ResearchLLM Verifications Leaderboard

Data as of · 78 models, 80 questions · reviewed by Suhas Bhairav · methodology

Head to head · tested 27 Oct 2026

Nemotron 3 Ultra vs Step 5 Preview: accuracy, speed and price

Similar accuracy; Step 5 Preview costs less per question.

NVIDIANemotron 3 Ultra60.0% score · #38$0.0057 per question136 tok/sStepFunStep 5 Preview63.8% score · #34$0.0047 per question93 tok/s

Verdict

Built from the measurements below

  • Accuracy is too close to call: Nemotron 3 Ultra scored 60.0% and Step 5 Preview 63.8% on the same 80 questions, a gap within what chance alone could produce.
  • Step 5 Preview is 1.2× cheaper per question as billed ($0.0047 vs $0.0057), reasoning tokens included.
  • Nemotron 3 Ultra generates text 1.5× faster: 136 tokens per second against 93.
  • Step 5 Preview starts answering sooner: 0.6 s to the first token, against 0.8 s for Nemotron 3 Ultra.
  • Step 5 Preview accepts more context: 1M tokens against 262k.

Which should you choose?

Choose Nemotron 3 Ultra for faster streaming. Choose Step 5 Preview for the lower cost per correct answer ($0.0074 against $0.0094), a quicker first token and a 1M-token context window.

Accuracy gap -3.7 points (z = -0.49). A winner is called only when z is at least 1.96, the usual 95% threshold. Speed, latency and price need a 10% margin.

Head to head

Same questions, same prompt, same API

MeasureNemotron 3 UltraStep 5 PreviewEdge
Verification scoreHigher is better60.0%63.8%Too close to call
Cost per questionLower is better$0.0057$0.0047Step 5 Preview
Output speedHigher is better13693Nemotron 3 Ultra
Time to first tokenLower is better0.8 s0.6 sStep 5 Preview
End-to-end response timeLower is better3.6 s8.2 sNemotron 3 Ultra
Tokens per questionLower is better2,1771,630Step 5 Preview
Context windowHigher is better262k1MStep 5 Preview

Side by side

Bars are scaled to the larger of the two values. The winner on each measure is marked in bold.

Every measure

Nemotron 3 Ultra first, Step 5 Preview second

Verification scorehigher is better
Nemotron 3 Ultra60.0%
Step 5 Preview63.8%
Cost per questionlower is better
Nemotron 3 Ultra$0.0057
Step 5 Preview$0.0047
Output speedhigher is better
Nemotron 3 Ultra136
Step 5 Preview93
Time to first tokenlower is better
Nemotron 3 Ultra0.8 s
Step 5 Preview0.6 s
End-to-end response timelower is better
Nemotron 3 Ultra3.6 s
Step 5 Preview8.2 s
Tokens per questionlower is better
Nemotron 3 Ultra2,177
Step 5 Preview1,630
Context windowhigher is better
Nemotron 3 Ultra262k
Step 5 Preview1M

Score vs. cost per question

Both models in color, every other model in grey

Most attractive quadrant0255075100$0.00001$0.0001$0.001$0.01$0.10Cost per question (USD, log) →Verification score (%) →Qwen3.8 2.4T A95BCommand AReka Flash 3Gemma 4 26B A4BGemma 4 31BQwen3.5 397B A17BHermes 4 405BMuse WonderGrok 4.7o3gpt-oss-20bMinistral 3 3B 2512Nova Micro 1.0Phi 4Granite 4.2 8BHy3GLM 5.3 FlashSolar Pro 4Trinity Large ThinkingMiniMax M3Mistral Large 4Claude Opus 5.5GPT-6.1 SolGemini 4 ArgonGPT-5.4GPT-6 Lunagpt-oss-120bLlama 4 Maverick

Specifications and pricing

From OpenRouter's catalogue, plus the leaderboard's test dates

SpecificationNemotron 3 UltraStep 5 Preview
CreatorNVIDIAStepFun
Released4 Jun 20268 Oct 2026
WeightsOpen weightsOpen weights
ReasoningYesYes
Inputtexttext, image, video
Outputtexttext
Context window262k tokens1M tokens
Knowledge cutoff——
List price in / out per 1M$0.6 / $2.4$1 / $2.7
Blended price per 1M (3:1)$1.05$1.43
Cheapest hostDeepInfra · $0.4 / $1.76InferenceNet · $1 / $2.7
Hosts on OpenRouter34
Last tested26 Oct 202627 Oct 2026

Compare any two models →

Nemotron 3 Ultra vs Step 5 Preview: frequently asked questions

Is Nemotron 3 Ultra better than Step 5 Preview?
On accuracy they are statistically tied: Nemotron 3 Ultra scored 60.0% and Step 5 Preview 63.8% on the same 80 questions from open datasets. Similar accuracy; Step 5 Preview costs less per question.
Which is cheaper, Nemotron 3 Ultra or Step 5 Preview?
Step 5 Preview is cheaper: $0.0047 per question as billed, against $0.0057. List prices: Nemotron 3 Ultra $0.6 in / $2.4 out, Step 5 Preview $1 in / $2.7 out per million tokens.
Which is faster, Nemotron 3 Ultra or Step 5 Preview?
Nemotron 3 Ultra is faster at 136 output tokens per second, against 93. Time to first token: 0.8 s for Nemotron 3 Ultra, 0.6 s for Step 5 Preview.
Which has the larger context window, Nemotron 3 Ultra or Step 5 Preview?
Step 5 Preview, with 1M tokens against 262k.