Model comparison
Amazon Nova Lite vs Step 3.5 Flash
Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 31.9 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.
StepFunSummary
- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Amazon Nova Lite scores higher in 0 categories and Step 3.5 Flash in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Step 3.5 Flash leads 58.8 to 42.1.
- Amazon Nova Lite is cheaper at $0.06 / $0.24 per million input/output tokens, against $0.10 / $0.30 for Step 3.5 Flash.
- Amazon Nova Lite accepts more context: 300K tokens versus 256K.
- Step 3.5 Flash has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Amazon Nova Lite | Step 3.5 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Amazon | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 31.9 | 42.3 |
| Released | 2024-12-03 | 2026-01-29 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |
| Context window | 300K | 256K |
| Max output | 10K | 256K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.06 | $0.10 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.24 | $0.30 |
| Results tracked | 34 | 19 |
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Category by category
Coding Step 3.5 Flash leads
Amazon Nova Lite: 32.5 (#270), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.4 (#105)
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1239 | 1436 |
| LiveBench Coding | 27.5% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 236.25 | — |
Reasoning Step 3.5 Flash leads
Amazon Nova Lite: 19.3 (#260), Step 3.5 Flash: 22.2 (#202)
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1220 | 1411 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 28.4% |
| LiveBench Reasoning | 36.7% | — |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | 37.2% | — |
| LiveBench | 36.4% | — |
Math Step 3.5 Flash leads
Amazon Nova Lite: 27.8 (#247), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.6 (#84)
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1227 | 1408 |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | — | 66.8% |
| Omni-MATH | 23.3% | — |
| LiveBench Math | 36.7% | — |
Knowledge Step 3.5 Flash leads
Amazon Nova Lite: 26.3 (#259), Step 3.5 Flash: 39.6 (#132)
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1201 | 1421 |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 3.6% | — |
| MMLU-Pro | 60% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 6.1% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 39.7% | — |
| MMLU | 77% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Amazon Nova Lite: 25.5 (#123), Step 3.5 Flash: —
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 990 | — |
Multilingual Step 3.5 Flash leads
Amazon Nova Lite: 38.0 (#232), Step 3.5 Flash: 50.5 (#119)
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1208 | 1385 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1225 | 1447 |
| LMArena French | 1237 | 1421 |
| LMArena German | 1229 | 1405 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1153 | 1354 |
| LMArena Korean | 1153 | 1352 |
| LMArena Russian | 1216 | 1385 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1226 | 1419 |
Instruction Following Step 3.5 Flash leads
Amazon Nova Lite: 59.3 (#255), Step 3.5 Flash: 73.1 (#124)
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1205 | 1385 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | 54.1% | — |
| IFEval | 77.6% | — |
Long Context Step 3.5 Flash leads
Amazon Nova Lite: 37.4 (#217), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.8 (#117)
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1234 | 1402 |
Writing & Preference Step 3.5 Flash leads
Amazon Nova Lite: 42.1 (#237), Step 3.5 Flash: 58.8 (#113)
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1229 | 1403 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1197 | 1357 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1199 | 1405 |
| WildBench | 75% | — |
| LiveBench Language | 25.9% | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Amazon Nova Lite better than Step 3.5 Flash?
Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 31.9 on the Noometry Index.
Which is cheaper, Amazon Nova Lite or Step 3.5 Flash?
Amazon Nova Lite is cheaper. It lists at $0.06 per million input tokens and $0.24 per million output tokens; Step 3.5 Flash lists at $0.10 and $0.30.
Is Amazon Nova Lite or Step 3.5 Flash better for coding?
Step 3.5 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 32.5 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Amazon Nova Lite does, with 300K tokens against 256K.
How many benchmarks do Amazon Nova Lite and Step 3.5 Flash share?
17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Amazon Nova Lite has 34 scored results on Noometry and Step 3.5 Flash has 19.