# Ling 3.0 Flash vs Step 5 Preview

> Side-by-side benchmark comparison for Ling 3.0 Flash and Step 5 Preview across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, multilingual, and math tasks.

- Canonical page: https://benchlm.ai/compare/ling-3-0-flash-vs-step-5-preview
- Last updated: September 21, 2026

- Shared sourced benchmarks: 6
- HTML indexing: indexable
- Ranking lane: BenchAlign v5

## Quick Verdict

Pick Step 5 Preview if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Ling 3.0 Flash only makes more sense when its price, context window, or workload-specific category wins matter more than the overall score.

## Summary

- Step 5 Preview leads overall 72 to 47.2.
- The clearest category separation is in reasoning, where the averages are 71.2 for Ling 3.0 Flash and 78.5 for Step 5 Preview.
- The biggest single benchmark swing is HLE in Knowledge, with scores of 22.7% and 46.5%.
- Ling 3.0 Flash is the cheaper option on output tokens, which matters if you expect large responses or heavy interactive use.
- Step 5 Preview also has the larger context window at 1M.

## Model Snapshot

| Property | Ling 3.0 Flash | Step 5 Preview |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Creator | InclusionAI | StepFun |
| Type | Open Weight | Pending |
| Reasoning | Reasoning | Reasoning |
| Context | 262K | 1M |
| Overall Score | 47.2 | null |
| Benchmarks Covered | 22 | 22 |
| Pricing (input/output) | Pricing unavailable / Pricing unavailable | $1.00 / $2.70 |

## Category Breakdown

### Agentic

- Winner: Coming soon
- Ling 3.0 Flash public-lane score: 42.5 (Estimated · #110/154)
- Step 5 Preview public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Ling 3.0 Flash | Step 5 Preview | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| MCP Atlas | 65.5% | 85.6% | Step 5 Preview |
| skillsBench | 44.8% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| BFCL v4 | 73.0% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| WideResearch | 73.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| BrowseComp | 72.2% | 88.7% | Step 5 Preview |
| DRACO | 70.4% | 83.3% | Step 5 Preview |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals) | 50.2% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | Coming soon | 85.0% | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 4.0 | Coming soon | 33.30% | Coming soon |
| CyberGym | Coming soon | 84.7% | Coming soon |
| AutomationBench | Coming soon | 44.0% | Coming soon |
| Toolathlon-Verified | Coming soon | 74.1% | Coming soon |
| JobBench | Coming soon | 59.0% | Coming soon |
| APEX-Agents | Coming soon | 37.8% | Coming soon |
| Agents' Last Exam | Coming soon | 29.5% | Coming soon |

### Coding

- Winner: Coming soon
- Ling 3.0 Flash public-lane score: 41 (Supported · #117/156)
- Step 5 Preview public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Ling 3.0 Flash | Step 5 Preview | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| SWE-bench Pro | 56.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| SWE Multilingual | 72.4% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| LiveCodeBench v5 | 82.8% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| SciCode | 41.2% | 58.9% | Step 5 Preview |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals) | 84.0% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| SWE-bench (Vals) | 65.2% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| DeepSWE | Coming soon | 67.7% | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | Coming soon | 85.0% | Coming soon |
| ProgramBench | Coming soon | 80.5% | Coming soon |
| sweMarathon | Coming soon | 72.7% | Coming soon |
| MLS-Bench Lite | Coming soon | 40.5% | Coming soon |

### Reasoning

- Winner: Coming soon
- Ling 3.0 Flash public-lane score: 71.2 (Unranked · 2 rankable rows)
- Step 5 Preview public-lane score: 78.5 (Unranked · 2 rankable rows)

| Benchmark | Ling 3.0 Flash | Step 5 Preview | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| CritPt | Coming soon | 20.9% | Coming soon |

### Multimodal & Grounded

- Winner: Coming soon
- Ling 3.0 Flash public-lane score: Coming soon
- Step 5 Preview public-lane score: 61.2 (#28/49)

| Benchmark | Ling 3.0 Flash | Step 5 Preview | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| OfficeQA Pro | Coming soon | 60.3% | Coming soon |
| MMMU-Pro | Coming soon | 76% | Coming soon |

### Knowledge

- Winner: Coming soon
- Ling 3.0 Flash public-lane score: 44.7 (Supported · #117/186)
- Step 5 Preview public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Ling 3.0 Flash | Step 5 Preview | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| GPQA | 85.0% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| GPQA-D | 85.0% | 93.5% | Step 5 Preview |
| HLE | 22.7% | 46.5% | Step 5 Preview |
| GPQA Diamond (Vals) | 84.8% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| MMLU-Pro (Vals) | 82.0% | Coming soon | Coming soon |

### Instruction Following

- Winner: Coming soon
- Ling 3.0 Flash public-lane score: 72.1 (#63/124)
- Step 5 Preview public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Ling 3.0 Flash | Step 5 Preview | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| IFBench | 74.5% | Coming soon | Coming soon |

### Mathematics

- Winner: Coming soon
- Ling 3.0 Flash public-lane score: 72.9 (Unranked · 3 rankable rows)
- Step 5 Preview public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Ling 3.0 Flash | Step 5 Preview | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| AIME26 | 93.2% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| HMMT Feb 2026 | 87.0% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| IMOAnswerBench | 83.7% | Coming soon | Coming soon |

## FAQ

### Which is better overall, Ling 3.0 Flash or Step 5 Preview?

Step 5 Preview is ahead overall on BenchLM right now.

### Where is the biggest gap between Ling 3.0 Flash and Step 5 Preview?

The widest category gap is in reasoning, where the averages are 71.2 for Ling 3.0 Flash and 78.5 for Step 5 Preview.

### How many benchmarks does Ling 3.0 Flash cover on BenchLM?

Ling 3.0 Flash currently has 22 sourced benchmark scores on BenchLM.

### How many benchmarks does Step 5 Preview cover on BenchLM?

Step 5 Preview currently has 22 sourced benchmark scores on BenchLM.

## Related Comparisons

- [Ling 3.0 Flash vs Ling 3.0 Flash VL](/compare/ling-3-0-flash-vs-ling-3-0-flash-vl)
- [Step 5 Preview vs Ling 3.0 Flash VL](/compare/ling-3-0-flash-vl-vs-step-5-preview)
- [Ling 3.0 Flash vs Ling 3.0 Flash FP8](/compare/ling-3-0-flash-vs-ling-3-0-flash-fp8)
- [Step 5 Preview vs Ling 3.0 Flash FP8](/compare/ling-3-0-flash-fp8-vs-step-5-preview)

## Explore More

- [Ling 3.0 Flash profile](/models/ling-3-0-flash)
- [Step 5 Preview profile](/models/step-5-preview)
- [Compare Pricing](/llm-pricing)
- [Alternative Finder](/tools/alternative-finder)
- [LLM Selector](/tools/llm-selector)
- [Overall Rankings](/best/overall)