.2: —, Step 5 Preview: 44.5 (#64)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3.2 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1455 |
Writing & Preference Step 5 Preview leads
Mistral Small 3.2: 45.0 (#224), Step 5 Preview: 62.8 (#71)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3.2 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | — | 1442 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1410 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1255 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1447 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Mistral Small 3.2 better than Step 5 Preview?
Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.9 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3.2 costs 11× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Step 5 Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Mistral Small 3.2 or Step 5 Preview?
Mistral Small 3.2 is cheaper. It lists at $0.0938 per million input tokens and $0.25 per million output tokens; Step 5 Preview lists at $1 and $2.70.
Which has the bigger context window?
Step 5 Preview does, with 1.02M tokens against 256K.
How many benchmarks do Mistral Small 3.2 and Step 5 Preview share?
0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Mistral Small 3.2 has 6 scored results on Noometry and Step 5 Preview has 18.