Model comparison
Gemma 3 27B vs Step 3
Step 3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.9 to 30.5 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.
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StepFunSummary
- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 27B scores higher in 2 categories and Step 3 in 7 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in coding, where Step 3 leads 39.5 to 22.1.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is Kagi LLM Benchmark: 40.4% for Gemma 3 27B and 62.3% for Step 3.
Side by side
| Gemma 3 27B | Step 3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | StepFun | |
| Noometry Index | 30.5 | 39.9 |
| Released | 2025-03-11 | — |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 131K | — |
| Max output | 8K | — |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.08 | — |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.16 | — |
| Results tracked | 43 | 17 |
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Category by category
Coding Step 3 leads
Gemma 3 27B: 22.1 (#329), Step 3: 39.5 (#144)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1322 | 1367 |
| Aider Polyglot | 4.9% | — |
| SciCode | 21.2% | — |
| LiveBench Coding | 39.9% | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Gemma 3 27B: 24.9 (#105), Step 3: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 29.5% | — |
Reasoning Step 3 leads
Gemma 3 27B: 16.3 (#297), Step 3: 27.6 (#102)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 40.4% | 62.3% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1340 | 1355 |
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| LiveBench Reasoning | 43.8% | — |
| DTBench | 52.5% | — |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | 51.5% | — |
| LMCA | 12.3% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 130.04 | — |
| LiveBench | 50% | — |
Math Step 3 leads
Gemma 3 27B: 24.4 (#261), Step 3: 34.9 (#148)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1312 | 1366 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 22.5% | — |
| LiveBench Math | 55.4% | — |
| MATH Level 5 | 74% | — |
Knowledge Step 3 leads
Gemma 3 27B: 25.4 (#256), Step 3: 36.2 (#161)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1303 | 1333 |
| GPQA Diamond | 47.7% | — |
| Confabulations | 40.3% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 7.4% | — |
Multimodal Step 3 leads
Gemma 3 27B: 32.0 (#94), Step 3: 34.9 (#81)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1165 | 1176 |
| GeoBench | 52% | — |
Multilingual Too close to call
Gemma 3 27B: 47.0 (#150), Step 3: 46.5 (#154)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1334 | 1327 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1347 | 1396 |
| LMArena German | 1362 | 1371 |
| LMArena Korean | 1308 | 1271 |
| LMArena Russian | 1349 | 1331 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1348 | 1372 |
| LMArena French | 1368 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1287 | — |
Instruction Following Too close to call
Gemma 3 27B: 70.8 (#155), Step 3: 70.6 (#159)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1321 | 1332 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | 74.9% | — |
Long Context Step 3 leads
Gemma 3 27B: 27.6 (#288), Step 3: 40.3 (#152)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1333 | 1326 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 33.3% | — |
Writing & Preference Step 3 leads
Gemma 3 27B: 52.7 (#161), Step 3: 54.5 (#146)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1358 | 1351 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1346 | 1322 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1344 | 1340 |
| Short-Story Creative Writing | 79.9% | — |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1266 | — |
| LiveBench Language | 34.6% | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemma 3 27B better than Step 3?
Step 3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.9 to 30.5 on the Noometry Index.
Is Gemma 3 27B or Step 3 better for coding?
Step 3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.5 versus 22.1 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 27B and Step 3 share?
17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 27B has 43 scored results on Noometry and Step 3 has 17.