Noometry

Model comparison

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs Step 3.5 Flash

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and Step 3.5 Flash score almost the same on the Noometry Index (41.5 vs 42.3), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

Last verified . 18 shared benchmarks.

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite Google

41.5

Rank #133 Confirmed

Step 3.5 Flash StepFun

42.3

Rank #116 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite scores higher in 7 categories and Step 3.5 Flash in 1 category; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where Step 3.5 Flash leads 42.6 to 25.9.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is NYT Connections (extended): 60.4% for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and 28.4% for Step 3.5 Flash.
  • Step 3.5 Flash is cheaper at $0.10 / $0.30 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $2.50 for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite.
  • Gemini 3.5 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 3.5 Flash LiteStep 3.5 Flash
ProviderGoogleStepFun
Noometry Index41.542.3
Released2026-07-212026-01-29
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M256K
Max output66K256K
Input $ / M tokens$0.30$0.10
Output $ / M tokens$2.50$0.30
Results tracked3919

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Category by category

Coding Too close to call

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 42.4 (#104), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.4 (#105)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Coding14531436
LMArena WebDev1440—
SciCode41.3%—
WeirdML39%—
ALE-Bench765.27—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

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

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

Reasoning Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 27.8 (#114), Step 3.5 Flash: 22.2 (#202)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteStep 3.5 Flash
NYT Connections (extended)60.4%28.4%
LMArena Hard Prompts14411411
ARC-AGI-210.3%—
ARC-AGI-153.5%—
CritPt0%—
Chess Puzzles22%—
Mystery Game Puzzles19%—
DTBench83.5%—
LMCA37.6%—
Epoch Capabilities Index145.13—

Math Step 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 25.9 (#264), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.6 (#84)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Math14331408
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)26%—
FrontierMath Tier 40%—
MathArena Final-Answer Competitions—66.8%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202571.1%—
ProofBench13%—

Knowledge Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 50.1 (#72), Step 3.5 Flash: 39.6 (#132)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Expert14351421
GPQA Diamond83.3%—

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 41.1 (#40), Step 3.5 Flash: —

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Vision1268—

Multilingual Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 53.5 (#63), Step 3.5 Flash: 50.5 (#119)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Non-English14271385
LMArena Chinese14691447
LMArena French14511421
LMArena German14541405
LMArena Japanese14271354
LMArena Korean14071352
LMArena Russian14431385
LMArena Spanish14421419

Instruction Following Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 74.8 (#85), Step 3.5 Flash: 73.1 (#124)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Instruction Following14201385

Long Context Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 43.9 (#84), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.8 (#117)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Longer Query14351402

Writing & Preference Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 64.2 (#57), Step 3.5 Flash: 58.8 (#113)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text14351403
LMArena Creative Writing14201357
LMArena Multi-Turn14451405
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1559—

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite better than Step 3.5 Flash?

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and Step 3.5 Flash score almost the same on the Noometry Index (41.5 vs 42.3), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.5 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 3.5 Flash Lite lists at $0.30 and $2.50.

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

They score almost the same on coding (42.4 vs 42.4); test both on your own repository before choosing.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite does, with 1.05M tokens against 256K.

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

18 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has 39 scored results on Noometry and Step 3.5 Flash has 19.

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