Model comparison
Amazon Nova Micro vs Step 3.5 Flash
Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 30.4 on the Noometry Index. Amazon Nova Micro costs 2.4× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Step 3.5 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.
StepFunSummary
- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Amazon Nova Micro 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 39.5.
- Amazon Nova Micro is cheaper at $0.035 / $0.14 per million input/output tokens, against $0.10 / $0.30 for Step 3.5 Flash.
- Step 3.5 Flash accepts more context: 256K tokens versus 128K.
- Step 3.5 Flash has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Amazon Nova Micro | Step 3.5 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Amazon | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 30.4 | 42.3 |
| Released | 2024-12-03 | 2026-01-29 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |
| Context window | 128K | 256K |
| Max output | 10K | 256K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.035 | $0.10 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.14 | $0.30 |
| Results tracked | 32 | 19 |
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Category by category
Coding Step 3.5 Flash leads
Amazon Nova Micro: 30.5 (#295), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.4 (#105)
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Micro | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1218 | 1436 |
| LiveBench Coding | 20.2% | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Amazon Nova Micro: 22.1 (#132), Step 3.5 Flash: —
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Micro | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 22.3% | — |
Reasoning Step 3.5 Flash leads
Amazon Nova Micro: 17.4 (#294), Step 3.5 Flash: 22.2 (#202)
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Micro | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1191 | 1411 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 28.4% |
| LiveBench Reasoning | 25.1% | — |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | 34% | — |
| LiveBench | 29.6% | — |
Math Step 3.5 Flash leads
Amazon Nova Micro: 26.9 (#254), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.6 (#84)
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Micro | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1206 | 1408 |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | — | 66.8% |
| Omni-MATH | 21.4% | — |
| LiveBench Math | 34.5% | — |
Knowledge Step 3.5 Flash leads
Amazon Nova Micro: 29.6 (#237), Step 3.5 Flash: 39.6 (#132)
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Micro | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1184 | 1421 |
| MMLU-Pro | 51.1% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 5.5% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 38.3% | — |
| MMLU | 70.8% | — |
Multilingual Step 3.5 Flash leads
Amazon Nova Micro: 36.5 (#239), Step 3.5 Flash: 50.5 (#119)
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Micro | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1186 | 1385 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1209 | 1447 |
| LMArena French | 1238 | 1421 |
| LMArena German | 1192 | 1405 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1154 | 1354 |
| LMArena Korean | 1150 | 1352 |
| LMArena Russian | 1185 | 1385 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1225 | 1419 |
Instruction Following Step 3.5 Flash leads
Amazon Nova Micro: 56.3 (#272), Step 3.5 Flash: 73.1 (#124)
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Micro | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1174 | 1385 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | 48% | — |
| IFEval | 76% | — |
Long Context Step 3.5 Flash leads
Amazon Nova Micro: 36.5 (#229), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.8 (#117)
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Micro | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1205 | 1402 |
Writing & Preference Step 3.5 Flash leads
Amazon Nova Micro: 39.5 (#247), Step 3.5 Flash: 58.8 (#113)
| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Micro | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1208 | 1403 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1172 | 1357 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1178 | 1405 |
| WildBench | 74.3% | — |
| LiveBench Language | 15.8% | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Amazon Nova Micro better than Step 3.5 Flash?
Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 30.4 on the Noometry Index. Amazon Nova Micro costs 2.4× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Step 3.5 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Amazon Nova Micro or Step 3.5 Flash?
Amazon Nova Micro is cheaper. It lists at $0.035 per million input tokens and $0.14 per million output tokens; Step 3.5 Flash lists at $0.10 and $0.30.
Is Amazon Nova Micro or Step 3.5 Flash better for coding?
Step 3.5 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 30.5 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Step 3.5 Flash does, with 256K tokens against 128K.
How many benchmarks do Amazon Nova Micro and Step 3.5 Flash share?
17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Amazon Nova Micro has 32 scored results on Noometry and Step 3.5 Flash has 19.