Noometry

Model comparison

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs Step 3

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.5 to 40.5 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 16 shared benchmarks.

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite Google

41.5

Rank #133 Confirmed

Step 3 StepFun

40.5

Rank #149 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 16 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite scores higher in 7 categories and Step 3 in 2 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in knowledge, where Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads 50.1 to 36.8.
  • Step 3 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Gemini 3.5 Flash LiteStep 3
ProviderGoogleStepFun
Noometry Index41.540.5
Released2026-07-21—
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M—
Max output66K—
Input $ / M tokens$0.30—
Output $ / M tokens$2.50—
Results tracked3917

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Category by category

Coding Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 42.4 (#104), Step 3: 40.1 (#147)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteStep 3
LMArena Coding14531367
LMArena WebDev1440—
SciCode41.3%—
WeirdML39%—
ALE-Bench765.27—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 25.7 (#107), Step 3: —

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteStep 3
APEX-Agents29.3%—
GDP.pdf10%—

Reasoning Too close to call

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 27.8 (#114), Step 3: 28.4 (#105)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteStep 3
LMArena Hard Prompts14411355
ARC-AGI-210.3%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark—62.3%
NYT Connections (extended)60.4%—
ARC-AGI-153.5%—
CritPt0%—
Chess Puzzles22%—
Mystery Game Puzzles19%—
DTBench83.5%—
LMCA37.6%—
Epoch Capabilities Index145.13—

Math Step 3 leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 25.9 (#264), Step 3: 37.6 (#148)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteStep 3
LMArena Math14331366
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)26%—
FrontierMath Tier 40%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202571.1%—
ProofBench13%—

Knowledge Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 50.1 (#72), Step 3: 36.8 (#164)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteStep 3
LMArena Expert14351333
GPQA Diamond83.3%—

Multimodal Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 41.1 (#40), Step 3: 35.5 (#86)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteStep 3
LMArena Vision12681177

Multilingual Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 53.5 (#63), Step 3: 46.3 (#159)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteStep 3
LMArena Non-English14271327
LMArena Chinese14691397
LMArena German14541371
LMArena Korean14071269
LMArena Russian14431331
LMArena Spanish14421371
LMArena French1451—
LMArena Japanese1427—

Instruction Following Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 74.8 (#85), Step 3: 70.4 (#164)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteStep 3
LMArena Instruction Following14201332

Long Context Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 43.9 (#84), Step 3: 40.3 (#157)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteStep 3
LMArena Longer Query14351326

Writing & Preference Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 64.2 (#57), Step 3: 54.3 (#151)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteStep 3
LMArena Text14351350
LMArena Creative Writing14201321
LMArena Multi-Turn14451341
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1559—

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite better than Step 3?

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.5 to 40.5 on the Noometry Index.

Is Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite or Step 3 better for coding?

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 40.1 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and Step 3 share?

16 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has 39 scored results on Noometry and Step 3 has 17.

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