Noometry

Model comparison

Gemini 2.5 Flash vs Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 39.3 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.

Gemini 2.5 Flash Google

39.3

Rank #170 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 scores higher in 3 categories and Step 3.5 Flash in 5 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in coding, where Step 3.5 Flash leads 42.4 to 35.8.
  • Step 3.5 Flash is cheaper at $0.10 / $0.30 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $2.50 for Gemini 2.5 Flash.
  • Gemini 2.5 Flash 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 FlashStep 3.5 Flash
ProviderGoogleStepFun
Noometry Index39.342.3
Released2025-04-172026-01-29
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M256K
Max output66K256K
Input $ / M tokens$0.30$0.10
Output $ / M tokens$2.50$0.30
Results tracked5419

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Category by category

Coding Step 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 2.5 Flash: 35.8 (#220), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.4 (#105)

BenchmarkGemini 2.5 FlashStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Coding14241436
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)28.7%—
Aider Polyglot55.1%—
WeirdML41.9%—
ALE-Bench661.88—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Gemini 2.5 Flash: 30.8 (#74), Step 3.5 Flash: —

BenchmarkGemini 2.5 FlashStep 3.5 Flash
Terminal-Bench17.1%—
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard56.2%—
TheAgentCompany41.1%—
BALROG33.5%—
Vending-Bench 2548.84—

Reasoning Step 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 2.5 Flash: 18.1 (#286), Step 3.5 Flash: 22.2 (#202)

BenchmarkGemini 2.5 FlashStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Hard Prompts14221411
ARC-AGI-22.5%—
SimpleBench41.2%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark56.8%—
NYT Connections (extended)—28.4%
ARC-AGI-133.3%—
CritPt1.1%—
EnigmaEval2.7%—
DTBench76.5%—
LMCA27.5%—
Epoch Capabilities Index143.03—
ForecastBench60.6—

Math Step 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 2.5 Flash: 39.9 (#98), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.6 (#84)

BenchmarkGemini 2.5 FlashStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Math14151408
MathArena Final-Answer Competitions—66.8%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202573.1%—
Omni-MATH38.5%—
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)4.8%—
FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1)4.2%—

Knowledge Step 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 2.5 Flash: 36.4 (#168), Step 3.5 Flash: 39.6 (#132)

BenchmarkGemini 2.5 FlashStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Expert14261421
Humanity's Last Exam12.1%—
MMLU-Pro63.9%—
Confabulations16.8%—
Vectara Hallucination Rate7.8%—
GPQA (HELM)39%—

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemini 2.5 Flash: 41.8 (#32), Step 3.5 Flash: —

BenchmarkGemini 2.5 FlashStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Vision1253—
GeoBench76%—
VPCT46.2%—
SpatialViz-Bench36.9%—

Multilingual Gemini 2.5 Flash leads

Gemini 2.5 Flash: 52.3 (#88), Step 3.5 Flash: 50.5 (#119)

BenchmarkGemini 2.5 FlashStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Non-English14091385
LMArena Chinese14501447
LMArena French14331421
LMArena German14181405
LMArena Japanese14051354
LMArena Korean13851352
LMArena Russian14151385
LMArena Spanish14211419

Instruction Following Gemini 2.5 Flash leads

Gemini 2.5 Flash: 75.7 (#54), Step 3.5 Flash: 73.1 (#124)

BenchmarkGemini 2.5 FlashStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Instruction Following14051385
IFEval89.8%—

Long Context Gemini 2.5 Flash leads

Gemini 2.5 Flash: 47.5 (#17), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.8 (#117)

BenchmarkGemini 2.5 FlashStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Longer Query14191402
Fiction.LiveBench77.8%—

Writing & Preference Step 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 2.5 Flash: 53.8 (#157), Step 3.5 Flash: 58.8 (#113)

BenchmarkGemini 2.5 FlashStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text14171403
LMArena Creative Writing14001357
LMArena Multi-Turn14081405
Short-Story Creative Writing76.5%—
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1137—
WildBench81.7%—

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini 2.5 Flash better than Step 3.5 Flash?

Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 39.3 on the Noometry Index.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 2.5 Flash 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 lists at $0.30 and $2.50.

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

Step 3.5 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 35.8 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

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

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

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 2.5 Flash has 54 scored results on Noometry and Step 3.5 Flash has 19.

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