--- title: "Is Step 5 Preview still undominated? · Undominated.ai" canonical: https://undominated.ai/check/stepfun__step-5-preview/ description: "Step 5 Preview: whether it is still undominated. If anything in this catalogue has a higher score or a lower price with neither dimension worse, it is named, as of Oct 21, 2026. Unrated stays unrated." --- # Is Step 5 Preview still undominated? · Undominated.ai > Step 5 Preview: whether it is still undominated. If anything in this catalogue has a higher score or a lower price with neither dimension worse, it is named, as of Oct 21, 2026. Unrated stays unrated. # Is Step 5 Preview a good deal? Whether anything in this catalogue beats Step 5 Preview on both quality and price, and what you give up if it does. A computation on the current catalogue, not an opinion. 12 undominated of 143 · Oct 21, 2026 [1 · Choose & set workload](#check-input)[2 · Read verdict](#check-verdict)[3 · Inspect alternatives](#check-options) As of Oct 21, 2026, Step 5 Preview is dominated for Balanced on LMArena. MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 50.3 higher and costs 62% less, with a covering envelope. 12 of 143 rated, priced standard models are undominated. MiMo-V2.6-Pro: Price under confirmation since Oct 21, 2026. [Inspect model evidence](/models/stepfun__step-5-preview/) [Compare differences & requirements](/compare/?models=stepfun%2Fstep-5-preview%2Cxiaomi%2Fmimo-v2.6-pro) Current model Step 5 Preview Balanced 3 tokens in per 1 out Balanced Summarise Chat Code gen Agentic Monthly spend (USD) Used only to say how many months a named switching cost would take to earn back. Leave blank to skip. Switching cost (USD) MiMo-V2.6-Pro is both better and cheaper than Step 5 Preview: 50.3 points higher on LMArena and 62% less per million tokens, $0.885 cheaper at this mix. [Step 5 Preview](https://undominated.ai/models/stepfun__step-5-preview/) LMArena Elo · higher is better Scale starts at 1040 Elo ** 1440.0 Effective $/M · Balanced · lower is better ** $1.43/M [MiMo-V2.6-Pro](https://undominated.ai/models/xiaomi__mimo-v2.6-pro/) LMArena Elo · higher is better Scale starts at 1040 Elo ** 1490.3 Effective $/M · Balanced · lower is better ** $0.540/M Price under confirmation since Oct 21, 2026 Step 5 Preview takes text, image, video, returns up to 64,000 tokens from a 1,048,576-token context, and is listed by 5 sellers. Compared against 143 rated, priced models on this lens: 3 models dominate it and give up nothing, 5 more dominate it but give something up. Step 5 Preview scores 1440 at $1.43 per million tokens for this mix. ## Envelope-safe replacements Each row scores at least as high, costs no more, and covers this model’s context, output, modalities, tools, and reasoning. A cheaper narrower model is not listed here. | Model | LMArena | Effective $/M | You save | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [MiMo-V2.6-Pro](/models/xiaomi__mimo-v2.6-pro/) | 1490.3 +50.3 | $0.540/M Price under confirmation since Oct 21, 2026 | 62% | | [GLM 5.3 Flash](/models/z-ai__glm-5.3-flash/) | 1471.0 +31.0 | $0.238/M Price under confirmation since Oct 12, 2026 | 83% | | [MiMo-V2.6-Flash](/models/xiaomi__mimo-v2.6-flash/) | 1455.2 +15.2 | $0.168/M Price under confirmation since Oct 21, 2026 | 88% | ## Higher score, lower price, named losses Not a drop-in. The loss is why these are not a recommendation. | Model | LMArena | Effective $/M | You give up | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [GLM 5.3](/models/z-ai__glm-5.3/) | 1471.4 | $1.00/M Price under confirmation since Oct 12, 2026 | image, video | | [GLM 5.2](/models/z-ai__glm-5.2/) | 1470.0 | $1.12/M Price under confirmation since Oct 12, 2026 | image, video | | [MiMo-V2.5-Pro](/models/xiaomi__mimo-v2.5-pro/) | 1465.1 | $0.544/M Price under confirmation since Oct 21, 2026 | image, video | | [DeepSeek V4.1 Flash](/models/deepseek__deepseek-v4.1-flash/) | 1462.5 | $0.182/M Price under confirmation since Oct 12, 2026 | video | | [Kimi K2.6](/models/moonshotai__kimi-k2.6/) | 1455.4 | $0.825/M | context, video | 143 rated, priced standard models. Chartreuse is the frontier. Cobalt is the model you named, when it is not on the staircase. Copy watch URL [Open the frontier](/frontier/) The link keeps the model and mix, using the current catalogue. Monthly spend and switching cost stay in this browser tab and are left out of the link. ## Saved decision references Save the model, workload, catalogue date and capability-preservation rule in this browser. Spend, switching cost and bill contents are not saved. No account or notifications. Constraint: replacements must preserve the model’s capabilities; any losses remain named trade-offs. Historical decisions cannot be fully replayed from saved references: past prices, scores and capability evidence are not stored. Save this reference ## Continue your investigation - [Build a shortlist](/compare/) - [Inspect alternatives](/alternatives/) - [Check billing conditions](/traps/) - [Read model evidence](/models/)