Noometry

Model comparison

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 37.0 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Google

37.0

Rank #211 Confirmed

Step 3.5 Flash StepFun

42.3

Rank #116 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite scores higher in 0 categories and Step 3.5 Flash in 8 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in long context, where Step 3.5 Flash leads 42.8 to 33.3.
  • Step 3.5 Flash is cheaper at $0.10 / $0.30 per million input/output tokens, against $0.10 / $0.40 for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite.
  • Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 256K.
  • Step 3.5 Flash has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Gemini 2.5 Flash-LiteStep 3.5 Flash
ProviderGoogleStepFun
Noometry Index37.042.3
Released2025-06-172026-01-29
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M256K
Max output66K256K
Input $ / M tokens$0.10$0.10
Output $ / M tokens$0.40$0.30
Results tracked3319

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Category by category

Coding Step 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: 38.5 (#173), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.4 (#105)

BenchmarkGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Coding13731436
WeirdML35.2%—
ALE-Bench325.9—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: 28.0 (#96), Step 3.5 Flash: —

BenchmarkGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteStep 3.5 Flash
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard36.9%—

Reasoning Too close to call

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: 22.2 (#205), Step 3.5 Flash: 22.2 (#202)

BenchmarkGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Hard Prompts13771411
Kagi LLM Benchmark40.5%—
NYT Connections (extended)—28.4%
DTBench62.8%—
LMCA18.1%—
Epoch Capabilities Index133.94—

Math Step 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: 38.0 (#144), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.6 (#84)

BenchmarkGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Math13731408
MathArena Final-Answer Competitions—66.8%
Omni-MATH48%—

Knowledge Step 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: 32.5 (#210), Step 3.5 Flash: 39.6 (#132)

BenchmarkGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Expert13731421
MMLU-Pro53.7%—
Vectara Hallucination Rate3.3%—
GPQA (HELM)30.9%—

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: 29.1 (#114), Step 3.5 Flash: —

BenchmarkGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Vision1198—
VPCT30%—

Multilingual Step 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: 49.3 (#134), Step 3.5 Flash: 50.5 (#119)

BenchmarkGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Non-English13691385
LMArena Chinese14041447
LMArena French13881421
LMArena German13891405
LMArena Japanese13591354
LMArena Korean13601352
LMArena Russian13731385
LMArena Spanish13961419

Instruction Following Step 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: 70.0 (#168), Step 3.5 Flash: 73.1 (#124)

BenchmarkGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Instruction Following13671385
IFEval81%—

Long Context Step 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: 33.3 (#262), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.8 (#117)

BenchmarkGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Longer Query13731402
Fiction.LiveBench47.2%—

Writing & Preference Step 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: 56.8 (#135), Step 3.5 Flash: 58.8 (#113)

BenchmarkGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text13791403
LMArena Creative Writing13671357
LMArena Multi-Turn13661405
WildBench81.8%—

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite better than Step 3.5 Flash?

Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 37.0 on the Noometry Index.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite or Step 3.5 Flash?

Step 3.5 Flash is cheaper. It lists at $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.30 per million output tokens; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite lists at $0.10 and $0.40.

Is Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite or Step 3.5 Flash better for coding?

Step 3.5 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 38.5 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite does, with 1.05M tokens against 256K.

How many benchmarks do Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite and Step 3.5 Flash share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite has 33 scored results on Noometry and Step 3.5 Flash has 19.

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