Model comparison
Sonar vs Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.9 to 38.5 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 0 shared benchmarks.
Perplexity
StepFunSummary
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Step 5 Preview leads 40.0 to 21.1.
- Sonar is cheaper at $1 / $1 per million input/output tokens, against $1 / $2.70 for Step 5 Preview.
- Step 5 Preview accepts more context: 1.02M tokens versus 128K.
Side by side
| Sonar | Step 5 Preview | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Perplexity | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 38.5 | 47.9 |
| Released | 2024-01-01 | 2026-09-16 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Context window | 128K | 1.02M |
| Max output | 4K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $1 | $1 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $1 | $2.70 |
| Results tracked | 7 | 18 |
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Category by category
Coding Step 5 Preview leads
Sonar: 35.7 (#221), Step 5 Preview: 51.8 (#36)
| Benchmark | Sonar | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1564 |
| SciCode | — | 58.9% |
| LiveBench Coding | 35.1% | — |
| LMArena Coding | — | 1480 |
Reasoning Step 5 Preview leads
Sonar: 21.1 (#227), Step 5 Preview: 40.0 (#57)
| Benchmark | Sonar | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | — | 20.9% |
| LiveBench Reasoning | 46.3% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | — | 1465 |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | 37.9% | — |
| LiveBench | 46.9% | — |
Math Step 5 Preview leads
Sonar: 33.7 (#200), Step 5 Preview: 46.1 (#72)
| Benchmark | Sonar | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| ProofBench | — | 42% |
| LiveBench Math | 41.6% | — |
| LMArena Math | — | 1470 |
Knowledge Not comparable
Sonar: —, Step 5 Preview: 41.2 (#112)
| Benchmark | Sonar | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | — | 1470 |
Multimodal Not comparable
Sonar: —, Step 5 Preview: 41.0 (#41)
| Benchmark | Sonar | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1267 |
Multilingual Not comparable
Sonar: —, Step 5 Preview: 53.8 (#54)
| Benchmark | Sonar | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | — | 1432 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1519 |
| LMArena Russian | — | 1436 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1439 |
Instruction Following Step 5 Preview leads
Sonar: 71.4 (#150), Step 5 Preview: 76.0 (#50)
| Benchmark | Sonar | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Instruction Following | 76.2% | — |
| LMArena Instruction Following | — | 1444 |
Long Context Not comparable
Sonar: —, Step 5 Preview: 44.5 (#64)
| Benchmark | Sonar | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1455 |
Writing & Preference Step 5 Preview leads
Sonar: 52.6 (#167), Step 5 Preview: 62.8 (#71)
| Benchmark | Sonar | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | — | 1442 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1410 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1447 |
| LiveBench Language | 44.1% | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Sonar better than Step 5 Preview?
Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.9 to 38.5 on the Noometry Index.
Which is cheaper, Sonar or Step 5 Preview?
Sonar is cheaper. It lists at $1 per million input tokens and $1 per million output tokens; Step 5 Preview lists at $1 and $2.70.
Is Sonar or Step 5 Preview better for coding?
Step 5 Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 51.8 versus 35.7 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Step 5 Preview does, with 1.02M tokens against 128K.
How many benchmarks do Sonar and Step 5 Preview share?
0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Sonar has 7 scored results on Noometry and Step 5 Preview has 18.